Platanus occidentalis known as American sycamore, American planetree, western plane, occidental plane and water beech, is a species of Platanus native to the eastern and central United States, the mountains of northeastern Mexico, extreme southern Ontario, extreme southern Quebec. It is called sycamore in North America, a name which can refer to other types of tree in other parts of the world; the species epithet occidentalis is Latin for "western", referring to the Western Hemisphere, because at the time when it was named by Carl Linnaeus, the only other species in the genus was P. orientalis, native to the Eastern Hemisphere. An American sycamore tree can be distinguished from other trees by its mottled bark which flakes off in great irregular masses, leaving the surface mottled and gray, greenish-white and brown; the bark of all trees has to yield to a growing trunk by splitting, or infilling. The sycamore shows the process more than many other trees; the explanation is found in the rigid texture of the bark tissue which lacks the elasticity of the bark of some other trees, so it is incapable of stretching to accommodate the growth of the wood underneath, so the tree sloughs it off.
A sycamore can grow to massive proportions reaching up to 30 to 40 m high and 1.5 to 2 m in diameter when grown in deep soils. The largest of the species have been measured to 53 m, nearly 4 m in diameter. Larger specimens were recorded in historical times. In 1744, a Shenandoah Valley settler named Joseph Hampton and two sons lived for most of the year in a hollow sycamore in what is now Clarke County, Virginia. In 1770, at Point Pleasant, Virginia near the junction of the Kanawha and Ohio Rivers, George Washington recorded in his journal a sycamore measuring 13.67 m in circumference at 91 cm from the ground. The sycamore tree is divided near the ground into several secondary trunks free from branches. Spreading limbs at the top make an open head. Roots are fibrous; the trunks of large trees are hollow. Another peculiarity is the way the leaves grow green buds. In early August, most trees in general will have—nestled in the axils of their leaves—the tiny forming bud which will produce the leaves of the coming year.
The sycamore branch has no such buds. Instead there is an enlargement of the petiole which encloses the bud in a tight-fitting case at the base of the petiole. Bark: Dark reddish brown, broken into oblong plate-like scales. Branchlets at first pale green, coated with thick pale tomentum dark green and smooth become light gray or light reddish brown. Wood: Light brown, tinged with red. Used for furniture and interior finish of houses, butcher's blocks. Specific gravity, 0.5678. Winter buds: Large, sticky and three-scaled, they form in summer within the petiole of the full grown leaf; the inner scales enlarge with the growing shake. There is no terminal bud. Leaves: Alternate, palmately nerved, broadly ovate or orbicular, 10 to 23 cm inches long, truncate or cordate or wedge-shaped at base, decurrent on the petiole. Three to five-lobed by broad shallow sinuses rounded in the bottom, they come out of the bud plicate, pale green coated with pale tomentum. In autumn they wither before falling. Petioles long, abruptly enlarged at base and inclosing the buds.
Stipules with spreading, toothed borders, conspicuous on young shoots, caducous. Flowers: May, with the leaves. Staminate and pistillate heads on separate peduncles. Staminate heads dark red, on axillary peduncles. Calyx of staminate flowers three to six tiny scale-like sepals united at the base, half as long as the pointed petals. Of pistillate flowers three to six four, rounded sepals, much shorter than the acute petals. Corolla of three to six thin scale-like petals. Stamens: In staminate flowers as many of the divisions of the calyx and opposite to them. Pistil: Ovary superior, one-celled, ovate-oblong, surrounded at base by long, pale hairs. Fruit: Brown heads, solitary or clustered, 2.5 cm in diameter, hanging on slender stems three to six inches long. These heads are composed of achenes about two-thirds of an inch in length. October. In its native range, it is found in riparian and wetland areas; the range extends from Iowa to Ontario and Maine in the north, Nebraska in the west, south to Texas and Florida.
Related species occur in Mexico and the southwestern states of the United States. It is sometimes grown for timber, has become naturalized in some areas outside its native range, it can be found growing in Bismarck, North Dakota, it is sold as far south as Okeechobee. The American sycamore is well adapted to life in Argentina and Australia and is quite widespread across the Australian continent in the cooler southern states such as Victoria and New South Wales; the American sycamore is able to endure a big city environment and was extensively planted as a shade tree, but d
Barton Wallace Zeller is a former professional baseball catcher. He played one game in Major League Baseball in 1970 for the St. Louis Cardinals, he served as manager of the Joliet Slammers of the Frontier League but was released on September 10, 2012. Zeller was spent four years in the Cardinals' farm system. After missing the 1967 season, he spent 1968 and 1969 with the Lewiston Broncs and Arkansas Travelers, respectively. Zeller played in his only major league game on May 1970, against the Philadelphia Phillies, he was inserted to catch the bottom of the ninth inning. Zeller never had a plate appearance, but was credited with one put out, on Billy McCool's strikeout of Jim Hutto. Zeller threw right-handed, his jersey number was 29. At the time of play he was 6 ft 1 in tall and weighed 185 lb. Zeller was released as an active player by the Cardinals on June 8, but stayed on as a coach for the balance of the 1970 season, he played in the minors in 1971 in the Milwaukee New York Yankees organizations.
Zeller was the hitting coach/third base coach for the Southern Illinois Miners of the Frontier League, an independent baseball league. Zeller began working for the Miners in their inaugural 2007 season. Before coming to the Miners, Zeller spent two seasons with the Sioux Falls Canaries as a bench coach. Zeller was named as the first manager of Slammers in January 2011. Zeller managed the Washington Wild Things of the Frontier League in 2013 and 2014. List of St. Louis Cardinals coaches Career statistics and player information from Baseball-Reference, or Baseball-Reference
Eremochloa ophiuroides, or centipedegrass, is a warm season lawn grass. It is a thick sod forming grass that spreads by stolons, is medium to light green colored, it has a coarse texture with short upright seedhead stems. Centipedegrass seed is native to southern China and was introduced to the United States in 1916, it has since become one of the common grasses in Hawai'i. Centipedegrass can be considered a weed. Centipedegrass is a low maintenance grass, it requires infrequent mowing. Centipedegrass has limited traffic tolerance, it has poor drought tolerance. Centipedegrass survives in mild climates without several hard freezes. With light freezes it will turn brown but re-green as the temperature rises, it does well in acidic soils. Centipede grass has low fertilization requirements. Centipede Lawns - The University of Georgia College of Agricultural & Environmental Sciences
Of Man and Manta is a trilogy of science fiction novels written by Piers Anthony. It consists of the three books: Omnivore, 0Ⅹ. Omnivore has as its frame the investigation of the deaths of eighteen travelers from Earth to the distant planet Nacre. Nacre is seen through the eyes of three surviving scientist-explorers: Cal and Aquilon; the planet Nacre's dominant species are fungi, including the intelligent mantas. The mantas are soft-bodied creatures capable of high speeds and flight, superficially resembling manta rays, they are carnivores who farm the one extant herbivore species by protecting them from the voracious omnivore species. The planet is notable for its thick atmosphere, which allows flight to be performed with less energy, permits the existence of air-borne phytoplankton; the herbivores eat the plankton, the omnivores eat anything they can. The human characters' diets play an important role in their interaction with the native species. Aquilon eats a normal human diet—she is an omnivore.
Veg is a vegetarian. Cal is forced to drink blood to survive, due to a medical condition. Orn involves travel by the scientists and mantas into a parallel dimension they dub Paleo, resembling the distant past of Earth, where they encounter dinosaur species and an intelligent flightless bird called Orn. Orn has the ability of genetic memory, able to remember anything that happened to an ancestor prior to the time of their reproduction. Much of the plot conflict stems from the love triangle between the protagonists and the mysterious motives of a cybernetically-augmented government agent sent along to monitor their progress. 0Ⅹ involves the three scientists attempting to return to Earth from another dimension inhabited by hostile machines. Interlopers from other realities hamper the explorers. A secondary story tells of a multidimensional cellular automaton energy being named 0Ⅹ and its attempts to share living space with an infant human male, a fledgling creature of Orn's species, one of the manta-carnivores.
Lester del Rey found Orn to be "the most enjoyable book by Anthony" to date, an improvement "in many ways" over Omnivore. Omnivore series listing at the Internet Speculative Fiction Database
Mike Pougounas is a Greek vocalist, keyboardist, record label owner and independent filmmaker, most notable for his contributions to Greek rock during his time as the frontman for Greek punk and gothic rock pioneers The Flowers of Romance from 1981 to 1998. Following the breakup of The Flowers of Romance in 1998, Mike Pougounas would both found a new band Nexus, in 2000, the Cyberdelia Record Label. After the end of Nexus and Cyberdelia in 2005, Mike Pougounas formed New Zero God. Mike Pougounas' three-decade career has made him an influential and respected performing artist not only in Greece, but within Europe as a whole. Growing up in the poor Athenian neighborhood known as Tzitzifies-Kallithea, Mike Pougounas took an interest in Greek punk at the age of 13, started playing live shows during that year as well. In 1981, at the age of 16, Mike Pougounas would form The Gift renamed The Flowers Of Romance after a pre-Sex Pistols band in which Sid Vicious was the drummer. In his position as The Flowers Of Romance's front man, Mike Pougounas would continue to hone his talents as a lead vocalist and keyboardist.
Influenced by the many musical styles of the 1980s such as dark wave and punk, Mike Pougounas and the Flowers Of Romance would incorporate these styles into their early work, which resulted in a unique punk sound that made them popular in the underground Greek rock scene. Mike Pougounas encountered international notoriety with the Flowers Of Romance's Dorian Grey LP, by this time the band's style had evolved into gothic rock; as a result, Mike Pougounas was responsible for the first Greek gothic rock album to be released internationally. The Flowers Of Romance's sound would continue to evolve through the 1990s, though they never departed from their punk and gothic rock roots. In 1995, Mike Pougounas and The Mission frontman Wayne Hussey met and began collaborating on what would be the last album of the Flowers of Romance, Brilliant Mistakes. With Hussey's help ensuring that Brilliant Mistakes could reach a broader media market, 1996's Brilliant Mistakes became The Flowers of Romance's most successful offering.
Failure from the band's managers in promoting a long-planned European tour combined with Pougounas' growing discontent caused a great deal of friction between the Flowers of Romance. Pougounas had been the sole member of the band to stay through the entirety of their 18-year career. After leaving The Flowers of Romance, Pougounas formed Nexus. Pougounas created Cyberdelia Records on 9 March 2000, on 19 May, Cyberdelia released Nexus's debut album in Greek, entitled 6. Both Cyberdelia and Nexus would be successful ventures for Mike Pougounas, as Nexus would attain levels of popularity on par with, if not surpassing, The Flowers of Romance. Cyberdelia Records released albums for popular European bands such as Wayne Hussey's The Mission. In 2005, both Cyberdelia and Nexus disbanded, a year Mike Pougounas formed the post-punk New Zero God along with Nexus members Costas Spanos and Dimitris "Sidheog" Steves. Mike Pougounas is New Zero God's lead vocalist, in November 2009 plan to release their debut album, Fun Is A Four Letter Word.
Vlad the Demon, a graduation assignment of Mike Pougounas while he was studying as a film director in 1986, served as his first experiment in independent film. The 9-minute short film was a comedy that paid homage to 1920s horror expressionism, was rediscovered in 2008 by Rag Films. After sound manipulation, Mike Pougounas won a directorial award for Vlad the Demon at The 10th Independent Panorama of International Film and Video Makers, Patras City, 2008. Mike Pougounas and George Kagialedakis conceptualized “Back In Black: History Is Made By The Bands, Vol.1”, a documentary film produced by Rag Films about the Greek rock scene, Greek rock bands, the survival of both within a under-appreciative industry. The documentary is touring the international film festival circuit, with a possible theatrical release scheduled for late 2009. Mike Pougounas was responsible for the interviews in “Back in Black” as well as the male vocals for the Rag songs “My Life” and “Rock’n’Roll Puppet” while playing the keyboards on the song “From Hell”, which appears on the soundtrack of the documentary.
All three of Mike Pougounas bands have been featured in the books of world-famous rock journalist Mick Mercer. The Flowers of Romance are the featured band in Mercer's Hex Files: The Goth Bible, while Mercer's “Music to Die For” talks about all three Pougounas bands. Despite personal problems with the band that caused his departure from The Flowers Of Romance, Mike Pougounas remains on good terms with several former members of the band. Following The Flowers Of Romance's disbanding, Lefteris Strouggaris and Pougounas would work together in Nexus, Pougounas would reunite with Averkios Hadjiantoniadis in New Zero God. Mike Pougounas and New Zero God will appear in another documentary about the Greek rock scene, titled Kiss the Witch in production. “Kiss the Witch” is a song title in New Zero God's upcoming album
Gormley is a hamlet in York Region, Canada that overlaps parts of Richmond Hill, Whitchurch–Stouffville, two municipalities within the Greater Toronto Area. It was divided into two parts due to the construction of Highway 404. A portion of Gormley situated within Richmond Hill's political boundaries is subject to "Heritage Conservation District" controls. A post office in Gormley serves as the mailing address for the Whitchurch–Stouffville communities of Bethesda, Preston Lake and Wesley Corners. Gormley Road East, on the south side of Stouffville Road, leads to Gormley Court and a dead-end at the railroad tracks. On the other side of the tracks, accessible by Leslie Street, is Gormley Road West; the community had a railway station. Many of the houses are 100 years old; the community celebrated its 100th anniversary in 2005. The community was named after its first postmaster, James Gormley, who served from 1851 to 1876; the hamlet straddled the townships of Markham to the south and Whitchurch to the north, both in the County of York.
The old community of Gormley is situated east of the Highway 404 at the corner of Woodbine Avenue and Stouffville Road. New Gormley or West Gormley, is the area near Stouffville Road. A rail line owned by Canadian National Railway runs through West Gormley. In 1907, a station was constructed in Gormley on Station Street, south of the original Stouffville Sideroad; the arrival of the railway was significant in the development of New Gormley, as a cluster of businesses that relied on the rail service grew up around the station. Houses of the owners and other related building contributed to further expansion of the community, which by the 1920s housed a general store, a blacksmith's shop, a garage, a planing mill, a grain elevator and feed mill, a cement block and tile company. Many fine red-brick, two-storey homes were built along the main street; the station was important to local farmers. The Gormley railway station was demolished in the early 1970s. Station Road, that once led to station, is now a narrow dead end street that gives access to a few homes and businesses from Gormley Road.
There is now a new GO Transit commuter train and bus station, the last stop on the Richmond Hill line from Union Station in Toronto. Five trains run south to Union during the morning commuter period, five trains make the return trip back to Gormley from Union during the afternoon rush. During off-peak hours, buses run, it is important to note that both the bus and trains of the Richmond Hill corridor run on weekdays only, unlike the other GO train lines. A future challenge to the community of Gormley is the proposed development of an international airport south-east of Whitchurch–Stouffville. Under the current plan, the approach for one of the three landing strips would be directly over Gormley, with planes descending above the hamlet from an elevation of 521 metres to 480 metres; the plan anticipates 11.9 million passengers per year by 2032. A "Needs Assessment Study" was completed by the Greater Toronto Airports Authority for the federal government in May 2010. After a "due diligence review," Transport Canada released the report in July 2011 and announced the decision to proceed in June 2013.
The Town of Whitchurch–Stouffville Museum is located in Vandorf, north of Gormley, on Woodbine Avenue. Digital Leisure