Just some pictures of an insect on a metal wire.
July 24, 2010 9:40 pm
July 23, 2010 1:14 am
Wikipedia describes mushrooms as:
the fleshy, spore-bearing fruiting body of a fungus, typically produced above ground on soil or on its food source. The standard for the name “mushroom” is the cultivated white button mushroom, Agaricus bisporus, hence the word mushroom is most often applied to those fungi (Basidiomycota, Agaricomycetes) that have a stem (stipe), a cap (pileus), and gills (lamellae, sing. lamella) on the underside of the cap, just as do store-bought white mushrooms.
“Mushroom” describes a variety of gilled fungi, with or without stems, and the term is used even more generally, to describe both the fleshy fruiting bodies of some Ascomycota and the woody or leathery fruiting bodies of some Basidiomycota, depending upon the context of the word.
June 6, 2010 3:57 pm
A wasp is defined as any insect of the order Hymenoptera and suborder Apocrita that is not a bee or ant. Wasps can be either solitary or social. Wikipedia.org describes a social hornet as follows:
The nests of some social wasps, such as hornets, are first constructed by the queen and reach about the size of a walnut before sterile female workers take over construction. The queen initially starts the nest by making a single layer or canopy and working outwards until she reaches the edges of the cavity. Beneath the canopy she constructs a stalk to which she can attach several cells; these cells are where the first eggs will be laid. The queen then continues to work outwards to the edges of the cavity after which she adds another tier. This process is repeated, each time adding a new tier until eventually enough female workers have been born and matured to take over construction of the nest leaving the queen to focus on reproduction. For this reason, the size of a nest is generally a good indicator of approximately how many female workers there are in the colony. Social wasp colonies often have populations exceeding several thousand female workers and at least one queen. Polistes and some related types of paper wasp do not construct their nests in tiers but rather in flat single combs.
May 25, 2010 12:36 pm
Excerpts from The Dallas Historical Society:
In 1839, John Neely Bryan first visited the place that would one day become Dallas. He had come to the three forks area of the Trinity to survey a spot for a possible trading post serving Indians and settlers. The site was the easiest place to cross the Trinity, and also near where the Preston Trail was planned. This highway would link North Texas to South Texas.
After surveying, Bryan returned to Arkansas to settle his affairs. While he was gone, a treaty was signed, removing all Indians from North Texas. He returned in November of 1841, to find the Indians, and half of his customers, gone. So, he shifted his trading post idea to that of a permanent community. About 22 miles to the northwest, there was a community called Bird’s Fort. He invited those who had settled there to come and settle in his proposed town. John Beeman arrived in April of 1842 and planted the first corn. Other families soon followed. Members of the Peters Colony settled nearby, and Peter’s Colony agents bragged on the new town, now called Dallas, attracting even more settlers.
Dallas was incorporated as a town in 1856. Samuel Pryor was elected the first mayor. On July 16, 1872, the first passenger train, the Houston and Texas Central, steamed into Dallas. In 1911, Dallas became the location of one of twelve regional Federal Reserve Banks. The city campaigned for years, and the bank’s arrival assured Dallas’s place as a financial center.
In 1948, a new trend in Dallas growth began. Chance Vought, now LTV, moved its headquarters to Dallas. Other corporations followed suit, and hometown corporations were also making an impact. By 1974, more than 626 companies, including Texas Instruments, EDS, and Mary Kay Cosmetics Inc., had their headquarters in Dallas. The opening of DFW International Airport in 1974helped the trend even more.
Dallas continued to gain national attention. In 1960, Dallas was home to two professional football team: the Dallas Cowboys and the Dallas Texans. In 1962, the Texans were moved to Kansas City and renamed the Chiefs. By the 1970s, the Cowboys’ success and popularity earned them the nickname “America’s Team.” In 1972, baseball came to Dallas with the Texas Rangers. The Mavericks brought basketball in 1980. Soccer came in 1984 with the Sidekicks. In 1993, professional hockey came with the Dallas Stars.
November 22, 1963, brought a defining moment for Dallas and the nation. Near the spot where John Neely Bryan had first settled, President John F. Kennedy was assassinated. Lee Harvey Oswald was arrested for the murder. Two days later, he was killed by Jack Ruby, a Dallas nightclub owner. Dallas, and the nation, grieved, and then moved on. But Dallas never forgot. In 1970, the Kennedy Memorial was erected, and in 1989, the Sixth Floor Museum opened.
Dallas has come a long way in the last 150 years. From a town of two cabins to a city of more than a million people, Dallas’s focus has always been growth and progress. In the coming years, Dallas will certainly continue to make history.
May 23, 2010 11:20 pm
CallaLillyGuide.com describes the plant like this:
The calla lily grows from a type of bulb called a rhizome and produces very large green leaves, typically covered with lighter-coloured spots. The flower blooms from the top of a rather thick stem and sort of resembles trumpet shaped rolled paper, having a texture ranging from rather fleshy to wet autumn leaves.
The calla lily originates from the southern parts of Africa, namely South Africa up to the country Malawi, which is positioned in alignment with the northern border of the African island Madagascar. This area has a tropical climate in which the calla lily really finds itself at home with a steady temperature, rainy seasons and dry seasons. As there is no real winter with cold winds and snow to worry about there are calla lilies that bloom all year around as long as they have a sufficient supply of water, energy and nutrition.