Geckos are small lizards belonging to the infraorder Gekkota, found in warm climates throughout the world. They range from 1.6 to 60 cm. Most geckos cannot blink, but they lick their eyes to keep them clean and moist, they have a fixed lens within each iris. Geckos are unique among lizards for their vocalizations. Most geckos in the family Gekkonidae use chirping or clicking sounds in their social interactions, tokay geckos are known for their loud mating calls, some other species are capable of making hissing noises when alarmed or threatened, they are the most species-rich group of lizards, with about 1,500 different species worldwide. The New Latin gekko and English "gecko" stem from the Indonesian-Malay gēkoq, imitative of sounds that some species make. All geckos except species in the family Eublepharidae lack eyelids. Species without eyelids lick their own corneas when they need to clear them of dust and dirt. Nocturnal species have excellent night vision; the nocturnal geckos evolved from diurnal species.

The gecko eye, modified its cones that increased in size into different types, both single and double. Three different photopigments have been retained and are sensitive to UV, green, they use a multifocal optical system that allows them to generate a sharp image for at least two different depths. Like most lizards, geckos can lose their tails in defense, a process called autotomy. Many species are well known for their specialised toe pads that enable them to climb smooth and vertical surfaces, cross indoor ceilings with ease. Geckos are well known to people who live in warm regions of the world, where several species make their home inside human habitations; these become part of the indoor menagerie and are welcomed, as they feed on insects, including moths and mosquitoes. Unlike most lizards, geckos are nocturnal; the largest species, the kawekaweau, is only known from a single, stuffed specimen found in the basement of a museum in Marseille, France. This gecko was 60 cm long and it was endemic to New Zealand, where it lived in native forests.

It was wiped out along with much of the native fauna of these islands in the late 19th century, when new invasive species such as rats and stoats were introduced to the country during European colonization. The smallest gecko, the Jaragua sphaero, is a mere 1.6 cm long and was discovered in 2001 on a small island off the coast of the Dominican Republic. Like other reptiles, geckos are ectothermic, producing little metabolic heat. A gecko's body temperature is dependent on its environment. To accomplish their main functions—such as locomotion, reproduction, etc.—geckos must have a elevated temperature. All geckos shed their skin at regular intervals, with species differing in timing and method. Leopard geckos shed at about two- to four-week intervals; the presence of moisture aids in the shedding. When shedding begins, the gecko speeds the process by detaching the loose skin from its body and eating it. For young geckos, shedding occurs more once a week, but when they are grown, they shed once every one to two months.

About 60% of gecko species have adhesive toe pads that allow them to adhere to most surfaces without the use of liquids or surface tension. Such pads have been gained and lost over the course of gecko evolution. Adhesive toepads evolved independently in about 11 different gecko lineages and were lost in at least 9 lineages; the spatula-shaped setae arranged in lamellae on gecko footpads enable attractive van der Waals' forces between the β-keratin lamellae/setae/spatulae structures and the surface. These van der Waals interactions involve no fluids. A recent study has however shown that gecko adhesion is in fact determined by electrostatic interaction, not van der Waals or capillary forces; the setae on the feet of geckos are self-cleaning and remove any clogging dirt within a few steps. Teflon, which has low surface energy, is more difficult for geckos to adhere to than many other surfaces. Gecko adhesion is improved by higher humidity on hydrophobic surfaces, yet is reduced under conditions of complete immersion in water.

The role of water in that system is under discussion, yet recent experiments agree that the presence of molecular water layers on the setae, as well as on the surface, increase the surface energy of both, therefore the energy gain in getting these surfaces in contact is enlarged, which results in an increased gecko adhesion force. Moreover, the elastic properties of the b-keratin change with water uptake. Gecko toes seem to be "double jointed", but this is a misnomer and is properly called digital hyperextension. Gecko toes can hyperextend in the opposite direction from human toes; this allows them to overcome the van der Waals force by peeling their toes off surfaces from the tips inward. In essence, by this peeling action, the gecko separates spatula by spatula from the surface, so for each spatula separation, only some force necessary. Geckos' toes operate well b

Mykolas Krupavičius was a Lithuanian priest and politician. He is best remembered for his involvement with the land reform in the interwar Lithuania. In 1900 Krupavičius enrolled into the Veiveriai Teachers' Seminary, he showed interest in politics from early days: during the Russian Revolution of 1905 he was arrested twice. After graduation in 1905, he worked as a teacher in the Łomża Governorate and in Papilė. In 1908 Krupavičius began his theological studies at the Sejny Priest Seminary and continued them at the Saint Petersburg Roman Catholic Theological Academy, he was ordained into priesthood in June 1914. After graduation in 1917, he worked as a chaplain at a Lithuanian school in Voronezh. At the same time he got involved with the Lithuanian Christian Democratic Party and was sentenced to death by the Bolshevik revolutionary court. Krupavičius escaped the arrest and returned to Lithuania in May 1918, he joined activities of the Council of Lithuania struggling to establish independent Lithuania.

From the beginning he was involved with the land reform. Krupavičius was elected to all Seimas and served as Minister of Agriculture from 1923 to 1926 in four different cabinets. After the 1926 Lithuanian coup d'état, the Lithuanian Nationalists Union usurped the political power and Krupavičius studied sociology and law at the Lille University and University of Toulouse for two years. Upon return in 1930 he resumed his duties as priest and served Catholic congregations in Garliava and Kalvarija. During the occupation of Lithuania by Nazi Germany, Krupavičius together with Kazys Grinius and Jonas Pranas Aleksa sent a letter to the German authorities protesting their attempts to colonize Lithuania. Krupavičius was arrested and deported to Germany where he was held under house arrest in a carmelite monastery in Regensburg. In 1945 he was elected as chairman of the Supreme Committee for the Liberation of Lithuania and served in such capacity for a decade. After the resignation he moved to the United States and retired from public life.

Krupavičius published some 20 books on various topics in Lithuanian politics. Simas Sužiedėlis, ed.. "Krupavičius, Mykolas". Encyclopedia Lituanica. III. Boston, Massachusetts: Juozas Kapočius. Pp. 208–210. LCC 74-114275

Joan Ursula Penton Vaughan Williams was an English poet and author, biographer of her second husband, the composer Ralph Vaughan Williams. Born in Valletta, the daughter of Major-General Sir Robert Lock and his wife Kathleen Beryl Penton, daughter of Arthur Pole Penton CB, CMG, CVO, she began writing poetry in 1921. In 1941, her first published book of poems appeared, No Other Choice, her second volume of poetry was Fall of Leaf, from 1943. In the early 1930s, she was a student at the Old Vic. In 1933 she married an army officer, she met Ralph Vaughan Williams in 1938, after she sent him a play which she had hoped he would set to music. The meeting led to their collaboration on the choral work Epithalamion, she and Vaughan Williams began an affair whilst still married to their respective spouses. Michael Wood died in 1942 whilst of a heart attack. After his death, Ursula Wood continued her relationship with Vaughan Williams, with the acknowledgement of Vaughan Williams' wife Adeline, an invalid, crippled by arthritis, for whom Ursula was the carer.

Ursula Wood became personal assistant. Adeline Vaughan Williams died in 1951. Ursula Wood and Ralph Vaughan Williams married in February 1953, she encouraged her husband to resume the composition he had been forced to set aside during his first wife's illness, writing the libretto to two of his last choral works, including the cantata for Christmas Hodie. Ralph Vaughan Williams died in 1958. Following his death, Ursula Vaughan Williams set up residence in Gloucester Crescent near Regent's Park, London. In 1964, she published RVW: A Biography of Ralph Vaughan Williams, she completed her autobiography, Paradise Remembered, in 1972, but did not publish the book until 2002. Additionally, she published four novels, including Set to Partners and The Yellow Dress, five volumes of poetry, she provided libretti for other composers, including Herbert Howells, Malcolm Williamson and Elisabeth Lutyens, for example, her famous "Hymn to St. Cecilia", put to music by Howells. Vaughan Williams lived for many years in Gloucester Crescent near Camden Town, where her neighbours included Alan Bennett and David Gentleman.

She appears as a character in Bennett's autobiographical play and film The Lady in the Van, where she is played by Frances de la Tour. Until her death in London at age 96, she was honorary president of the Ralph Vaughan Williams Society, she was the president of the English Folk Dance and Song Society. Her funeral was held at St John's Wood Church; the Complete Poems of Ursula Vaughan Williams There was a time... A pictorial journey from the collection of Ursula Vaughan Williams Paradise Remembered The Collected Poems of Ursula Vaughan Williams Ralph Vaughan Williams Society

The R. P. Turnbull House is a historic house at 6 Pine Street in Massachusetts; the ornately decorated Italianate house was built c. 1865 for R. P. Turnbull, a partner in the Tidd Tannery; the main block of the house follows a typical Italianate three bay plan with a large central cross gable section on the roof. The central entry is sheltered by an elaborately decorated porch, the flanking bay windows are topped by roof sections with decorative brackets; the main cornice is studded with paired brackets, the gable ends have decorative shingle work around round-arch windows, with some Stick style decorative woodwork at the point of the gable. The house was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1984. National Register of Historic Places listings in Stoneham, Massachusetts National Register of Historic Places listings in Middlesex County, Massachusetts

The crested gecko or eyelash gecko is a species of gecko native to southern New Caledonia. In 1866, the crested gecko was described by a French zoologist named Alphone Guichenot; this species was thought extinct until it was rediscovered in 1994 during an expedition led by Robert Seipp. Along with several Rhacodactylus species, it is being considered for protected status by the Convention on the International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Flora and Fauna, it is popular in the pet trade. The species was first described in 1866 as Correlophus ciliatus by the French zoologist Alphone Guichenot in an article entitled "Notice sur un nouveau genre de sauriens de la famille des geckotiens du Muséum de Paris" in the Mémoires de la Société Scientifique Naturelle de Chérbourg, it was renamed Rhacodactylus ciliatus. Recent phylogenetic analysis indicates that R. ciliatus and R. sarasinorum are not related to the other giant geckos, so these two species have been moved back to the genus Correlophus.

The specific name, ciliatus, is Latin, from cilia and refers to the crest of skin over the animal's eyes that resembles eyelashes. Crested geckos are among the largest gecko species and range from 6–10 inches in length, including 4–6 inches of tail length. Among the most distinctive features of these geckos are the hair-like projections found above the eyes, which resemble eyelashes. Crested geckos have two rows of spines that run from the sides of their wedge-shaped head to the base of their tail. Crested geckos do not have eyelids and so they use their long tongues to moisten their eyes and remove debris; the toes and the tip of the semi-prehensile tail are covered in small hairs called setae. Each seta is divided into hundreds of smaller hairs called spatulae, it is believed these structures exploit the weak van der Waals force to help the gecko climb on most solid surfaces. The toes have small claws, they possess a semi-prehensile tail. The tail can be dropped as a deterrent to predators. Unlike some other geckos, once they lose their tail, it will not grow back.

In fact, most adults in the wild lack tails. The crested gecko has many occurring color groups, including grey, red and yellow of various shades, they have three color morphs in the wild, which include pattern-less, white-fringed, tiger. Breeders of the species have achieved many other patterns such as the extreme harlequin pattern that are not observed in the wild; the crested gecko has distinct structural morphs in crest abundance. Geckos with a head length less than 1.3 times its width are considered "crowned". The numbers and sizes of crests can vary; the crested gecko is endemic to New Caledonia. There are three disjunct populations, one found on the Isle of Pines and surrounding islets, there are two populations found on the main island of Grande Terre. One population is around the Blue River, a protected provincial park, the other is further north, just south of Mount Dzumac. Crested geckos do not have eyelids. Instead, a transparent scale, or spectacle, keeps each eye moist, the geckos use their tongues to clear away debris.

Like the related Rhacodactylus geckos, crested geckos have webbed legs and digits. They are a arboreal species, preferring to inhabit the canopy of the New Caledonian rainforests, because of this they can jump well, they are nocturnal, will spend the daylight hours sleeping in secure spots in high branches. Crested geckos are, less strong climbers than tokay gecko. Crested geckos shed their skin up to once a week when young; when grown, the process only occurs once every one or two months. The crested gecko – unlike the related gargoyle gecko – will not regrow its tail once lost; the cells around the base of the tail are brittle, allowing the tail to break away when threatened or caught by a predator. The capillaries to the tail will close instantly, so there is little to no blood loss; the tails will move independently of the body for 2–5 minutes. The loss of their tail is not problematic, most adults in the wild do not have their tails. Unlike most species of gecko, this species is an omnivore considered frugivorous, feeding on a variety of insects and fruit.

In captivity, they should be fed a commercially prepared, fruit-based diet with live feeder insects as a supplement. An unbalanced diet containing insufficient calcium can lead to metabolic bone disease. Though the export of wild crested geckos is now prohibited, biologists exported several specimens for breeding and study before New Caledonia stopped issuing permits to export the species. From these specimens, different breeding lines were established both in Europe and the United States; the crested gecko is now one of the most kept and bred species of gecko in the world. These geckos can be long-lived. While they have not been kept in captivity long enough for a definitive life span determination, they have been kept for 15–20 years or more, they can be kept healthy on specially prepared powder diets with sufficient calcium or a variety of insects dusted with calcium or multivitamin supplements. Little is known about the wild reproductive behavior of crest

NuAngels known by their former name neAngely, is a Ukrainian duo, formed in 2006 by Ukrainian producer Yuriy Nikitin. The duo is made up of Oksana Kuznyetsova, known as "Slava" and Tatiana Smeyukha, known as "Viktoriya", they perform in English. The group attempted to represent Ukraine in the Eurovision Song Contest 2014 with their song "Courageous", they tied for fifth place in the Ukrainian national selection with two other competitors, earning fourth place from the jury and sixth place from the televoting. They took part in the Ukrainian national final for the Eurovision Song Contest 2016 with the song "Higher", reaching 5th overall. Oksana "Slava" Kuznyetsova was born July 1984 in Odessa. Before the duo became a party involved in the project "People's Artist" and the reality show Temptation Island in 2005, she studied at the Kyiv National University of Arts with a vocal coach. She is a coloratura contralto and got married in 2012. Tatiana "Viktoriya" Smeyukha was born December 1985 in Kharkiv.

She took part in the TV show Chance and before meeting Yuri Nikitin, Viktoriya performed solo under the name Kyra. Viktoriya started her singing career as a member of the group SMS. However, the producer of the group was convinced that she needed to pursue a solo career, she can play the piano. Viktoriya began to study at the Kharkiv State Academy of Culture, but two years transferred to the Kiev National University of Culture and Arts. Russian studio albums Nomer Odin Roman Compilations The Best of НеАнгелы Fansite of NeAngely