Banksia verticillata or Albany banksia is a species of shrub of the genus Banksia in the Proteaceae family. It is native to the southwest of Western Australia and can reach up to 3 m (10 ft) in height, or even 5 m (16 ft) in sheltered areas; it is shorter in more exposed areas. This species has elliptic green leaves and large, bright golden yellow flower spikes that appear in summer and autumn. The New Holland honeyeater (Phylidonyris novaehollandiae) is the most prominent pollinator although several other species of honeyeater, as well as bees, visit the flower spikes. Listed as a vulnerable species by the Australian Government, it occurs in two disjunct populations on granite outcrops along the south coast of Western Australia, with the main population near Albany and a smaller population near Walpole. It is threatened by root rot (specifically Phytophthora cinnamomi) and aerial canker (Zythiostroma). B. verticillata is killed by bushfire, following which new plants regenerate from seed. Populations take over a decade to produce seed, and fire intervals of more than twenty years are needed to allow the canopy seed bank to accumulate. (Full article...)
... that the principal defensive function of the Barrage Vauban in Strasbourg was to enable the flooding of all the lands south of the city, making them impassable to the enemy?
... that a previously unknown script found on an altar at the Grakliani Hill archeological site in Georgia is 1000 years older than any other script in the Caucasus?
... that Mayfield Mall, now a Google office building, was the first air-conditioned enclosed mall in Northern California?
Numerous notable mathematicians, physicians, and scientists have been educated at Jesus College, one of the constituent colleges of the University of Oxford in England. Mathematicians who have studied at Jesus College include Nigel Hitchin (Savilian Professor of Geometry at Oxford since 1997, pictured), Jonathan Borwein (a former Rhodes Scholar who has held professorial appointments in Canada and Australia), and Jim Mauldon (who taught at Oxford before moving to the United States to teach at Amherst College in Massachusetts). Several noted individuals from biology, botany and zoology were educated at the college, including the Welsh clergyman Hugh Davies (whose Welsh Botanology of 1813 was the first publication to cross-reference the Welsh-language and the scientific names of plants). Jesus College had its own science laboratories from 1907 to 1947, which were overseen (for all but the last three years) by the physical chemistDavid Chapman, a Fellow of the college from 1907 to 1944. At the time of their closure, they were the last college-based science laboratories at the university. Scientific research and tuition (particularly in chemistry) became an important part of the college's academic life after the construction of the laboratories. (Full list...)
A flock of James's flamingos (Phoenicoparrus jamesi) during a mating ritual, in which it is not unusual for the entire colony to participate. Males put on a show by vocalizing, sticking their necks and heads straight up in the air, and turning their heads back and forth. A female can then walk away from the group, which is an invitation for a male to follow. The ritual is completed by her spreading her wings and the male mounting her.
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