Hawk
Hawks are a group of medium-sized diurnal birds of prey of the family Accipitridae. Hawks are distributed and vary in size; the subfamily Accipitrinae includes goshawks, sharp-shinned hawks and others. This subfamily are woodland birds with long tails and high visual acuity, they hunt by dashing from a concealed perch. In the Americas, members of the Buteo group are called hawks. Buteos have broad wings and sturdy builds, they are larger-winged, shorter-tailed and fly further distances in open areas than accipiters. Buteos pounce on their prey rather than hunting in a fast horizontal pursuit; the terms accipitrine hawk and buteonine hawk are used to distinguish between the types in regions where hawk applies to both. The term "true hawk" is sometimes used for the accipitrine hawks in regions where buzzard is preferred for the buteonine hawks. All these groups are members of the Accipitridae family, which includes the hawks and buzzards as well as kites and eagles; some authors use "hawk" for any small to medium Accipitrid, not an eagle.
The common names of some birds include the term "hawk", reflecting traditional usage rather than taxonomy. For example, some people may call an osprey a "fish hawk" or a peregrine falcon a "duck hawk". Falconry was once called "hawking" and any bird used for falconry could be referred to as a hawk. Aristotle listed eleven types of ἱέρακες: aisalōn, hypotriorchēs, leios, phassophonos, pternis and triorchēs. Pliny numbered sixteen kinds of hawks, but named only aigithos, kenchrēïs, triorchēs; the accipitrine hawks hunt birds as their primary prey. They are called "hen-hawks", or "wood-hawks" because of their woodland habitat; the subfamily Accipitrinae contains Accipiter. Melierax may be given a subfamily of its own. Erythrotriorchis is traditionally included in Accipitrinae, but is a convergent genus from an unrelated group; the "Buteo group" includes genera Buteo, Parabuteo and most of Leucopternis. Members of this group have been called "hawk-buzzards". Proposed new genera Morphnarchus and Pseudastur are formed from members of Buteo and Leucopternis.
The "Buteogallus group" are called hawks, with the exception of the solitary eagles. Buteo is the type genus of the subfamily Buteoninae. Traditionally this subfamily includes eagles and sea-eagles. Lerner and Mindell proposed placing those into separate subfamilies, leaving only the buteonine hawks/buzzards in Buteoninae. In February 2005, Canadian ornithologist Louis Lefebvre announced a method of measuring avian "IQ" by measuring their innovation in feeding habits. Based on this scale, hawks were named among the most intelligent birds. Hawks have four types of colour receptors in the eye; these give hawks the ability to perceive not only the visible range but the ultraviolet part of the spectrum. Other adaptations allow for the detection of polarised magnetic fields; this is due to the large number of photoreceptors in the retina, a high number of nerves connecting these receptors to the brain, an indented fovea, which magnifies the central portion of the visual field. Hawks are known to be able hunters.
The female is larger than the male. Like most birds, the hawk migrates in the spring. Different types of hawks choose separate times in each season to migrate; the autumn migrating season ends mid-December. It has been studied; the long-distance travelers tend to begin in early autumn while the short distance travelers start much later. Thus, the longer the distance the earlier the bird begins its journey. There have been studies on the speed and efficiency of the bird's migration that show that it is better for a hawk to arrive at its destination as early as possible; this is because the first bird that arrives has the first pick of mates, living area and survival necessities. The more fat a bird has when it starts its migration, the better chance it has of making the trip safely. Kerlinger states that studies have shown that a bird has more body fat when it begins its migration, before it leaves, than when has arrived at its destination. One of the most important parts of the hawk's migration is the flight direction because the direction or path the bird chooses to take could affect its migration.
The force of wind is a variable because it could either throw the bird off course or push it in the right direction, depending on the direction of the wind. To ensure a safer journey, a hawk tries to avoid any large bodies of water in the spring and fall by detouring around a lake or flying along a border. Hawkwatching is a citizen scientist activity that monitors hawk migration and provides data to the scientific community; the red-tailed hawk is the most common hawk in North America. Past observations have indicated that while hawks can adapt to any surrounding, hawks prefer a habitat, open. Hawks like to live in places like deserts and fields as it is easier to find prey; as they are able to live anywhere, they can be found in mountainous plains and tropical, moist areas. Hawks have been found in places such as Centra
Pine nut
Pine nuts called piñón or pinoli, are the edible seeds of pines. About 20 species of pine produce seeds large enough to be worth harvesting. In Europe and places with a Mediterranean climate, two species in particular are harvested. Four other species, Siberian pine, Siberian dwarf pine, Chinese white pine and lacebark pine, are used to a lesser extent. Russia is the largest producer of Pinus sibirica nuts in the world followed by Mongolia which produces over 10,000 tonnes of forest grown nuts annually, the majority of harvest is exported to China. Afghanistan is an important source of pine nuts, behind Korea. Pine nuts produced in Europe come from the stone pine, cultivated for its nuts for over 5,000 years, harvested from wild trees for far longer; the Swiss pine is used to a small extent. In North America, the main species are three of the pinyon pines: Colorado pinyon, single-leaf pinyon, Mexican pinyon; the other eight pinyon species are used to a small extent, as are gray pine, Coulter pine, Torrey pine, sugar pine and Parry pinyon.
Here, the nuts themselves are known by the Spanish name for the pinyon pine: piñón. In the United States, pine nuts are harvested by Native American and Hispano communities in the Western United States and Southwestern United States, by the Uto-Aztecan Shoshone, Navajo, Hopi and Hispanos of New Mexico. Certain treaties negotiated by tribes and laws in Nevada guarantee Native Americans' right to harvest pine nuts, the state of New Mexico protects the use of the word piñon for use with pine nuts from certain species of indigenous New Mexican pines. For those seeking to grow edible landscapes, these are the more used species. Old World Pinus armandii – Chinese white pine Pinus bungeana – lacebark pine Pinus cembra – Swiss pine Pinus gerardiana – Chilgoza pine Pinus koraiensis – Korean pine Pinus pinea – Mediterranean stone pine Pinus pumila – Siberian dwarf pine Pinus sibirica – Siberian pine New World Pinus cembroides – Mexican pinyon Pinus culminicola – Potosi pinyon Pinus edulis – Two-needle piñon or Colorado pinyon Pinus johannis – Johann's pinyon Pinus monophylla – Single-leaf pinyon Pinus orizabensis – Orizaba pinyon Pinus quadrifolia – Parry pinyon Pinus remota – Texas pinyon or papershell pinyo The pine nut species will take a time that depends on the exact species to complete its maturity.
For some American species development begins in early spring with pollination. A tiny cone, about the size of a small marble, will form from mid-spring to the end of summer; the cone will commence growth until it reaches maturity near the end of summer. The mature piñon pine cone is ready to harvest ten days. A cone is harvested by placing it in a burlap bag and exposing it to a heat source such as the sun to begin the drying process, it takes about 20 days until the cone opens. Once it is open and dry, the seed can be extracted in various ways; the most common and practical extraction method used is the repeated striking of the burlap bag containing the cone against a rough surface to cause the cone to shatter, leaving just the job of separating by hand the seed from the residue within the bag. Another option for harvesting is to wait until the cone opens on the tree and harvest the cone from the piñon pine, followed by the extracting process mentioned above. Fallen seed can be gathered beneath the trees.
In the United States, millions of hectares of productive pinyon pine woods have been destroyed due to conversion of lands, in China, destructive harvesting techniques and the removal of trees for timber have led to losses in production capacity. The elevation of the pinyon pine is an important determinant of the quantity of pine cone production, therefore, will determine the amount of pine nuts the tree will yield. American Pinyon pine cone production is most found at an elevation between 6,000 feet and 8,500 feet, ideally at 7,000 feet; this is due to higher temperatures at elevations lower than 6,000 feet during the spring, which dry up humidity and moisture content that provide for the tree throughout the spring and summer, causing little nourishment for pine cone maturity. Although there are several other environmental factors that determine the conditions of the eco-system, without sufficient water the trees tend to abort cones. High humidity encourages cone development. There are certain topographical areas found in lower elevations, such as shaded canyons, where the humidity remains constant throughout the spring and summer, allowing pine cones to mature and produce seed.
At elevations above 8,500 feet, the temperature drops, dras
Wasco County, Oregon
Wasco County is a county in the U. S. state of Oregon. As of the 2010 census, the population was 25,213, its county seat is The Dalles. The county is named for a local tribe of Native Americans, the Wasco, a Chinook tribe who live on the south side of the Columbia River. Wasco County comprises The Dalles Micropolitan Statistical Area. Celilo Falls on the Columbia River served as a gathering place and major trading center for the local Native Americans, including the Wasco and Warm Springs tribes, for thousands of years; these rapids came to be named Les Grandes Dalles de la Columbia or "The Great Falls of the Columbia" by the French Canadian fur traders. The Dalles served as a way station on the Oregon Trail as it approached the Willamette Valley; the construction of the Barlow Road over the Cascade Range in 1845, the Donation Land Claim Act of 1850 encouraged families to settle in the area. Over the following years, Wasco County was a major transportation hub for both river and inland traffic; the Oregon Territorial Legislature created Wasco County on January 11, 1854, from the parts of Clackamas, Lane and Marion counties, that were east of the Cascade Range.
At the time of its creation, it was the largest county in the United States, consisting of 130,000 square miles that stretched clear to the Rocky Mountains. Its northern border was the Washington Territory line; when Dakota Territory was created in 1861, Idaho Territory in 1863, Montana Territory in 1864, the parts of Wasco County east of the present Oregon boundaries were ceded to those territories. Other Oregon counties were split away, Wasco was reduced to its current size; the Dalles was designated the county seat with the creation of the county, has been its only location. The river traffic on the Columbia River was profoundly affected in 1935 by the building of Bonneville Dam in Multnomah County and by The Dalles Dam in 1957 in Wasco County. Wasco County attracted international attention in the 1980s, when Bhagwan Shree Rajneesh went to the United States and settled for several years at a marginal ranch called "The Big Muddy", but known as Rajneeshpuram. Disagreements over zoning rules and building codes in the beginning continued to escalate between not only his followers and the inhabitants of Wasco County, but with the rest of the state.
His followers, known as Rajneeshees, settled en bloc in Antelope and were able to elect a majority of the town councillors. Acerbic, if not hostile comments by his spokeswoman, Ma Anand Sheela, only increased tensions, were not helped by Rajneesh's vow of silence; when the Rajneeshees subsequently recruited homeless people from across the United States to settle at Rajneeshpuram, it was seen as an attempt to use the ballot box to seize control of the county. But the most bizarre turn of events was when an outbreak of salmonella in salad bars at ten restaurants in The Dalles was traced to the acts of his followers. About this time, Sheela was removed from her post in Rajneesh's service; this chapter in the county's history ended in 1985, when Rajneesh was arrested as he was fleeing the U. S. On October 23, 1985, a federal grand jury in Portland had secretly indicted Rajneesh and six other of his followers for immigration crimes. Two days a Wasco County grand jury returned indictments against Sheela and two others, charging them with the attempted murder of Swami Devaraj, Rajneesh's personal doctor.
Rajneesh entered an Alford plea and was given a suspended sentence on condition that he leave the country. The former Rajneesh ranch is now known as "Washington Family Ranch", it is owned and operated by Young Life Ministries, a Christian organization providing camp services for youth. According to the U. S. Census Bureau, the county has a total area of 2,395 square miles, of which 2,382 square miles is land and 14 square miles is water; the northern boundary with Washington is the Columbia River. Mount Hood National Forest As of the census of 2000, there were 23,791 people, 9,401 households, 6,505 families residing in the county; the population density was 10 people per square mile. There were 10,651 housing units at an average density of 4 per square mile; the racial makeup of the county was 86.58% White, 3.81% Native American, 0.80% Asian, 0.50% Pacific Islander, 0.30% Black or African American, 5.65% from other races, 2.36% from two or more races. 9.31% of the population were Hispanic or Latino of any race.
17.8% were of German, 11.8% English, 9.8% American, 9.5% Irish and 5.0% Norwegian ancestry. There were 9,401 households out of which 30.20% had children under the age of 18 living with them, 54.80% were married couples living together, 9.90% had a female householder with no husband present, 30.80% were non-families. 26.10% of all households were made up of individuals and 11.50% had someone living alone, 65 years of age or older. The average household size was 2.47 and the average family size was 2.96. In the county, the population was spread out with 25.40% under the age of 18, 7.40% from 18 to 24, 25.20% from 25 to 44, 25.40% from 45 to 64, 16.70% who were 65 years of age or older. The median age was 40 years. For every 100 females there were 97.90 males. For every 100 females age 18 and over, there were 95.10 males. The median income for a household in the county was $35,959, the median income for a family was $42,412. Males had a median income of $36,051 versus $21,575 for females; the per capita income for the county was $17,195.
About 10.30% of families and 12.90% of the population were below the poverty line, including 17.70% of those under age 18 and 7.30% of those age 65
Human
Humans are the only extant members of the subtribe Hominina. Together with chimpanzees and orangutans, they are part of the family Hominidae. A terrestrial animal, humans are characterized by their erect bipedal locomotion. Early hominins—particularly the australopithecines, whose brains and anatomy are in many ways more similar to ancestral non-human apes—are less referred to as "human" than hominins of the genus Homo. Several of these hominins used fire, occupied much of Eurasia, gave rise to anatomically modern Homo sapiens in Africa about 315,000 years ago. Humans began to exhibit evidence of behavioral modernity around 50,000 years ago, in several waves of migration, they ventured out of Africa and populated most of the world; the spread of the large and increasing population of humans has profoundly affected much of the biosphere and millions of species worldwide. Advantages that explain this evolutionary success include a larger brain with a well-developed neocortex, prefrontal cortex and temporal lobes, which enable advanced abstract reasoning, problem solving and culture through social learning.
Humans use tools better than any other animal. Humans uniquely use such systems of symbolic communication as language and art to express themselves and exchange ideas, organize themselves into purposeful groups. Humans create complex social structures composed of many cooperating and competing groups, from families and kinship networks to political states. Social interactions between humans have established an wide variety of values, social norms, rituals, which together undergird human society. Curiosity and the human desire to understand and influence the environment and to explain and manipulate phenomena have motivated humanity's development of science, mythology, religion and numerous other fields of knowledge. Though most of human existence has been sustained by hunting and gathering in band societies many human societies transitioned to sedentary agriculture some 10,000 years ago, domesticating plants and animals, thus enabling the growth of civilization; these human societies subsequently expanded, establishing various forms of government and culture around the world, unifying people within regions to form states and empires.
The rapid advancement of scientific and medical understanding in the 19th and 20th centuries permitted the development of fuel-driven technologies and increased lifespans, causing the human population to rise exponentially. The global human population was estimated to be near 7.7 billion in 2015. In common usage, the word "human" refers to the only extant species of the genus Homo—anatomically and behaviorally modern Homo sapiens. In scientific terms, the meanings of "hominid" and "hominin" have changed during the recent decades with advances in the discovery and study of the fossil ancestors of modern humans; the clear boundary between humans and apes has blurred, resulting in now acknowledging the hominids as encompassing multiple species, Homo and close relatives since the split from chimpanzees as the only hominins. There is a distinction between anatomically modern humans and Archaic Homo sapiens, the earliest fossil members of the species; the English adjective human is a Middle English loanword from Old French humain from Latin hūmānus, the adjective form of homō "man."
The word's use as a noun dates to the 16th century. The native English term man can refer to the species as well as to human males, or individuals of either sex; the species binomial "Homo sapiens" was coined by Carl Linnaeus in his 18th-century work Systema Naturae. The generic name "Homo" is a learned 18th-century derivation from Latin homō "man," "earthly being"; the species-name "sapiens" means "wise" or "sapient". Note that the Latin word homo refers to humans of either gender, that "sapiens" is the singular form; the genus Homo evolved and diverged from other hominins in Africa, after the human clade split from the chimpanzee lineage of the hominids branch of the primates. Modern humans, defined as the species Homo sapiens or to the single extant subspecies Homo sapiens sapiens, proceeded to colonize all the continents and larger islands, arriving in Eurasia 125,000–60,000 years ago, Australia around 40,000 years ago, the Americas around 15,000 years ago, remote islands such as Hawaii, Easter Island and New Zealand between the years 300 and 1280.
The closest living relatives of humans are gorillas. With the sequencing of the human and chimpanzee genomes, current estimates of similarity between human and chimpanzee DNA sequences range between 95% and 99%. By using the technique called a molecular clock which estimates the time required for the number of divergent mutations to accumulate between two lineages, the approximate date for the split between lineages can be calculated; the gibbons and orangutans were the first groups to split from the line leading to the h
Weight
In science and engineering, the weight of an object is related to the amount of force acting on the object, either due to gravity or to a reaction force that holds it in place. Some standard textbooks define weight as a vector quantity, the gravitational force acting on the object. Others define weight as the magnitude of the gravitational force. Others define it as the magnitude of the reaction force exerted on a body by mechanisms that keep it in place: the weight is the quantity, measured by, for example, a spring scale. Thus, in a state of free fall, the weight would be zero. In this sense of weight, terrestrial objects can be weightless: ignoring air resistance, the famous apple falling from the tree, on its way to meet the ground near Isaac Newton, would be weightless; the unit of measurement for weight is that of force, which in the International System of Units is the newton. For example, an object with a mass of one kilogram has a weight of about 9.8 newtons on the surface of the Earth, about one-sixth as much on the Moon.
Although weight and mass are scientifically distinct quantities, the terms are confused with each other in everyday use. Further complications in elucidating the various concepts of weight have to do with the theory of relativity according to which gravity is modelled as a consequence of the curvature of spacetime. In the teaching community, a considerable debate has existed for over half a century on how to define weight for their students; the current situation is that a multiple set of concepts co-exist and find use in their various contexts. Discussion of the concepts of heaviness and lightness date back to the ancient Greek philosophers; these were viewed as inherent properties of objects. Plato described weight as the natural tendency of objects to seek their kin. To Aristotle and levity represented the tendency to restore the natural order of the basic elements: air, earth and water, he ascribed absolute weight to earth and absolute levity to fire. Archimedes saw weight as a quality opposed to buoyancy, with the conflict between the two determining if an object sinks or floats.
The first operational definition of weight was given by Euclid, who defined weight as: "weight is the heaviness or lightness of one thing, compared to another, as measured by a balance." Operational balances had, been around much longer. According to Aristotle, weight was the direct cause of the falling motion of an object, the speed of the falling object was supposed to be directly proportionate to the weight of the object; as medieval scholars discovered that in practice the speed of a falling object increased with time, this prompted a change to the concept of weight to maintain this cause effect relationship. Weight was split into a "still weight" or pondus, which remained constant, the actual gravity or gravitas, which changed as the object fell; the concept of gravitas was replaced by Jean Buridan's impetus, a precursor to momentum. The rise of the Copernican view of the world led to the resurgence of the Platonic idea that like objects attract but in the context of heavenly bodies. In the 17th century, Galileo made significant advances in the concept of weight.
He proposed a way to measure the difference between the weight of a moving object and an object at rest. He concluded weight was proportionate to the amount of matter of an object, not the speed of motion as supposed by the Aristotelean view of physics; the introduction of Newton's laws of motion and the development of Newton's law of universal gravitation led to considerable further development of the concept of weight. Weight became fundamentally separate from mass. Mass was identified as a fundamental property of objects connected to their inertia, while weight became identified with the force of gravity on an object and therefore dependent on the context of the object. In particular, Newton considered weight to be relative to another object causing the gravitational pull, e.g. the weight of the Earth towards the Sun. Newton considered space to be absolute; this allowed him to consider concepts as true velocity. Newton recognized that weight as measured by the action of weighing was affected by environmental factors such as buoyancy.
He considered this a false weight induced by imperfect measurement conditions, for which he introduced the term apparent weight as compared to the true weight defined by gravity. Although Newtonian physics made a clear distinction between weight and mass, the term weight continued to be used when people meant mass; this led the 3rd General Conference on Weights and Measures of 1901 to declare "The word weight denotes a quantity of the same nature as a force: the weight of a body is the product of its mass and the acceleration due to gravity", thus distinguishing it from mass for official usage. In the 20th century, the Newtonian concepts of absolute time and space were challenged by relativity. Einstein's equivalence principle put all observers, accelerating, on the same footing; this led to an ambiguity as to what is meant by the force of gravity and weight. A scale in an accelerating elevator cannot be distinguished from a scale in a gravitational field. Gravitational force and weight thereby became frame-dependent quantities.
This prompted the abandonment of the concept as superfluous in the fundamental sciences such as physics and chemistry. Nonetheless, the concept remained important in the teaching of physics; the ambiguities introduced by relativity led, starting in the 1960s, to considerable debate in the teaching community as how to define weight for their s
Forest
A forest is a large area dominated by trees. Hundreds of more precise definitions of forest are used throughout the world, incorporating factors such as tree density, tree height, land use, legal standing and ecological function. According to the used Food and Agriculture Organization definition, forests covered 4 billion hectares or 30 percent of the world's land area in 2006. Forests are the dominant terrestrial ecosystem of Earth, are distributed around the globe. Forests account for 75% of the gross primary production of the Earth's biosphere, contain 80% of the Earth's plant biomass. Net primary production is estimated at 21.9 gigatonnes carbon per year for tropical forests, 8.1 for temperate forests, 2.6 for boreal forests. Forests at different latitudes and elevations form distinctly different ecozones: boreal forests near the poles, tropical forests near the equator and temperate forests at mid-latitudes. Higher elevation areas tend to support forests similar to those at higher latitudes, amount of precipitation affects forest composition.
Human society and forests influence each other in both negative ways. Forests serve as tourist attractions. Forests can affect people's health. Human activities, including harvesting forest resources, can negatively affect forest ecosystems. Although forest is a term of common parlance, there is no universally recognised precise definition, with more than 800 definitions of forest used around the world. Although a forest is defined by the presence of trees, under many definitions an area lacking trees may still be considered a forest if it grew trees in the past, will grow trees in the future, or was designated as a forest regardless of vegetation type. There are three broad categories of forest definitions in use: administrative, land use, land cover. Administrative definitions are based upon the legal designations of land, bear little relationship to the vegetation growing on the land: land, designated as a forest is defined as a forest if no trees are growing on it. Land use definitions are based upon the primary purpose.
For example, a forest may be defined as any land, used for production of timber. Under such a land use definition, cleared roads or infrastructure within an area used for forestry, or areas within the region that have been cleared by harvesting, disease or fire are still considered forests if they contain no trees. Land cover definitions define forests based upon the type and density of vegetation growing on the land; such definitions define a forest as an area growing trees above some threshold. These thresholds are the number of trees per area, the area of ground under the tree canopy or the section of land, occupied by the cross-section of tree trunks. Under such land cover definitions, an area of land can only be known as forest if it is growing trees. Areas that fail to meet the land cover definition may be still included under while immature trees are establishing if they are expected to meet the definition at maturity. Under land use definitions, there is considerable variation on where the cutoff points are between a forest and savanna.
Under some definitions, forests require high levels of tree canopy cover, from 60% to 100%, excluding savannas and woodlands in which trees have a lower canopy cover. Other definitions consider savannas to be a type of forest, include all areas with tree canopies over 10%; some areas covered in trees are defined as agricultural areas, e.g. Norway spruce plantations in Austrian forest law when the trees are being grown as Christmas trees and below a certain height; the word forest comes from Middle English, from Old French forest "forest, vast expanse covered by trees". A borrowing of the Medieval Latin word foresta "open wood", foresta was first used by Carolingian scribes in the Capitularies of Charlemagne to refer to the king's royal hunting grounds; the term was not endemic to Romance languages. The exact origin of Medieval Latin foresta is obscure; some authorities claim the word derives from the Late Latin phrase forestam silvam, meaning "the outer wood". Frankish *forhist is attested by Old High German forst "forest", Middle Low German vorst "forest", Old English fyrhþ "forest, game preserve, hunting ground", Old Norse fýri "coniferous forest", all of which derive from Proto-Germanic *furhísa-, *furhíþija- "a fir-wood, coniferous forest", from Proto-Indo-European *perkwu- "a coniferous or mountain forest, wooded height".
Uses of the word "forest" in English to denote any uninhabited area of non-enclosure are now considered archaic. The word was introduced by the Norman rulers of England as a legal term denoting an uncultivated area set aside for hunting by feudal nobility; these hunting forests were not neces
