1.
Water caltrop
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The water caltrop is any of three extant species of the genus Trapa, Trapa natans, T. bicornis and the endangered Trapa rossica. It is also known as water chestnut, buffalo nut, bat nut, devil pod, ling nut, lin kok, ling kio nut, or singhara. The species are floating annual aquatic plants, growing in slow-moving water up to 5 m deep, native to temperate parts of Eurasia. They bear ornately shaped fruits, which in the case of T. bicornis resemble the head of a bull or the silhouette of a flying bat, each fruit contains a single very large, starchy seed. T. natans and T. bicornis have been cultivated in China, the generic name Trapa is derived from the Latin word for thistle, calcitrappa, as also is another common name for the water caltrop. The Chinese name is língjiǎo, líng meaning caltrop and jiǎo meaning horn and this is often rendered as ling nut by English-speakers. In India, the plant has different regional names, such as singhada, pani-phal, or shingoda, Heikrak. This fruits Bengali name is Paniphal, the plants name in Japanese is hishi, a word meaning diamond- or lozenge-shaped. The water caltrops submerged stem reaches 12 to 15 ft in length and it has two types of leaves, finely divided, feather-like submerged leaves borne along the length of the stem, and undivided floating leaves borne in a rosette at the waters surface. The floating leaves have saw-tooth edges and are ovoid or triangular in shape, 2–3 cm long, on inflated petioles 5–9 cm long, four-petalled white flowers form in early summer and are insect-pollinated. The fruit is a nut with four 0. 5-in, barbed spines, seeds can remain viable up to 12 years, although most germinate within the first two years. The plant spreads by the rosettes and fruits detaching from the stem and floating to another area on currents or by clinging to objects. This plant should not be confused with the unrelated Eleocharis dulcis, Eleocharis is also an aquatic plant raised for food since ancient times in China. E. dulcis is a sedge, whose round, crisp-fleshed corms are common in Western-style Chinese food, the genus has an extensive fossil record, with numerous, distinctive species. Undisputed fossilized seeds have been found in Cenozoic strata starting from the Eocene throughout Europe, China, Water caltrop has been an important food for worship as prayer offerings since the Chinese Zhou Dynasty. The Rites of Zhou mentioned that a worshipper should use a basket containing dried water caltrops. The Chinese Herbal Medicine Summary indicates that water caltrop can help fever, in India and Pakistan, it is known as singhara or paniphal and is widely cultivated in freshwater lakes. The fruits are eaten raw or boiled, when the fruit has been dried, it is ground to a flour called singhare ka atta, used in many religious rituals and can be consumed as a phalahar on the Hindu fasting days, the navratas. It was possible to buy water chestnuts in markets all over Europe until 1880, in northern Italy, the nuts were offered roasted, much as sweet chestnuts are still sold today
2.
Tribulus terrestris
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Tribulus terrestris is an annual plant in the caltrop family widely distributed around the world, that is adapted to grow in dry climate locations in which few other plants can survive. It is a species in North America. Tribulus terrestris is a herbaceous perennial plant that grows as a summer annual in colder climates. It is native to temperate and tropical regions of the Old World in southern Europe, southern Asia, throughout Africa. It can thrive even in desert climates and poor soil, a network of fine rootlets arise from the taproot to take advantage of soil moisture, by which the plant can survive in very arid conditions. The stems radiate from the crown to a diameter of about 10 cm to over 1 m and they are usually prostrate, forming flat patches, though they may grow more upwards in shade or among taller plants. Stems branch from the crown and are densely hairy, leaves are opposite and pinnately compound. Densely hairy leaflets are opposite and up to 3 mm long, the flowers are 4–10 mm wide, with five lemon-yellow petals, five sepals, and ten stamens. In Southern California, it blooms from April through October, where it is invasive in waste places. A week after each flower blooms, it is followed by a fruit that falls apart into five nutlets or burs. The nutlets are hard and bear two to four spines,10 mm long and 4–6 mm broad point-to-point. These nutlets strikingly resemble goats or bulls heads, the horns are sharp enough to puncture bicycle tires, within each nutlet, seeds are stacked on top of each other, separated by a hard membrane. As an adaptation to dry climates, the largest seed germinates first, the spines of the nutlets point upward, where they stick into feet and fur of animals, and are thereby dispersed. This causes damage to domesticated livestock and degrades wool, the Greek word, τρίβολος meaning water-chestnut, translated into Latin as tribulos. The Latin name tribulus originally meant the caltrop, but in Classical times already the word meant this plant as well, the plant is widely naturalized in the Americas and also in Australia south of its native range. In some states in the United States, it is considered a noxious weed and it is a declared plant in South Australia. It has been reported that the seeds or nutlets have been used in homicidal weapons smeared with the juice of Acokanthera venenata in southern Africa, in Siddha medicine, Tribulus terrestris is known in Tamil as Nerunjil, yanai vanangi, thirikandam, siru nerunjil. This whole plant is used in the form of decoction to treat urinary infections, urolithiasis, dysmenorrhea
3.
Anti-personnel weapon
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An anti-personnel weapon is one primarily used to incapacitate people, as opposed to attacking structures or vehicles, or hunting game. There are also more exotic classes of weapons, such as bombs, chemicals, and biological weapons. As there is greater international criticism of them, they are rarely used. These are not generally referred to as anti-personnel weapons, but by their own names or group terms by which they are specifically banned, such weapons often create much collateral damage and may affect large numbers of civilians. Debate has arisen over whether some primarily anti-materiel weapons can be used as anti-personnel weapons, the Barrett M82 rifle, standardized by the U. S. military as the M107, fires a large-calibre.50 BMG round that will penetrate most commercial brick walls and concrete blocks. It is an anti-materiel rifle designated as a Special Application Sniper Rifle and designed for use against military equipment and it is used by many armies around the world both in regular forces and in special forces units. As it uses a.50 BMG round, this has led to debates in the U. S. armed forces about the legality of using such a large anti-materiel rifle round against a human. There have been persistent reports that some U. S. military personnel believe that the use of.50 BMG in an antipersonnel role is prohibited by the laws of war. The Raufoss Mk 211 is a.50 caliber multipurpose anti-matériel projectile produced by Nammo and it is commonly referred to as simply multipurpose or Raufoss, which refers to Nammos original parent company, Raufoss Ammunisjonsfabrikk in Raufoss, Norway, established in 1896. The Mk 211 name comes from the nomenclature Mk 211 Mod 0 used by the U. S. military for this round. It is a round for engaging helicopters, aircraft and lightly armored vehicles, as well as unarmored vehicles. The Mk 211 has about the destructive power as a standard 20mm round against such targets. The Mk 211 is a very popular.50 caliber sniper round used in the Barrett M82 rifle and it is also often used in heavy machine guns such as the M2 Browning. Due to its popularity several U. S. arms manufacturers produce the round under license from NAMMO Raufoss AS, there is also a tracer variant, the MK300, used in the Browning heavy machine gun. There has been debate over whether the Mk 211 projectile is legal to use against personnel. The International Committee of the Red Cross has sought to have the ammunition banned, due to concern over the incendiary and explosive components and their effect on personnel. Under the St. Petersburg Declaration of 1868 the military or naval use of explosive or incendiary projectiles with a mass of under 400 grams is forbidden. Very few nations were parties to the St. Petersburg Declaration, however, machine guns firing.50 cal/12. 7mm ammunition are heavy machine guns
4.
Tetrahedron
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In geometry, a tetrahedron, also known as a triangular pyramid, is a polyhedron composed of four triangular faces, six straight edges, and four vertex corners. The tetrahedron is the simplest of all the ordinary convex polyhedra, the tetrahedron is the three-dimensional case of the more general concept of a Euclidean simplex. The tetrahedron is one kind of pyramid, which is a polyhedron with a polygon base. In the case of a tetrahedron the base is a triangle, like all convex polyhedra, a tetrahedron can be folded from a single sheet of paper. For any tetrahedron there exists a sphere on which all four vertices lie, a regular tetrahedron is one in which all four faces are equilateral triangles. It is one of the five regular Platonic solids, which have known since antiquity. In a regular tetrahedron, not only are all its faces the same size and shape, regular tetrahedra alone do not tessellate, but if alternated with regular octahedra they form the alternated cubic honeycomb, which is a tessellation. The regular tetrahedron is self-dual, which means that its dual is another regular tetrahedron, the compound figure comprising two such dual tetrahedra form a stellated octahedron or stella octangula. This form has Coxeter diagram and Schläfli symbol h, the tetrahedron in this case has edge length 2√2. Inverting these coordinates generates the dual tetrahedron, and the together form the stellated octahedron. In other words, if C is the centroid of the base and this follows from the fact that the medians of a triangle intersect at its centroid, and this point divides each of them in two segments, one of which is twice as long as the other. The vertices of a cube can be grouped into two groups of four, each forming a regular tetrahedron, the symmetries of a regular tetrahedron correspond to half of those of a cube, those that map the tetrahedra to themselves, and not to each other. The tetrahedron is the only Platonic solid that is not mapped to itself by point inversion, the regular tetrahedron has 24 isometries, forming the symmetry group Td, isomorphic to the symmetric group, S4. The first corresponds to the A2 Coxeter plane, the two skew perpendicular opposite edges of a regular tetrahedron define a set of parallel planes. When one of these intersects the tetrahedron the resulting cross section is a rectangle. When the intersecting plane is one of the edges the rectangle is long. When halfway between the two edges the intersection is a square, the aspect ratio of the rectangle reverses as you pass this halfway point. For the midpoint square intersection the resulting boundary line traverses every face of the tetrahedron similarly, if the tetrahedron is bisected on this plane, both halves become wedges
5.
Horse
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The horse is one of two extant subspecies of Equus ferus. It is an ungulate mammal belonging to the taxonomic family Equidae. The horse has evolved over the past 45 to 55 million years from a small multi-toed creature, Eohippus, into the large, humans began to domesticate horses around 4000 BC, and their domestication is believed to have been widespread by 3000 BC. Horses in the subspecies caballus are domesticated, although some domesticated populations live in the wild as feral horses. There is an extensive, specialized vocabulary used to describe equine-related concepts, covering everything from anatomy to life stages, size, colors, markings, breeds, locomotion, and behavior. Horses anatomy enables them to use of speed to escape predators and they have a well-developed sense of balance. Related to this need to flee from predators in the wild is an unusual trait, female horses, called mares, carry their young for approximately 11 months, and a young horse, called a foal, can stand and run shortly following birth. Most domesticated horses begin training under saddle or in harness between the ages of two and four and they reach full adult development by age five, and have an average lifespan of between 25 and 30 years. There are more than 300 breeds of horse in the world today, horses were historically used in warfare, from which a wide variety of riding and driving techniques developed, using many different styles of equipment and methods of control. Many products are derived from horses, including meat, milk, hide, hair, bone, humans provide domesticated horses with food, water and shelter, as well as attention from specialists such as veterinarians and farriers. Specific terms and specialized language are used to describe equine anatomy, different life stages, colors, depending on breed, management and environment, the modern domestic horse has a life expectancy of 25 to 30 years. Uncommonly, a few animals live into their 40s and, occasionally, the oldest verifiable record was Old Billy, a 19th-century horse that lived to the age of 62. In modern times, Sugar Puff, who had listed in Guinness World Records as the worlds oldest living pony. The exception is in endurance riding, where the age to compete is based on the animals actual calendar age. The following terminology is used to describe horses of various ages, Colt, a common terminology error is to call any young horse a colt, when the term actually only refers to young male horses. Filly, A female horse under the age of four, foal, A horse of either sex less than one year old. A nursing foal is sometimes called a suckling and a foal that has been weaned is called a weanling, most domesticated foals are weaned at five to seven months of age, although foals can be weaned at four months with no adverse physical effects. Gelding, A castrated male horse of any age, mare, A female horse four years old and older
6.
War elephant
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A war elephant is an elephant that is trained and guided by humans for combat. The war elephants main use was to charge the enemy, breaking their ranks, elephantry are military units with elephant-mounted troops. They were first employed in India, the spreading out across south-east Asia. Their most famous use in the West was by the Greek King Pyrrhus of Epirus and in significant numbers by the armies of Carthage, in the Mediterranean, improved tactics reduced the value of the elephant in battle, while their availability in the wild also decreased. The first elephant species to be tamed was the Asian elephant, Elephant taming - not full domestication, as they are still captured in the wild, rather than being bred in captivity - may have begun in any of three different places. The oldest evidence comes from the Indus Valley Civilization, around roughly 4500 BC, archaeological evidence for the presence of wild elephants in the Yellow River valley during the Shang Dynasty of China may suggest that they also used elephants in warfare. There is uncertainty as to when elephant warfare first began, the later stories of the Mahabharata and the Ramayana, dating from around the 4th century BC, do however mention elephant warfare, suggesting its introduction during the intervening period. The first confrontation between Europeans and the Persian war elephants occurred at Alexanders Battle of Gaugamela, where the Persians deployed fifteen elephants, by the time Alexander reached the borders of India five years later, he had a substantial number of elephants under his own command. The elephants caused many losses with their tusks fitted with spikes or by lifting the enemies with their trunks. Arrian described the subsequent fight. whenever the beasts could wheel around, they rushed forth against the ranks of infantry and demolished the phalanx of the Macedonians, dense as it was. The panicked and wounded elephants turned on the Indians themselves, the mahouts were armed with poisoned rods to kill the beasts but were slain by javelins and archers. Looking further east again, however, Alexander could see that the kings of the Nanda Empire, such a force was many times larger than the number of elephants employed by the Persians and Greeks, which probably discouraged Alexanders army and effectively halted their advance into India. On his return, Alexander established a force of elephants to guard his palace at Babylon, the successful military use of elephants spread further. Later in its history, the Seleucid Empire used elephants in its efforts to crush the Maccabean Revolt in Judea. The first use of war elephants in Europe was made in 318 BC by Polyperchon, one of Alexanders generals and he used 60 elephants brought from Asia with their mahouts. A veteran of Alexanders army, named Damis, helped the besieged Megalopolitians to defend themselves against the elephants and those elephants were subsequently taken by Cassander and transported, partly by sea, to other battle-fields in Greece. It is assumed that Cassander constructed the first elephant-transport sea-vessels, some of the elephants died of starvation in 316 BC in the besieged city of Pydna. Others of Polyperchons elephants were used in parts of Greece by Cassander
7.
Camel
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A camel is an even-toed ungulate within the genus Camelus, bearing distinctive fatty deposits known as humps on its back. Bactrian camels take their name from the historical Bactria region of Central Asia, the term camel is derived via Latin and Greek from Hebrew or Phoenician gāmāl. Most of the camels are dromedaries while Bactrian camels and wild Bactrian camels make up only 6% of the total camel population. Camel may also be used broadly to describe any of the seven camel-like mammals in the family Camelidae. The average life expectancy of a camel is 40 to 50 years, a full-grown adult camel stands 1.85 m at the shoulder and 2.15 m at the hump. Camels can run at up to 65 km/h in short bursts, Bactrian camels weigh 300 to 1,000 kg and dromedaries 300 to 600 kg. For instance, the speed for the one humped camel is about 40 km/hour while the two humped camel has around 27.2 km/hour. The male dromedary camel has in its throat an organ called a dulla and it resembles a long, swollen, pink tongue hanging out of the side of its mouth. Camels mate by having both male and female sitting on the ground, with the male mounting from behind, the male usually ejaculates three or four times within a single mating session. Camelids are the ungulates to mate in a sitting position. Camels do not directly store water in their humps as was commonly believed. In hot and dry environments, within 8 to 10 days only the dromedary camels might consume water which during this period the third of their bodys weight may be reduced due to the dehydration. When this tissue is metabolized, it more than one gram of water for every gram of fat processed. This fat metabolization, while releasing energy, causes water to evaporate from the lungs during respiration, overall, Camels have a series of physiological adaptations that allow them to withstand long periods of time without any external source of water. Unlike other mammals, their red cells are oval rather than circular in shape. Camels are able to withstand changes in temperature and water consumption that would kill most other animals. Their temperature ranges from 34 °C at dawn and steadily increases to 40 °C by sunset, in general, to compare between camels and the other livestock, camels lose only 1. Camels rarely sweat, even when ambient temperatures reach 49 °C, any sweat that does occur evaporates at the skin level rather than at the surface of their coat, the heat of vaporization therefore comes from body heat rather than ambient heat
8.
Tire
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A tire or tyre is a ring-shaped vehicle component that covers the wheels rim to protect it and enable better vehicle performance. Most tires, such as those for automobiles and bicycles, provide traction between the vehicle and the road providing a flexible cushion that absorbs shock. The materials of modern tires are synthetic rubber, natural rubber, fabric and wire, along with carbon black. They consist of a tread and a body, the tread provides traction while the body provides containment for a quantity of compressed air. Before rubber was developed, the first versions of tires were bands of metal fitted around wooden wheels to prevent wear and tear. Pneumatic tires are used on many types of vehicles, including cars, bicycles, motorcycles, buses, trucks, heavy equipment, and aircraft. Metal tires are used on locomotives and railcars, and solid rubber tires are still used in various non-automotive applications, such as some casters, carts, lawnmowers. The etymology of tire is that the word is a form of attire. The spelling tyre does not appear until the 1840s when the English began shrink fitting railway car wheels with malleable iron, nevertheless, traditional publishers continued using tire. The Times newspaper in Britain was still using tire as late as 1905, the spelling tyre began to be commonly used in the 19th century for pneumatic tires in the UK. However, over the course of the 20th century, tyre became established as the standard British spelling, the earliest tires were bands of leather, then iron, placed on wooden wheels, used on carts and wagons. The tire would be heated in a fire, placed over the wheel and quenched, causing the metal to contract. A skilled worker, known as a wheelwright, carried out this work, the outer ring served to tie the wheel segments together for use, providing also a wear-resistant surface to the perimeter of the wheel. The word tire thus emerged as a variant spelling to refer to the bands used to tie wheels. The first patent for what appears to be a standard pneumatic tire appeared in 1847 lodged by the Scottish inventor Robert William Thomson, however, this never went into production. The first practical pneumatic tire was made in 1888 on May Street, Belfast, by Scots-born John Boyd Dunlop and it was an effort to prevent the headaches of his 10-year-old son Johnnie, while riding his tricycle on rough pavements. His doctor, John, later Sir John Fagan, had prescribed cycling as an exercise for the boy, Fagan participated in designing the first pneumatic tires. In Dunlops tire patent specification dated 31 October 1888, his interest is only in its use in cycles, in September 1890, he was made aware of an earlier development but the company kept the information to itself
9.
Tribulus
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Tribulus is also a derivative Roman era name for the weapon known in English today as the caltrop, which bears strong resemblances with the plant today named Tribulus terrestris or puncture vine. Tribulus is a genus of plants found in warm regions. The best-known member is T. terrestris, a widespread weed, T. terrestris has been said to raise natural testosterone levels if taken as a supplement. There have been no studies that show a correlation between the use of tribulus and an increase in natural testosterone. Tribulus species are perennial, but some grow as annuals in colder climates, the leaves are opposite and compound. The flowers are perfect and insect-pollinated, with fivefold symmetry, the ovary is divided into locules that are in turn divided by false septa. Some species are cultivated as ornamental plants in warm regions, some, notably T. cistoides, T. longipetalus, T. terrestris, and T. zeyheri, are considered weeds. Tribulus omanense is the flower of Dubai. Thirteen species of Tribulus are accepted by The Plant List, but there are many still unresolved. Tribulus in BoDD – Botanical Dermatology Database Technical description of Zygophyllaceae from The Families of Flowering Plants, L. Watson and M. J. Dallwitz
10.
Zygophyllaceae
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Zygophyllaceae is a family of flowering plants that contain the bean-caper and caltrop. The family includes around 285 species in 22 genera, in the APG III system of classification, the families Zygophyllaceae and Krameriaceae compose the order Zygophyllales. In the previous version of their system, the Angiosperm Phylogeny Group had included the option of placing Krameria within Zygophyllaceae. Zygophyllaceae are divided into five subfamilies, a molecular phylogeny of the family was published in 2000. Phylogenies of groups within the family have also been published, a phylogeny of the southern African species of Zygophyllum was published in 2008. Peganum was in Zygophyllaceae before being moved to the newly created family Nitrariaceae, king Clone, a Creosote bush in California, may be the oldest living organism. Zygophyllaceae in L. Watson and M. J. Dallwitz, the families of flowering plants, descriptions, illustrations, identification, information retrieval. Family Zygophyllaceae Flowers in Israel Chilean Zygophyllaceae Chileflora
