text:
Introduction to Sociology/Everyday life/Technology/Television

How has the invention and use of television affected our everyday lives?
The television is probably the most important item contained within the American home. According to the A.C. Nielsen Co., the average American watches more than 4 hours of TV each day. What did Americans do before the TV existed? Where did they get their news? How were they entertained? I cannot answer these questions using first hand experience. The young adults of my generation grew up in an era where television was not a novelty, but a reality. I will do my best to give a personal description of how television has affected my everyday life.

Considering that during no part of my existence has my life been completely void of television, it’s hard to define the overall effect it has had on me. My experience, however, has shown me that through its evolution and increasing presence within my lifetime that it follows the general theme of technological changes. The circular pattern is continuous, flowing through the altering of physical environment, to the altering of ideas about the way the world works, and finally to the altering of behavior.

Television has influenced my social life in college in a profound way. Through the communal television in the lounge, I have met some of the most interesting people. Without this communal space and this common interest, it would have been difficult to relate to these people, and find a common ground. Commercial television is very confined by conventions, and everyone indirectly needs to adhere to these conventions, and this is why television has become such a common ground for the people that live in this dorm as well as everyone else. The discussions that are built from watching these shows have bonded us in ways that other conversational elements could not. Unfortunately we have not all read the same books or seen the same plays, and the most common ground we have is in television, so we fully recognize this and act on it. Without this common element I would hesitate to venture from my room. Television is a big part of our society's social interaction today.

Beginning with physical environment, the television in my earlier years could be found solely in the living room. As I grew, so did the amount of televisions we owned, and their size. We settled finally with seven televisions and one projector with television capabilities. This trend could be seen across America, and it certainly followed me to college. Each of my four roommates and I had our own television, with a communal one in our living room and in the lounge. Its evolution into an essential room furnishing caused changing ideas about how the world works.

The notion that each person must have his or her own personal television is an apparent change in ideas from even a decade earlier. This belief was paralleled by another, which assumed that each person also must have his or her own personal channel. While not meant literally, highly differentiated channels were undoubtedly being introduced at a fast rate. A channel was available for virtually everyone: Cartoon Network, Nickelodeon, the Disney Channel, MTV, ESPN, BET, Spike and E, the list could go on virtually forever. As I grew through the “channel boom” and adopted a new favorite each year, I typically found the shows I watched to influence my behavior in that era.

Because most of my friends also watched the same channels I did, we were all influenced by the characters. Noticeable changes such as dress and speech were probably most prevalent, but in sum our entire behavior was probably affected. The argument that violence and sexual promiscuity found on television causes children and teenagers to act in unfavorable ways supports this assumption.

From altered physical environment to altered world outlooks to altered behavior, the television has had a larger impact than I can begin to describe. This continuous pattern restarts and continues with no end in sight, as we currently enter the age of television “On Demand.”


text:
Grant Writing

Grants
Grants are funds given to tax-exempt nonprofit organizations or local governments by foundations, corporations, governments, small business and individuals. Most grants are made to fund a specific project and require some level of reporting. The process involves an applicant submitting a proposal to a potential funder, either on the applicant's own initiative or in response to a Request for Proposals from the funder. Other grants can be given to individuals, such as victims of natural disasters or individuals who seek to open a small business.

Other grants include intergovernmental grants which are used to correct fiscal imbalances between different levels of government. Many federations use these grants to correct imbalances between taxing and spending across different levels of government. Examples include the US, Australia and Kenya.

Most often, grants are issued by the government to students through attending post-secondary education institutions. In certain cases, a part of a government loan is issued as a grant, particularly pertaining to promising students seeking financial support for continuing their educations.

Block grants
In a federal system of government, a block grant is a large sum of money granted by the national government to a regional government with only general provisions as to the way it is to be spent. This can be contrasted with a categorical grant which has more strict and specific provisions on the way it is to be spent.

An advantage of block grants is that they allow regional governments to experiment with different ways of spending money with the same goal in mind, though it is very difficult to compare the results of such spending and reach a conclusion. A disadvantage is that the regional governments might be able to use the money if they collected it through their own taxation systems and spent it without any restrictions from above.

Since the 1980s, the United States government has provided vast sums of money through block grants, under a policy that has come to be known as "devolutionary" or "new federalism."

According to the General Accounting Office, from 1980 to 2001 the number of federal block grant programs went from 450 to 700. The grants are aimed at a wide range of activities from education, to healthcare, to transportation, to housing, to counterterrorism.

In the United States, the formulas for how much money states receive favor small states. Most grant programs have a minimum amount per state - usually 0.5 % or 0.75 %.

For instance, in 2003, under the State Homeland Security Grant Programs and Critical Infrastructure Protection Grants, Wyoming, the least populous state, received $17.5 million and California, the most populous state, received $164 million. In 2004 FY2004 Wyoming is guaranteed to receive a minimum of $15 million and California, the most populated state, $133 million. Wyoming receives $35.3 per person, California receives $ 4.7 per person.

Similar patterns exist for other block grant formulas. An analysis exists in the book Sizing Up the Senate.

Major criticisms of block grants are that:

 * the award process can be manipulated so that grants can be distributed to reward the federal administration's own party (by favoring states with governors of that party, for example);
 * at the local level, the same sort of partisan favoritism may occur when the state distributes the funds to local government units;
 * dispersing the funds through state or local governments makes federal oversight of their proper use very difficult.

Categorical grants
During the development of the interstate highway system, congressional grants provided roughly 90% of the funding. These types of federal grants are called categorical grants because the national government determines the purposes, or categories, for which the money should be used. Categorical grants may be spent only for narrowly defined purposes and recipients often must match a portion of the federal funds. 33% of categorical grants are considered to be formula grants. See: Head Start, Urban Forestry Assistance, Asbestos School Hazards Abatement. About 90% of federal aid dollars are spent for categorical grants.

Categorical grants in the 1960s were meant to help the states perform their traditional functions.

Project grants required state and local governments to submit proposals to federal agencies. Project grants encourage competition between groups that want the grant. There is also an emphasis on merit, as in the case of grants obtained by university professors.

Formula grants used a formula, composed of such elements as need and state and local capacities, to distribute funds.

Federal grants
In the United States Federal grants are economic aid issued by the United States government out of the general federal revenue. Grants may also be issued by private non-profit organizations such as foundations, not-for-profit corporations or charitable trusts which are all collectively referred to as charities. Outside the United States grants, subventions or subsidies are used to in similar fashion by government or private charities to subsidize programs and projects that fit within the funding criteria of the grant-giving entity or donor. Grants can be unrestricted, to be used by the recipient in any fashion within the perimeter of the recipient organization's activities or they may be restricted to a specific purpose by the benefactor.

Research
Research is an active, diligent, and systematic process of inquiry aimed at discovering, interpreting, and revising facts. This intellectual investigation produces a greater knowledge of events, behaviors, theories, and laws and makes practical applications possible. The term research is also used to describe an entire collection of information about a particular subject, and is usually associated with the output of science and the scientific method. The word research derives from the French recherche, from rechercher, to search closely where "chercher" means "to search" (see French language); its literal meaning is 'to investigate thoroughly'. Research is funded by public authorities, by charitable organisations and by private groups, including many companies.

Basic research (also called fundamental or pure research) has as its primary objective the advancement of knowledge and the theoretical understanding of the relations among variables (see statistics). It is exploratory and often driven by the researcher’s curiosity, interest, or hunch. It is conducted without any practical end in mind, although it may have unexpected results pointing to practical applications. The terms “basic” or “fundamental” indicate that, through theory generation, basic research provides the foundation for further, sometimes applied research. As there is no guarantee of short-term practical gain, researchers may find it difficult to obtain funding for basic research. Research is a subset of invention.

Examples of questions asked in basic research:

 * Does string theory provide physics with a grand unification theory?
 * Which aspects of genomes explain organismal complexity?
 * Is it possible to prove or disprove Goldbach's conjecture? (i.e. that every even integer greater than 2 can be written as the sum of two, not necessarily distinct primes)

Traditionally, basic research was considered as an activity that preceded applied research, which in turn preceded development into practical applications. Recently, these distinctions have become much less clear-cut, and it is sometimes the case that all stages will intermix. This is particularly the case in fields such as biotechnology and electronics, where fundamental discoveries may be made alongside work intended to develop new products, and in areas where public and private sector partners collaborate in order to develop greater insight into key areas of interest. For this reason, some now prefer the term frontier research.

Academic publishing describes a system that is necessary in order for academic scholars to peer review the work and make it available for a wider audience. The 'system', which is probably disorganised enough not to merit the title, varies widely by field, and is also always changing, if often slowly. Most academic work is published in journal article or book form. In publishing, STM publishing is an abbreviation for academic publications in science, technology, and medicine.

Most established academic fields have their own journals and other outlets for publication, though many academic journals are somewhat interdisciplinary, and publish work from several distinct fields or subfields. The kinds of publications that are accepted as contributions of knowledge or research vary greatly between fields.

Academic publishing is undergoing major changes, emerging from the transition from the print to the electronic format. Business models are different in the electronic environment. Since about the early 1990s, licensing of electronic resources, particularly journals, was very common. Presently, a major trend, particularly with respect to scholarly journals, is open access. There are two main forms of open access: open access publishing, in which the articles or the whole journal is freely available from the time of publication, and self-archiving, where the author makes a copy of their own work freely available on the web.

Most funding for scientific research comes from two major sources, corporations (through research and development departments) and government (primarily through universities and in some cases through military contractors). Many senior researchers (such as group leaders) spend more than a trivial amount of their time applying for grants for research funds. These grants are necessary not only for researchers to carry out their research, but also as a source of merit. Some faculty positions require that the holder has received grants from certain institutions, such as the US National Institutes of Health (NIH). Government-sponsored grants (e.g. from the NIH, the National Health Service in Britain or any of the European research councils) generally have a high status.

Research funding
Research funding is a term generally covering any funding for scientific research, in the areas of both "hard" science and technology, and social science. The term often connotes funding obtained through a competitive process, in which potential research projects are evaluated and only the most promising receive funding. Such processes, which are run by government, corporations or foundations, allocate scarce funds. Total research funding in most developed countries is between 1.5% and 3% of GDP; Sweden is the only country to exceed 4%. [1]

Most research funding comes from two major sources, corporations (through research and development departments) and government (primarily carried out through universities and specialised government agencies). Some small amounts of scientific research are carried out (or funded) by charitable foundations, especially in relation to developing cures for diseases such as cancer, malaria and AIDS.

Government funding for medical research amounts to approximately 36% in the U.S. The government funding proportion in certain industries is higher, and it dominates research in social science and humanities. Similarly, with some exceptions (e.g. biotechnology) government provides the bulk of the funds for basic scientific research. In commercial research and development, all but the most research-oriented corporations focus more heavily on near-term commercialisation possibilities than "blue-sky" ideas or technologies (such as nuclear fusion). One of the most famous exceptions is the innovation-favouring environment of the 1970s at Xerox Parc, where various ideas including the computer mouse were developed. Similarly, IBM's research into quantum computing has been going on for some years, and it will likely be some years more before it yields commercialisable technology.

Many governments of developed countries provide considerable funds (primarily to universities) for scientific research (in fields such as physics and geology) as well as social science research (in fields such as economics and history). Much of this is not intended to provide concrete results that may be commercialisable, although research in scientific fields may lead to results that have such potential. Most university research is aimed at gaining publication in peer reviewed academic journals.

Government funding for research into defense-related technological research has historically been significant. Some of this takes place in public research institutions such as DARPA, whilst much else is carried out by major defense contractors in expectation of being able to sell the results to the government (so is funded privately, but on the basis of implicit or explicit agreement of costs being recouped from the government).

Inventions "conceived or actually reduced to practice" in the performance of government-funded research may be subject to the Bayh-Dole Act.

In the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries, as the pace of technological progress increased before and during the industrial revolution, most scientific and technological research was carried out by individual inventors using their own funds. A system of patents was developed to allow inventors a period of time (often twenty years) to commercialise their inventions and recoup a profit, although in practice many found this difficult. The talents of an inventor are not those of a businessman, and there are many examples of inventors (e.g. Charles Goodyear) making rather little money from their work whilst others were able to market it.

In the twentieth century, scientific and technological research became increasingly systematised, as corporations developed, and discovered that continuous investment in research and development could be a key element of success in a competitive strategy. It remained the case, however, that imitation by competitors - circumventing or simply flouting patents, especially those registered abroad - was often just as successful a strategy for companies focused on innovation in matters of organisation and production technique, or even in marketing. A classic example is that of Wilkinson Sword and Gillette in the disposable razor market, where the former has typically had the technological edge, and the latter the commercial one.

Government-funded research into such matters as the nature of quantum mechanics, the existence of water on Mars, or the mechanics of the interaction between milk and cornflakes[citation needed], is considered by some to be a waste of money which might be better spent elsewhere (for example on education), or even on tax cuts.

Since the value of such knowledge is often difficult or impossible to judge, and no commercial benefit (at least on any relevant time horizon) can be derived, a frequent apparently common-sense position is that therefore such knowledge should not be pursued at public expense. However, even in the most theoretical of fields, it is often difficult to determine in advance where research may lead.

For example, decades of research into quantum mechanics have made possible work on quantum computing, which is now expected to be an even greater leap forward in computing technology than the development of the microchip, which in some areas is beginning to reach the limits of what is physically possible with this technology. It remains to be seen whether the inherent technical difficulties in quantum computing actually allow for a widespread application of this technology.

A characteristic of privately funded research is that it is almost always profit-oriented. In other words, private corporations tend to devote a relatively small investment to fund research into a field that shows little prospect of being profitable in the near future, even if such research could lead to highly beneficial results (for example, drug companies may not want to invest in finding the cure for a disease if most of the people affected by that disease are too poor to be able to afford such a cure). Some protest that cures and treatments for rare diseases are not pursued due to the lack of profit potential. Supporters of commercially funded research make a utilitarian argument, saying that the fact that profit potential directs investment in treatment for diseases that afflict the many individuals rather than few individuals is a good thing, since it results in alleviating the greater amount of human suffering.

An often-quoted example used to illustrate the difference in efficiency between government-funded and privately funded research projects is the quest of mapping the human genome. The U.S. government was funding such a mission, called the Human Genome Project, while at the same time the quest was being pursued separately with private venture capital by Celera Genomics. Celera Genomics used a newer, albeit riskier technique and proceeded at a faster pace and at a fraction of the cost of the tax-funded project (approximately $3 billion of taxpayer dollars versus about $300 million of private funding). Some HGP researchers claimed Celera's method of genome sequencing "would not work," however that project eventually adopted some of Celera's methods.

Occasionally some research is politically controversial; in the US, there have been cases of controversy over research into sexually transmitted disease, and restrictions on federally funded research into stem cells.

A 2005 study in the journal Nature surveyed 3247 US researchers who were all publicly funded (by the National Institutes of Health). Out of the scientists questioned, 15.5% admitted to altering design, methodology or results of their studies due to pressure of an external funding source. In a contemporary study published in the New England Journal of Medicine, a similar proportion of the 107 medical research institutions questioned were willing to allow pharmaceutical companies sponsoring research to alter manuscripts according to their interests before they were submitted for publication.

Wikipedia histories

 * http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Grant_writing
 * http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Grant_%28money%29&action=history
 * http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Block_grant&action=history
 * http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Categorical_grant&action=history
 * http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Federal_grant&action=history
 * http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Research&action=history
 * http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Research_funding&action=history

license: Creative Commons - Attribution Share-Alike - https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/

title: Grant Writing


text: MATLAB Programming/Print Version

title: MATLAB Programming/Print Version


text:
Biblical Studies/New Testament Commentaries/The Gospel of John/Chapter 11

Similarities and Differences with the Gospel of Luke It is interesting that both Luke and John contain stories that have a man named Lazarus. D. Moody Smith, in his commentary on the Gospel of John explains how the name Lazarus is used in Luke: "The rich man, condemned to torment in Hades finally asks Father Abraham to send Lazarus, who reposed in Abraham's bosom, to warn his five brothers to repent and thus avoid his own fate.  But Abraham refuses, saying that if the brothers do not attend to Moses and the prophets they will remain unconvinced even if someone (i.e. Lazarus) rises from the dead" (Smith 217). The difference between the Lukan story that uses the name Lazarus and Chapter 11 in John is that Lazarus actually rises from the dead in John. Because of the similarities between the two Gospels, it is possible that the Lukan story influenced the Johannine story, or the other way around. The beginning of Chapter 11 in John is also potentially confusing in relationship to Luke; Mary is first introduced by referring to an event that first "occurs" in John 12. A similar story-telling tactic (which could also, perhaps, be called a "flaw") is used in Luke, in 7:36-50. It is perplexing that in Luke 10, "Mary listened at Jesus' feet while Martha worked." Yet in John 12, "Martha will serve while Mary annoints Jesus' feet" (Smith 218). It is a possibility that John 11 may be clarifying the village of Mary and Martha that Luke discusses in Chapter 10. If this is the case, though, why does the author of John refer to Mary by using the event in John 12 as opposed to where Mary is introduced in Luke?

Jesus' Relationship with Lazarus and His Sisters John 11: 3 states, "So the sisters sent word to him saying, 'Master, the one you love is ill.'" John 11: 5 states, "Now Jesus loved Martha and her sister and Lazarus." Both of these verses point to the fact that Jesus loved Lazarus, Mary, and Martha. The Greek verb meaning friendship is used to describe both Jesus' relationship with Lazarus and Lazarus' sisters in John 11, as well as in John 15 to describe Jesus' relationship with his followers. At the same time, the word that means self-giving love is used interchangeably with the Greek word for friendship. Therefore, are Mary, Martha, and Lazarus Jesus' friends or just followers? It can be difficult to conceive Jesus as having "personal friends" (Smith 218) along with followers. Yet the language in this particular chapter seems to point to both Jesus' personal friendship and a "follower" type relationship with Mary, Martha, and Lazarus.

"Jesus Wept."

Most people know this famous phrase because it is the shortest verse in the Bible (it has also been argued that Job 3:2 "He said" is actually the shortest verse). However, even though it is small, this phrase has powerful meaning. Many have never really analyzed what Jesus was actually weeping over. To the surprise of some, there are several theories that have tried to explain just that.

First, we must know the context in which this verse occurs. In the beginning of the chapter Mary and Martha, the sisters of Lazarus, send word of their brother's illness to Jesus. Four days after Lazarus's death Jesus finally arrived. Martha went to talk to Jesus and He said to her "Your brother shall rise again" (verse 23 NAS) but, she seems to already know of this resurrection of the last day. (verse 24) Martha goes to get her sister and Jesus sees how distraught they were as they wept. When He seen their grief He "was troubled" (verse 33 NAS) He then asked where they had laid Lazarus (verse 34) and went to see. This is when, Jesus wept. He weeps in front of Lazarus's tomb and "the Jews were saying 'Behold how He loved him!'" (verse 36 NAS) However, others became spectacle of His miracle and began questioning. (verse 38) Jesus then declares the people to remove the stone and then prayed to God. He prayed to God in the interest of the people so that "they may believe that Thou didst send Me." (verse 42 NAS) After this, Jesus orders: "Lazarus, come forth." (verse 43 NAS) His friend rose from the grove. Another miracle!

Now that the context of the verse has been established, one can make their own conclusions on the following theories and maybe even construct their own.

One theory is that Jesus wept to reveal that He was indeed a true man with physical bodily functions just like any other human. This would then in return expel the idea of Docetism which is a belief that he was actually a spirit and not physically real. (more information on this belief can be found in a Catholic Encyclopedia- )

Weeping for Lazarus could just be a result from the simple fact that Lazarus was indeed dead. After all, Lazarus was the one "whom Jesus loved" so the reason is clear and obvious. (verse 3 NAS)

Another theory researched by L. Morris in John (558) is the idea that Jesus was actually weeping for those closest to Him, such as his disciples and Mary and Martha, were still blinded and did not believe what Jesus told them in verses 25 and 26 (NAS) "I am the resurrection and the life; he who believes in Me shall liven even if he dies, and everyone who lives and believes in Me shall never die..."

There is also and idea that His grief was for the events to come. Jesus is known to have divine knowledge even that of the after life. With that said, some believe that Jesus wept because He knew that He would resurrect Lazarus, the one whom He loved (verse 3). With that said, Jesus was sad because Lazarus would have to leave paradise (Luke 23:43) and return to the imperfect and evil world.

"Reaction of the raising of Lazarus" The raising of Lazarus is the climax of the series of 'signs': whatever doubts they might have had before, Jesus' divine glory was evident (verse 40). It is not surprising that many believed in Jesus. In verse 31, two groups of people with very different intentions are included in 'The Jews who had come with Mary'. One group, the consoling group, were those who presumably left her house and followed her 'thinking she was going to the tomb to weep there' (v. 31). The other group, who had less friendly intentions, had a different reaction. As soon as they saw what Jesus had done they went off and told the Pharisees (verse 46).

The raising of Lazarus in not found in the synoptic gospels; however, there are connections between this scene and the synoptic trial of Jesus. The raising had the same reaction many other miracle stories had. This included both positive, and then negative ractions. Furthermore, a meeting of the council of Sanhedrin was called to figure out what to do about Jesus. "With this hearing the wheels are set in motion that will eventually carry Jesus to his death. Jesus gives life and his enemies decide to put him to death," (Smith 216).

Chapter 11:1-54
The raising of Lazarus is the seventh sign that illustrates Jesus is the one who gives life. Raising Lazarus from the dead signifies to us that Jesus beats death. Ironically, by giving life to Lazarus, Jesus puts in motion his own death. It is the final sign before the crucifixion, which shows us life comes through the death of the Son of God.

Starting from verse 1 in John Chapter 11, Jesus is informed that a man (whom he dearly loves) named Lazarus is very sick. Jesus, once again showing his perfect foreknowledge, tells his disciples that Lazarus' sickness will not end in death. More important to his disciples however, is the notion of returning to Judea (Jesus was nearly stoned there). It is here that Jesus once again utilizes the symbols of light and darkness. " Are there not twelve hours of daylight? A man who walks by day will not stumble, for he sees by this world's light.  It is when he walks by night that he stumbles, for he has no light" (John Chapter 11 Verses 9, 10). However, the metaphor does not refer to worldly light. The light Jesus speaks of is eternal and from God. More important still is the fact that Jesus has established himself as the light of the world. Therefore, Jesus is metaphorically asking the question: "Do you really think that I (God incarnate) am going to stumble and fall to the stones of men?" The question is one of faith, and Jesus makes this painfully clear in Verse 11: "...'Our friend Lazarus has fallen asleep; but I am going there to wake him up." With this statement Jesus clearly signals to his disciples that he is going to Judea and that they are to come with him. The disciples, however, misunderstand Jesus. They believe Jesus is talking about Lazarus actually sleeping. Jesus sets them straight, and lets them know that Lazarus is, in fact, dead. He also says that he is glad he was not with Lazarus while he died. Jesus would rather go to Lazarus and raise him from the dead in order to show the disciples who he truly is than stop Lazarus from dying in the first place. The disciples might not understand exactly what the purpose of the trip is. Thomas makes a joke that refers to being killed when they step foot in Judea again.

There is a fascinating exchange that takes place in verses 24-26, "Martha said to him, 'I know that he will rise again in the resurrection on the last day.' Jesus said to her, 'I am the resurrection and the life. Those who believe in me, even though they die, will live, and everyone who lives and believes in me will never die.'"  In verse 24 when Martha says, "he will rise again in the resurrection on the last day." this presumably reflects the traditional Jewish understanding that all people will eventually be resurrected, and yet Jesus seems to turn this belief on its head with his response, as perplexing as it is. Instead of confirming what Martha says Jesus utters a similar, albeit less famous, remark as found in John 3:16. The wording is odd however, and depending on the translation can be somewhat hard to understand. Is Jesus saying that you can believe in him even after you die, and that you will never die if you believe in him while still alive? It seems clear that this was not his intent. Moody Smith offers a different interpretation that seems to clarify the passage, "Whoever believes in Jesus, although he will die, will nevertheless live; that is, whoever while living in this world believes, will not die with respect to the next." John then is talking about physical death and spiritual life.

John 11:55-57
In this passage the festival of Passover is taking place and all the people are wondering if Jesus will show up. The chief priests and Pharisees order them to disclose his whereabouts if they find him or run into him so that they might seize him. According to William Barclay, many Jews come early to this festival to be purified because according to the law every man is bound to purify himself before the feast, in order to ensure ceremonial cleanliness. However, as stated in Chronicles13:19, Jesus was in a town called Ephraim, near Bethel, doing his work. For this reason the Jews did not know if he would come. According to commentator L.L. Speer, it was thought that the reason that Jesus was late was because his friends may have known of the Pharisees’ plans and warned Jesus of what was to happen. Nonetheless, Jesus came, and because of this was considered a very brave outlaw of his time.

This chapter shows both the humanness and the divinity of Jesus. Jesus shows his humanness when he weeps with the other mourners in Bethany. Jesus shows his divinity by raising Lazarus from the dead and showing God's glory to those present.

Tone in John Chapter 11 One of the most interesting verses for an interpretation of tone is found in John Chapter 11: "Then Thomas (called Didymus) said to the rest of the disciples, 'Let us also go, that we may die with him.'" (verse 16). This remark is made when Christ decides to return to Judea (where the climate is not exactly receptive to His presence) in order to raise Lazarus from the dead. Tone becomes important here because it is very easy to read Thomas' statement in a few different ways: 1) that of a servant willing to follow His master to whatever end, and 2) A bit of sarcasm could be present, which would read something like 'Well, if He wants to commit suicide, I guess we better go too." Tone is such an important issue here and in so many places in the Bible, yet it is nearly impossible to glean from the text itself.  We rely on the authors of books describing emotional states, rather than analyzing the words themselves to glean manner of delivery.


text:
Chinese (Mandarin)/Lesson 1/Exercises

Matching Sentences
Match the situations (1-8) to the appropriate lines of dialog (a-h):
 * 1) Tony introduces himself. He says:
 * 2) Amy asks Ginny what her name is. She asks:
 * 3) Ginny asks Amy which country she is from. She asks:
 * 4) Tony sees Ginny walking by and asks Owen who she is. He asks:
 * 5) Amy thinks Tony is British, so he answers that he is not. He says:
 * 6) Owen meets his friends Ginny and Tony and greets them. He says:
 * 7) Amy tells Owen that the three people over there are Chinese. She says:
 * 8) Ginny meets another French student and tells him that she is also French. She says:

Lines of dialog:
 * a) Nǐmen hǎo.
 * b) Tā shì shuí?
 * c) Wǒ jiào Dōngní.
 * d) Nǐ shì nǎ guó rén?
 * e) Wǒ yě shì Fǎguórén.
 * f) Wǒ bú shì Yīngguórén.
 * g) Nǐ jiào shénme míngzi?
 * h) Tāmen shì Zhōngguórén.

title: Chinese (Mandarin)/Lesson 1/Exercises


text:
Chinese (Mandarin)/Answer Key

Matching Sentences
1c,2g,3d,4b,5f,6a,7h,8e

title: Chinese (Mandarin)/Answer Key


text:
Talk:Chinese (Mandarin)/Lesson 1/Exercises

Untitled
It would be very cool if he had Listening Comprehension exercises. However, I am just learning Chinese so my pronunciation is not very good. Are there any fluent/native speakers here that can make up some sentences from the vocabulary in dialog 1? ThomasStrohmann 07:02, 19 March 2007 (UTC)


text:
User:Byassine

ar:مستخدم:Byassine de:Benutzer:Byassine en:User:Byassine es:Usuario:Byassine fr:Utilisateur:Byassine ja:利用者:Byassine simple:User:Byassine

title: User:Byassine


text:
Horticulture/Blights

Blight refers to a specific symptom that can be expressed by plants in response to infection by a plant pathogenic organism. It is simply a rapid and complete chlorosis, browning, then death of plant tissues such as leaves, branches, twigs, or floral organs. Accordingly, many diseases that primarily exhibit this symptom are called blights. Several notable examples are: On leaf tissue, symptoms of blight are characterized by the initial appearance of lesions which rapidly engulf surrounding tissue. However, lesions of diseases that cause leaf spots may, in advanced stages, expand to kill entire areas of leaf tissue and thus exhibit blight symptoms.
 * Late blight of potato, caused by the water mold ../Phytophthora infestans/ (Mont.) de Bary, the disease which led to the Irish Potato famine
 * Southern corn leaf blight, caused by the fungus Cochliobolus heterostrophus (Drechs.) Drechs, anamorph Bipolaris maydis (Nisikado & Miyake) Shoemaker, incited a severe loss of corn in the United States in 1970.
 * Chestnut blight, caused by the fungus ../Cryphonectria parasitica/'' (Murrill) Barr, has nearly completely eradicated mature American chestnuts in North America.
 * Fireblight, caused by the bacterium ../Erwinia amylovora/ (Burrill) Winslow et al., is the most severe disease of pear and also is found in apple and raspberry, among others.
 * Bacterial leaf blight of rice, caused by the bacterium Xanthomonas oryzae (Uyeda & Ishiyama) Dowson.
 * Early blight of potato and tomato, caused by species of the ubiquitous fungal genus ../Alternaria/
 * Rubber leaf blight

title: Horticulture/Blights


text:
Horticulture/Nematodes

he nematodes or roundworms (Phylum Nematoda from Greek νῆμα (nema): "thread" + -ώδη (-ode) "like") are one of the most common phyla of animals, with over 20,000 different described species (over 15,000 are parasitic). They are ubiquitous in freshwater, marine, and terrestrial environments, where they often outnumber other animals in both individual and species counts, and are found in locations as diverse as Antarctica and oceanic trenches. Further, there are a great many parasitic forms, including pathogens in most plants and animals, humans included. Only the Arthropoda are more diverse.

Abundance
Nematodes have successfully adapted to nearly every ecological niche from marine to fresh water, from the polar regions to the tropics, as well as the highest to the lowest of elevations. Though 20,000 species have been classified it is estimated that this number may be upwards of 500,000 if all were known. . In certain fertile areas the topsoil is estimated to contain in the billions of nematodes per acre. In the 1914 edition of the Yearbook of the United States Department of Agriculture N.A.Cobb wrote on the abundance of nematodes : "If all the matter in the universe except the nematodes were swept away, our world would still be dimly recognizable, and if, as disembodied spirits, we could then investigate it, we should find its mountains, hills, vales, rivers, lakes and oceans represented by a thin film of nematodes. The location of towns would be decipherable, since for every massing of human beings there would be a corresponding massing of certain nematodes. Trees would still stand in ghostly rows representing our streets and highways. The location of the various plants and animals would still be decipherable, and, had we sufficient knowledge, in many cases even their species could be determined by an examination of their erstwhile nematode parasites."

Morphology
Nematodes are unsegmented, thin and are round in cross section. They have no circulatory or respiratory systems so they use diffusion to breathe and for circulation of substances around their body. Nematodes are one of the simplest animal groups to have a complete digestive system, with a separate orifice for food intake and waste excretion, a pattern followed by all subsequent, more complex animals. The body cavity lacks the muscles of coelomate animals used to force food down the digestive tract. Nematodes thus depend on internal/external pressures and body movement to move food through their digestive tracts. The mouth is often surrounded by various flaps or projections used in feeding and sensation. The portion of the body past the anus is called the "tail." As they grow, their cells get larger, but the total number is constant. The epidermis secretes a layered cuticle made of three layers of collagen that protects the body from drying out, or from digestive juices or other damaging substances. Although this cuticle allows movement and shape changes, it is very inelastic so does not allow the volume of the worm to increase. Therefore, as the worm grows, it has to molt and form new cuticles. The cuticles don't allow volume to increase so as to keep hydrostatic pressure inside the organism very high. For this reason, the roundworms do not possess circular muscles (just longitudinal ones) as they're not required. This hydrostatic pressure is the reason the roundworms are round.

Most free-living nematodes are microscopic, though a few parasitic forms can grow to over a meter in length (typically as parasites of very large animals such as whales).

Most nematodes eat bacteria, fungi and protozoans, although some are filter feeders. Excretion is through a separate excretory pore.

Nematodes have a simple nervous system, with a main nerve cord running along the ventral side.

Free-living species
In free-living species, development usually consists of four molts of the cuticle during growth. Different species feed on materials as varied as algae, fungi, small animals, fecal matter, dead organisms and living tissues. One roundworm of note is Caenorhabditis elegans, which lives in the soil and has found much use as a model organism. C. elegans has had its entire genome sequenced, as well as the developmental fate of every cell determined, and every neuron mapped.

Parasitic species
Nematodes that are parasitic on animals often have quite complicated life cycles, moving between several different hosts or locations in the host's body. Infection occurs variously by eating uncooked meat with larvae in it, by entrance into unprotected cuts or directly through the skin, by transfer via blood-sucking insects, etc.

In contrast, entomopathogenic nematodes parasitize insects and are considered by humans to be beneficial.

One form of nematode is entirely dependent upon the wasps which are the sole source of fig fertilization. They prey upon the wasps, riding them from the ripe fig of the wasp's birth to the fig flower of its death, where they kill the wasp, and their offspring await the birth of the next generation of wasps as the fig ripens.

Plant parasitic nematodes include several groups causing severe crop losses. The most common genera are: Aphelenchoides (foliar nematodes), Meloidogyne (root-knot nematodes), Heterodera, Globodera (cyst nematodes) such as the potato root nematode, Nacobbus, Pratylenchus (lesion nematodes), Ditylenchus, Xiphinema, Longidorus, Trichodorus. Several phytoparasitic nematode species cause histological damages to roots, including the formation of visible galls (Meloidogyne) which are useful characters for their diagnostic in the field. Some nematode species transmit plant viruses through their feeding activity on roots. One of them is Xiphinema index, vector of GFLV (Grapevine Fanleaf Virus), an important disease of grapes.

Other nematodes attack bark and forest trees. The most important representative of this group is Bursaphelenchus xylophilus, the pine wood nematode, present in Asia and America and recently discovered in Europe.

The largest known nematode is Dioctophyma renale, the giant kidney worm, a parasite most commonly found in mink but also in dogs and humans, that can reach up to 103 cm in length.

Gardening
Depending on the species, a nematode may be beneficial or detrimental to a gardener's cause.

From a gardening perspective, there are two categories of nematode: predatory ones, which will kill garden pests like cutworms or Japanese beetle grubs, and pest nematodes, like the root-knot nematode, which attack garden plants.

Predatory nematodes can be bred by soaking a specific recipe of leaves and other detritus in water, in a dark, cool place, and can even be purchased as an organic form of pest control.

title: Horticulture/Nematodes


text:
Horticulture/Pisum

Pisum is a genus of the family Fabaceae, native to southwest Asia and northeast Africa. ../Pisum sativum/, the field pea or garden pea, is the most commonly cultivated.

Description
Tendrilled vines with compound leaves. The flower has 5 sepals (fused), 5 petal, 10 anthers (9 are fused ,1 free) and 2 carpels(fused). The fruit is a legume (the pea).

Growing conditions
Sunny locations, soils should be rich but well-drained. Seeds are usually inoculated with a bacteria which fixes atmospheric nitrogen for the use of the plant.

Varieties
The genus contains one to five species, depending on taxonomic interpretation; the International Legume Database (ILDIS) accepts three species, one with two subspecies :
 * ../Pisum abyssinicum/ (syn. P. sativum subsp. abyssinicum)
 * ../Pisum fulvum/
 * ../Pisum sativum/ - Pea
 * Pisum sativum subsp. elatius (syn. P. elatius, P. syriacum)
 * Pisum sativum subsp. sativum

Uses
../Pisum sativum/ is commonly grown as a food crop, but all plants in this genus can be used as cover crops.

Pests and diseases
../Powdery Mildew/

../Leaf Spot/, Pod Spot ../Downy Mildew/
 * Ascochyta pinodes
 * Ascochyta pisi

../Damping Off/

../White Mold/ ../Root Rots/
 * ../Sclerotinia sclerotiorum/

../Blight/ ../Wilt/ ../Aphids/ ../Bugs/ ../Thrips/ ../Maggots/ ../Beetles/ ../Caterpillars/ Bucculatrix pyrivorella, Cabbage Moth, Common Swift, Ghost Moth, Hypercompe indecisa, The Nutmeg, Setaceous Hebrew Character and Turnip Moth.
 * ../Sclerotium rolfsii/
 * Fusarium oxysporum pisi
 * Pea Aphid: ../Acyrthosiphon pisum/
 * Green Peach Aphid: ../Myzus persicae/
 * Tarnished Plant Bug: ../Lygus lineolaris/
 * Fourlined Plant Bug: ../Poecilocapsus lineatus/
 * Onions thrips: ../Thrips tabaci/
 * American Serpentine Leafminer: ../Liriomyza trifolii/
 * Pea Leafminer: ../Liriomyza huidobrensis/
 * Seedcorn Maggot: ../Delia platura/
 * Pea Weevil: ../Bruchus pisorum/
 * Pea Leaf Weevil: ../Sitona lineatus/
 * Cucumber Beetles
 * Turnip Moth: ../Agrotis segetum/
 * Pea Moth: ../Cydia nigricana/
 * Stalk Borer: ../Papaipema nebris/
 * Cabbage Looper: ../Trichoplusia ni/
 * Celery Looper: ../Anagrapha falcifera/
 * Speckled Green Fruitworm: ../Orthosia hibisci/
 * Beet Armyworm: ../Spodoptera exigua/

title: Horticulture/Pisum


text:
XForms/Dynamically Load JavaScript

Motivation
Sometime XForms data elements don't do everything you need. This is especially true for exception handling. When this happens you can dynamically load a JavaScript program to handle the required functionality.

This example will use the XForms load element. But unlike most JavaScript functions, it will not be loaded into the browser until it is needed.

Sample Program
Here is an example of using the load element within an XForms trigger:

First you will need a small JavaScript funtion to test like the following:

Then you can call this JavaScript function using the Load function within a trigger:

Load XForms Application

You can also pass data from an XForms instance by using the following example:

When the user selects this trigger the JavaScript function my-javascript-function will be dynamically loaded into the XForm application and executed.

title: XForms/Dynamically Load JavaScript


text:
Animal Behavior/Orienting

Animal Movement
Predictable fluctuations in environmental conditions impact the behavior and movement patterns of many animals. When northern temperate ponds freeze over in winter, bald eagles are cutoff from their prey, forced to travel in search of open water. Animals respond by travelling to such seasonal changes in carrying capacity by seeking out abundant resources in the summer and emigrating from limited, harsh resource conditions in the winter. Migration refers to these regular, seasonal journeys of animals that alternate between breeding and non-breeding locations. Many species are able to move great distances and excel at an ability to find their way. A combination of cues and mechanisms are employed to complete some of the most amazing achievements.

Animal Movements and Tinbergen's Four Aims
A series of independent questions can be addressed to explore the causation of migratory movements in animals, such as song birds.

Proximate Causation: hormonal influences on timing (restlessness), cues for navigation, ...

Ultimate Causation: For functional explanations of songbird migration, migrants must exceed local residents in the number of offspring, despite making up for additional energy costs and dangers associated with migration.

Phylogeny: Many species of birds migrate. Fossil evidence suggests that early songbirds evolved in the tropics. Migration may have arisen when individuals moved north (or southward) in spring to exploit longer daylight hours, local resource abundance in temperate zones, and release from competition in the tropics during the breeding season with its high food demands. The precise course of current major flyways have probably evolved since the last glaciation.

Ontogeny: learning of migration paths and innate preference for migration direction (European warblers, Starlings)

Homing
Homing refers to an individual's ability to return from a distant location to the only place it is certain to know something about. Animals may utilize a variety of cues and mechanisms to determine the location of its home site. Route reversal is a method used by some animals where the outgoing route is memorized/marked so the animal is able to “retrace” its steps by way of reversing the original route. Situations where the outward travel is significantly longer then the return journey, requires an ability to calculate the most direct route back via a diversity of orienting mechanisms, such as vector-based averaging or the acquisition of spatial maps.

Limpets fit their shell to one specific spot on a rock. A close fit is critical to withstand the impact of waves when submerged and prevent desiccation when exposed. Scraping algae from the rock surface, they travel from their home site, leaving behind a chemical trail. By reversing direction on this trail they are able to return to the very site they came from.

The homing pigeon has been selectively bred to be able to return to its home over extremely long distances. As a pigeon generally returns to its own nest and its own mate, human handlers have selectively bred subsets of birds that were particularly good at this task. Homing flights from as far as 1000 kilometers have been recorded by exceptional birds at average flying speeds of around 50 km/h. For thousands of years humans have used homing pigeons to return messages back to home base by attaching them to the birds legs.

Migration
Migration includes all movements made in response to changes in food availability, habitat or weather.

Nomadic Migration: Individuals travel from place to place following distributions of resources. Following available forage determined by the season's weather patterns Bison roamed the American Great Plains, wildebeest travel the Serengeti

Seasonal Migration: Travel between a summer area for breeding and an area for overwintering are driving the seasonal migration of many animals, such as song birds. The energetic advantages of breeding in a site of seasonally high food resources and extended daylight hours allow diurnal birds to produce larger clutches than related non-migratory species that remain in the tropics year-round. In autumn, as the days shorten and food sources dwindle, birds return to warmer regions where the available food supply varies little with the season. The success of migrants indicates that these advantages greatly offset the high stress, energetic costs, and other risks of the migration. Cardinals are common winter residents in northern latitudes. As members of a taxon with mostly tropical distribution, they may have reduced their winter return migration.

Return Migration:

Navigation Mechanisms
Navigation refers to the ability of planning and controlling one's movement from one place to another. It requires knowing one's current location on earth, the location of the desired goal, and an ability to calculate travel directions to get from here to there.

Orienting
Many individuals show a distinct preference for departing in one particular direction. This applies to diurnal movements of plankton that feed at the surface during the evening and night, and sink to lower, darker regions to avoid falling prey to visual predators.

Dead Reckoning
Many birds determine a particular flight direction based on environmental cues that serve as landmarks on the Earth's surface, including longitudinally magnetic lines, the location and direction of the sun and other celestial objects, or prevailing wind direction and odors.

In vector navigation individuals arrive at a given destination by maintaining a compass direction (or directions) for a predetermined amount of time or distance. Dead reckoning is the process of estimating one’s present position by projecting course and speed from a known past position. Honey bees for instance communicate the location of profitable nectora sources to hive mates. Using a waggle dance they are able to transmit codes for direction and distance.

European Starlings from much of continental Europe overwinter on the channels coast of France and Britain. A group of banded individuals was moved from one part of Europe to a more western geographic location. This transfer would now require a ninety degree change in direction to reach their traditional wintering grounds. Adult starlings were admirably able to perform that course adjustment and returned at their normal wintering range. Newly-hatched juveniles, however, which had never made the trip before, continued to fly their traditional southwesterly direction and ended up on the coast of Spain.

Sahara desert ants (Cataglyphis) are scavengers. They forage for the corpses of insects and other arthropods which have succumbed to the heat stress of their desert environment. While no known land animal can live permanently at a temperature over 50 °C, Sahara desert ants can sustain a body temperature well above 50 °C with surface temperatures of up to 70 °C. This ant ventures far from its burrow in the Sahara desert, which has almost no identifiable features. While venturing out it periodically takes measurements of its angle in respect to the Sun. By doing this the ant can venture far from its nest in search of food. Because of the blistering heat, it can only do this for about 3–5 minutes/day (the hottest time of the day, when all its predators are in hiding from the sun). In addition to obtaining information on outwards, directional angles, the ant appears to measure distances using an internal pedometer to count its steps. When the ant finds a dead insect it calculates the shortest route back to the nest through vector averaging.

Pilotage
Pilotage includes the use of fixed visual references to guide oneself to a destination. It refines simple dead reckoning navigation by incorporating knowledge of specific landmarks. Tinbergen explored digger wasps's (Philanthus triangulum) ability to return to the entrance tunnel of a specific nest site containing a developing larva. The wasp catches bees on hunting trips and returns this food to the offspring. While the wasp was in the burrow, Tinbergen placed a circle of pine cones around the entrance. When the wasp emerged it completed several circles around the entrance area before flying off. Tinbergen then moved the pine cones to the side of the nest and waited for the wasp to return from hunting. Upon return the wasp flew to the center of the pine cone circle even though that had been moved during her absence.

Radar images show that migrating bird flocks drift off courses in a strong crosswind, except for flocks that travel along distinct landmarks, such as rivers, coast lines, or mountain ridges. Landmarks may also arise from specific atmospheric conditions and distinct geographic features, such as Point Pelee, which jutts into Lake Erie and serves as key staging ground for migrating hawks in search of updrafts.

Visual Orientation refers to the use of geographic landmarks (rivers, coastlines, ridges, etc.). Diurnal migrants often follow such landmarks, generally of lesser importance for nocturnal migrants, although there are documented cases of nocturnal migrants following rivers or coastlines. This may be particularly important for navigation to a precise breeding or wintering locality.

Map-based (True) Navigation
Map-based navigation refers to an organism’s ability to (1) acquire a mental representation of the spatial layout of its environment, (2) to position itself within it, and (3) to determine its own position relative to a goal location. The individual is able to extrapolate this information about the surrounding even when it finds itself in an unfamiliar setting. Orienting mechanisms include mosaic and gradient maps. A cognitive map refers to an internal representation of the spatial relationships between objects in an animal’s surroundings.

Mosaic map navigation involves being able to tell what landmarks are around the goal location and how these landmarks are situated relative to each other. Successful orientation is achieved by the use of landmarks and their spatial arrangement. This generally works better on a small scale and, for many animals, the animal must be in range of its goal in order to make use of the mosaic map. An animal may use landmarks by learning how locations are spaced relative to each other. An animal at Reference Point A may recognize that its goal will be on the left. Alternatively, an animal may sum up vectors such that it learns that Point A is located 20 km distant from Reference Point B.

Gradient map navigation involves predictable variation in two geophysical gradients that run perpendicular to each (i.e., bi-coordinate map). In this fashion an animal may acquire information about its current x and y coordinates along with knowledge about the x and y values of a destination, allowing it to plot a path from the former to the latter. Examples of gradients may integrate magnetic, olfactory, or infrasound information to do this. A magnetic map utilizes the Earth’s magnetic field which acts like a large bar magnet. Consequentially, this allows for any point on Earth to be defined as a vector that is made up of intensity (the length) and direction (the horizontal and vertical components). An olfactory map is formed by certain scents that are typically only found in certain areas on Earth. This may include an area of land that is surrounded by a body of water on three of its four sides (i.e., Italy). An infrasound map may use low frequency sounds from waves crashing on the beach, mountains nearby, or similar acoustic instances. Pigeons have become disoriented when in a “zone of silence”, possibly due to their need to navigate via an infrasound map. Other animals that are known to take use of low frequency sounds include whales, elephants, and insects. An integrated map combines a combination of sensory cues in navigational tasks.

A variety of animals have been shown to use cognitive maps, including sand hoppers, ants, honey bees, lobsters, sting rays, tuna fish, salmon, newts, sea turtles, mole rats, migratory birds (European robins, garden warblers, etc.), pigeons, and sea birds (Wilson’s storm petrels, sooty terns, etc). Indigo Buntings are able to navigate by the position of celestial objects. In order to obtain precise locations they must be able to estimate altitude and azimuth relative to the horizon, in combination with precise timing information.

title: Animal Behavior/Orienting


text:
Horticulture/Taxus

Yews are small coniferous trees or shrubs in the yew family (Taxaceae). They are relatively slow growing and can be very long-lived, and reach heights of 1-40 m, with trunk diameters of up to 4 m. All species of yew contain highly poisonous alkaloids known as taxanes, with some variation in the exact formula of the alkaloid between the species. All parts of the tree except the arils contain the alkaloid. The arils are edible and sweet, but the seed is dangerously poisonous, and unlike birds, the human stomach can break down the seed coat and release the taxanes into the body. This can have fatal results if yew 'berries' are eaten without removing the seeds first. Grazing animals, particularly cattle and horses, are also sometimes found dead near yew trees after eating the leaves, though deer are able to break down the poisons and will eat yew foliage freely. In the wild, deer browsing of yews is often so extensive that wild yew trees are commonly restricted to cliffs and other steep slopes inaccessible to deer.

Description
They have reddish bark, lanceolate, flat, dark-green leaves 1-4 cm long and 2-3 mm broad, arranged spirally on the stem, but with the leaf bases twisted to align the leaves in two flat rows either side of the stem.

The seed cones are highly modified, each cone containing a single seed 4-7 mm long partly surrounded by a modified scale which develops into a soft, bright red berry-like structure called an aril, 8-15 mm long and wide and open at the end. The arils are mature 6-9 months after pollination, and with the seed contained are eaten by thrushes, waxwings and other birds, which disperse the hard seeds undamaged in their droppings; maturation of the arils is spread over 2-3 months, increasing the chances of successful seed dispersal. The male cones are globose, 3-6 mm diameter, and shed their pollen in early spring. Yews are mostly dioecious, but occasional individuals can be variably monoecious, or change sex with time.

Species
All of the yews are very closely related to each other, and some botanists treat them all as subspecies or varieties of just one widespread species; under this treatment, the species name used is Taxus baccata, the first yew described scientifically.

The most distinct is the Sumatran Yew (T. sumatrana, native from Sumatra and Celebes north to southernmost China), distinguished by its sparse, sickle-shaped yellow-green leaves. The Mexican Yew (T. globosa, native to eastern Mexico south to Honduras) is also relatively distinct with foliage intermediate between Sumatran Yew and the other species. The Florida Yew, Mexican Yew and Pacific Yew are all rare species listed as threatened or endangered.
 * ../Taxus baccata/ - European Yew
 * ../Taxus brevifolia/ - Pacific (or Western) Yew
 * ../Taxus canadensis/ - Canadian Yew
 * ../Taxus chinensis/ - Chinese Yew
 * ../Taxus cuspidata/ - Japanese Yew
 * ../Taxus floridana/ - Florida Yew
 * ../Taxus globosa/ - Mexican Yew
 * ../Taxus sumatrana/ - Sumatran Yew
 * ../Taxus wallichiana/ - Himalayan Yew

Uses
Yew wood is reddish brown (with whiter sapwood), and is very springy. It was traditionally used to make bows, especially the longbow. Ötzi, the Chalcolithic mummy found in 1991 in the Austrian alps, carried an unfinished longbow made of yew wood. Consequently, it is not surprising that, in Norse mythology, the god of the bow, Ullr's abode had the name Ydalir (Yew dales). Most longbow wood used in northern Europe was imported from the Iberian Peninsula, where climatic conditions are better for growing the knot-free yew wood required.

Yews are widely used in landscaping and ornamental horticulture. Over 400 cultivars of yews have been named, the vast majority of these being derived from European Yew, Japanese Yew and the hybrid between them (Taxus x media). The most popular of these are the "Irish Yew" (Taxus baccata 'Fastigiata'), a fastigiate cultivar of the European Yew, and the several variants with yellow leaves, collectively known as golden yew.

The Pacific Yew Taxus brevifolia, native to the Pacific Northwest of North America, and Canada Yew Taxus canadensis are the sources of paclitaxel, a chemotherapy drug used in breast and lung cancer treatments. Over-harvesting of the Pacific Yew for this drug has resulted in it becoming an endangered species, though the drug is now produced semi-synthetically from cultivated yews, without the need to further endanger the wild populations. The more common Canada yew, Taxus canadensis, is also being successfully harvested in northern Ontario, Québec and New Brunswick, and has become another major source of paclitaxel.

Pests and diseases
Needle ../Blights/ ../Leaf Drop/ ../Twig Blights/ Shpaeropsis ../Root Rot/ ../Dieback/, ../Root Rot/ ../Nematodes/ ../Scales/ ../Mealybugs/ ../Weevils/ ../Termites/ ../Ants/ ../Mites/
 * Herpotricha nigra
 * Sphaerulina taxi
 * Alternaria
 * Phyllosticta hysterella (sexual stage: Physalospora gregaria)
 * Pestalotia funerea
 * Honey Fungus, mushroom rot: Armillaria mellea
 * ../Pythium/
 * ../Phytophthora cinnamomi/
 * Criconemoides:
 * Rotylenchus:
 * California Red Scale: ../Aonidiella aurantii/
 * Oleander Scale: ../Aspidiotus nerii/
 * False Oleander Scale: ../Pseudaulacapsis cockerelli/
 * Cottony Taxus Scale: ../Pulvinaria floccifera/
 * Fletcher Scale: ../Parthenolecanium fletcheri/
 * Purple Scale: ../Lepidosaphes beckii/
 * Taxus Mealybug: ../Dysmicoccus wistariae/
 * Comstock Mealybug: ../Pseudococcus comstocki/
 * Grape Mealybug: ../Pseudococcus maritimus/
 * Strawberry Root Weevil: ../Otiorhynchus ovatus/
 * Black Vine Weevil: ../Otiorhynchus sulcatus/
 * Eastern Subterranean Termite: ../Reticulitermes flavipes/
 * Black Carpenter Ant: ../Camponotus pennsylvanicus/
 * Taxus Bud Mite: ../Cecidophyopsis psilapsis/

title: Horticulture/Taxus


text:
XForms/XML Databases

= Native XML Databases =

XForms works very well when the submit element can insert or update instance data directly into a database. This feature is supported by most native and hybrid databases.

There are over 30 Native XML databases in use today from both OpenSource and commercial vendors. One of the large factors that make some easier to integrate with XForms is the availability of a Rest interface so that your submit URL statement can be structured somewhat like this:

Where save is some XQuery file that has the instructions for saving the XML data into the appropriate table or collection.

title: XForms/XML Databases


text:
XForms/Delete Confirm

Motivation
Since users frequently spend a lot of time entering data, you want to make sure that if you allow them to delete that they didn't accidentally click on the delete or that they have selected the correct element when they do actually delete a part of the form.

This example uses the XForms  and   statements to conditionally display a delete confirmation dialog. This many not be the most elegant way of doing this. Ideally a future version of XForms will add a confirm="yes" option to the delete trigger. But till then you can use the following example.

Discussion
We use the XForms switch and case statements to reveal the confirmation dialog. The dialog also indicates what record is going to be deleted.

This example does not use CSS to have the dialog appear to display in a separate window above the form. This can be done by wrapping the dialog in divs and styling the divs with CSS.

In the future our hope is that a the delete tag will have a confirmation option such as

Where the message displayed would be a confirmation message.

title: XForms/Delete Confirm


text:
Talk:Sexual Health/Sexuality

Use of word "Dildo"
I want to raise a short discussion about this edit. I was not under the impression that, used correctly, the word "dildo" was crude or offensive. Simply using the term "sex toy" for all possible toys seems to be overly generalized. is "Dildo" crude or offensive? --Whiteknight (talk) (projects) 15:26, 19 March 2007 (UTC)

title: Talk:Sexual Health/Sexuality


text:
User talk:208.67.143.116

In particular I am referring to Heat Transfer book, if you had a reason for deleting large sections could you please assert it on the talk page? Until then I have reverted your edits for the above reasons. Thank you for understanding. Mattb112885 (talk) 16:00, 19 March 2007 (UTC)

title: User talk:208.67.143.116


text:
Horticulture/Iris

Iris is a genus of between 200-300 species of flowering plants with showy flowers which takes its name from the Greek word for a rainbow, referring to the wide variety of flower colours found among the many species. As well as being the scientific name, iris is also very widely used as a common name and refers to all Iris species as well as some closely related genera.

The genus is widely distributed throughout the north temperate zone. Their habitats are considerably varied, ranging from cold regions into the grassy slopes, meadowlands, stream banks and deserts of Europe, the Middle East and northern Africa, Asia and across North America.

Description
They are perennial herbs, growing from creeping rhizomes (rhizomatous irises), or, in drier climates, from bulbs (bulbous irises). They have long, erect, flowering stems, which may be simple or branched, solid or hollow, and flattened or have a circular cross-section. The rhizomatous species usually have 3-10 basal, sword-shaped leaves growing in dense clumps. The bulbous species have cylindrical basal leaves.

The leaves are simple, narrow, 2-ranked, and flat with parallel veins. The leaves are actually folded over and fused, so that only the underside of the leaf is exposed. Sword shaped or linear.

The inflorescences are borne on stiff, pithy scapes, are fan-shaped and contain one or more symmetrical, six-lobed, slightly fragrant flowers. These grow on a pedicel or lack a footstalk. The three sepals are spreading or droop downwards. They expand from their narrow base into a broader limb (= expanded portion), often adorned with lines or dots. The three, sometimes reduced, petals stand upright, partly behind the sepal bases. Some smaller iris species have all six lobes pointing straight outwards. The sepals and the petals differ from each other. They are united at their base into a floral tube, that lies above the ovary. The styles divide towards the apex into petaloid branches (see pollination, below).

Irises come with their own lingo that describes the various forms of the flowers, falling into one of three categories. They appear to have 9 tepals, but in fact have only 6 (the other three are the style arms). The upright tepals are called standards, while the pendant ones are called falls.

The iris flower is of special interest as an example of the relation between flowering plants and pollinating insects. The shape of the flower and the position of the pollen-receiving and stigmatic surfaces on the outer petals form a landing-stage for a flying insect, which in probing the perianth for nectar, will first come in contact of perianth, three with the stigmatic stamens in one whorl surface which is borne and an ovary formed of three carpels. The shelf-like transverse projection on the inner whorl under side of the stamens, which is beneath the over-arching style arm below the stigma, so that the insect comes in contact with its pollen-covered surface only after passing the stigma, while in backing out of the flower it will come in contact only with the non-receptive lower face of the stigma. Thus, an insect bearing pollen from one flower, will in entering a second, deposit the pollen on the stigma, while in backing out of a flower, the pollen which it bears will not be rubbed off on the stigma of the same flower.

The fruits are 3-celled capsules, 3 or 6 angled, opening on 3 valves, leathery, smooth, ribed, or bumpy, persisting often past the winter.

Species
Up to 300 species have been placed in the genus Iris. Modern classifications, starting with W. R. Dykes' 1913 book, have subdivided them. Dykes referred to the major subgroupings as sections, but later authors have generally called them subgenera, while essentially retaining his groupings. Like some older sources, the influential classification by G. I. Rodionenko removed some groups (particularly the bulbous irises) to separate genera, but even if this is done the genus remains large and several subgenera, sections and/or subsections are recognised within it.

For horticultural purposes, the Irises are divided into the bulbous and rhizomatous species, and the Iris flowers fall into one of three classifications:

“Bearded Iris” has a pattern of hairs (the beard) in a differently colored patch is showy on the basal half or the falls.

“Unbearded Iris” has a differently colored patch (the signal) is showy on the basal half of the falls.

“Crested Iris” has a differently colored patch with a prominently raised hairy midrib (the crest) which is showy on the falls.

Uses
Primarily grown for their flowers, though some are also grown for their clean, upright foliage. Often grown for cut flowers as well.

Rhizomes of the bearded iris are the source of orris root and are used in perfume and medicine, though more common in ancient times than today. Today Iris essential oil (absolute) from flowers are sometimes used in Aromatherapy as sedative medicines. The dried rhizomes are also given whole to babies to help in teething.

For making perfumes, the rhizomes are harvested, dried, and aged for up to 5 years. In this time, the fats and oils inside the roots undergo degradation and oxidation, which produces many fragrant compounds that are invaluable in perfumery. The scent is said to be similar to violets. The aged rhizomes are steamed distilled which produces a thick oily compound, known in the perfume industry as iris butter.

Maintenance
Rhizomatous irises need to be divided every few years, as the centers die out after a time, leaving only a "ring" of foliage and flowers around the edge of the dead center. Planting depth is important, as the rhizomes do not tolerate being buried.

Voles can cause serious damage, particularly during the winter, so monitor carefully during the winter months.

Iris foliage emerges very early, so the previous year's foliage should be cut back before thaw when possible.

Propagation
Division is the most common form of propagation.

title: Horticulture/Iris


text:
Wikijunior:How Things Work/Pencil

Who Invented It?
The most primitive type of pencil is believed to be the stylus, which was a thin metal stick, often made from lead and used for scratching in a layer of wax contained in a wooden frame in Roman Usage or scratching on papyrus, a form of early paper. They were used extensively by the ancient Egyptians and Romans. The word pencil comes from the Latin word pencillus which means "little tail".

What is it made of?

All pencils have these two parts:
 * Barrel: The barrel is usually made of wood and occasionally made of clay, recycled paper, or recycled plastic. It is the largest, heaviest part of the pencil and provides a surface to hold.

Some pencils have an extra accessory:
 * Lead: The "lead" is so named because when pencils were first invented, this part was made of elemental lead. Now this part is made of graphite, a form of elemental carbon where the carbon atoms are arranged in thin sheets.  Friction between the graphite and paper-like surface causes tiny flakes of graphite to come off and become attached to the surface.  To prevent smearing, the graphite is mixed with a small amount of clay to harden it and make it easier to work with.
 * Eraser: The eraser allows the user of the pencil to manually and mechanically delete, by rubbing away, the unwanted marks from a surface. The eraser is attached to the barrel with a metal collar, called a ferrule. This device was first introduced by Hymen Lipman on March 30, 1858, receiving the first patent for attaching an eraser to the end of a pencil. Lipman sold his patent in 1862 to Joseph Reckendorfer for $100,000, who went to sue the pencil manufacturer Faber for infringement. In 1875 the Supreme Court of the United States ruled against Reckendorfer, declaring the patent invalid.
 * Sharpener: A sharpener allows the user of the pencil to make their pencil sharper especially when it's blunt and scraping on the paper, this makes the pencil shorter. (pictured)

Types
Some types of pencils are:
 * Graphite pencils: These are the most commonly found pencils. They are made up of a mixture of clay and graphite.
 * Mechanical pencils: These pencils push the lead through a small opening using mechanical methods. They are popular because they do not need to be sharpened and the lead is replaceable.
 * Pop-a-point pencils: This type of pencil is also known as non-sharpening pencils. In this type many sharp points are placed in the body of the pencil. When one point becomes blunt, it is removed and inserted at the top of the body. This causes the next sharp point to appear from the writing end of the body.

How is it used?
Pencils can be used for a variety of purposes, some productive, others not. The obvious use is to write letters to intimate friends, or teachers and principles. The graphite, however, usually makes the paper rather messy as it is folded, and this is not always the most exciting method of intimacy. Another use for a pencil is the popular game of slap, a game that middle school children reportedly still play today. The object of the game is to take turns slapping an opponents pencil with the tip of one's own pencil in succession. The first pencil to break loses.

Pencils sometimes fall into the role of a chew-toy, most humans when nervous or absent in their thoughts, will bite a pencil (or similar object, failing to have one the nails are also a common choice), in this way most people can easily identify and personalize their pencils, this can also be considered as imparting a type of protection to the object, since any other person would probably object using that pencil in the future (it is of importance to note that a complete destruction of the object as a result of this action is rarely seen, and due to the hardness of the wooden barrel, quite difficult).

Thus, the pencil was a good friend to many people when it came out. Sadly, as newer methods of writing have emerged, the pencil has been relegated to lesser status and uses. People now write messages on computer screens, never having to come close to a sharpener. One can only wonder what the keyboard will become when something newer comes along.

How Dangerous is it?
The graphite used in pencils was originally thought to be lead. The term lead is still used to refer to the core of pencils even though that isn't actually what it is.

The "lead" in pencils is actually graphite and it is not dangerous if accidentally ingested. But if it happens to puncture you or cut you, wash your wound with peroxide to kill the germs.

title: Wikijunior:How Things Work/Pencil


text:
User talk:Thatgadgetgirl

This is a test

Welcome!!!!
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Good luck!-- SB_Johnny | talk 21:14, 19 March 2007 (UTC)

I saw you made some really nice edits to Human_Physiology/The_Nervous_System! Please stick around!-- SB_Johnny | talk 21:14, 19 March 2007 (UTC)

ThatGadgetGirl--Who are you?
I appreciate all the editing you are doing. You probably sent me your wikiname already, but I must have forgotten it. Could you email me, or tell me on my talk page, to let me know your name for grading purposes? Thanks, Kevin Provophys 01:28, 21 March 2007 (UTC)

title: User talk:Thatgadgetgirl


text:
Talk:Horticulture/Iris

There are six subgenera, of which five are restricted to the Old World, and the sixth (subgenus Limniris) with a Holarctic distribution; the two largest subgenera are further divided into sections.
 * Iris subgenus Iris: bearded irises, growing from rhizomes.
 * Iris subgenus Iris sect. Iris
 * Iris albertii Regel
 * Iris albicans Lange
 * Iris aphylla L. – Stool Iris
 * Iris attica (Boiss. & Heldr.) Hayek
 * Iris cypriana Foster & Baker
 * Iris germanica L. – German Iris
 * Iris imbricata Lindl.
 * Iris lutescens Lam. – Crimean Iris
 * Iris marsica I.Ricci & Colas.
 * Iris mesopotamica – Mesopotamian Iris
 * Iris pallida Lam. – Sweet Iris
 * Iris pumila L.
 * Iris reichenbachii Heuff.
 * Iris sambucina L.
 * Iris scariosa Willd. ex Link
 * Iris schachtii Markgr.
 * Iris suaveolens Boiss. & Reut.
 * Iris subbiflora Brot.
 * Iris taochia Woronow ex Grossh.
 * Iris variegata L. – Hungarian Iris
 * Iris subgenus Iris sect. Oncocyclus
 * Iris acutiloba C.A.Mey.
 * Iris assadiana Chaudhary, Kirkw. & C. Weymolauth
 * Iris atrofusca Bak.
 * Iris atropurpurea Bak.
 * Iris barnumae Bak. & Fost.
 * Iris bismarckiana Reg.
 * Iris camillae Grossh.
 * Iris gatesii Foster
 * Iris haynei (Bak.) Mallet.
 * Iris iberica Hoffm.
 * Iris loretii Barbey.
 * Iris mariae Barbey.
 * Iris meda Stapf
 * Iris paradoxa Steven
 * Iris petrana Dinsm.
 * Iris sari Schott ex Bak.
 * Iris sofarana Fost.
 * Iris susiana L. – Mourning Iris
 * Iris subgenus Iris sect. Psammiris
 * Iris bloudowii Ledeb.
 * Iris humilis Georgi
 * Iris subgenus Iris sect. Hexapogon
 * Iris falcifolia Bunge
 * Iris longiscapa Ledeb.
 * Iris subgenus Iris sect. Pseudoregelia
 * Iris goniocarpa Bak.
 * Iris hookeriana Fost.
 * Iris kamaonensis Wall.
 * Iris tigrida Bunge ex Ledeb.
 * Iris subgenus Iris sect. Regelia
 * Iris hoogiana Dykes
 * Iris korolkowii Regel
 * Iris stolonifera Maxim.

 * Iris subgenus Limniris: beardless irises, growing from rhizomes.
 * Iris subgenus Limniris sect. Limniris
 * Iris bracteata S.Wats. – Siskiyou Iris
 * Iris brevicaulis Raf. – Zigzag Iris
 * Iris bulleyana Dykes
 * Iris caespitosa Pall. & Link
 * Iris chrysographes Dykes
 * Iris chrysophylla T.J.Howell – Yellowleaf Iris
 * Iris clarkei Bak.
 * Iris crocea Jacquem. ex R.C.Foster
 * Iris delavayi Micheli
 * Iris douglasiana Herbert – Douglas Iris
 * Iris ensata Thunb. – Russian Iris
 * Iris fernaldii R.C.Foster – Fernald's Iris
 * Iris foetidissima L. – Stinking Iris
 * Iris forrestii Dykes
 * Iris fulva Ker-Gawl. – Copper Iris
 * Iris giganticaerulea Small – Giant Blue Iris
 * Iris graminea L.
 * Iris grant-duffii Bak.
 * Iris hartwegii Baker – Hartweg's Iris
 * Iris hexagona Walt. – Dixie Iris
 * Iris innominata Henderson – Del Norte Iris
 * Iris kerneriana Asch. & Sint.
 * Iris koreana Nakai
 * Iris lactea Pall.
 * Iris laevigata Fisch. – Rabbitear Iris
 * Iris lazica Albov
 * Iris loczyi Kanitz
 * Iris longipetala Herb.
 * Iris lorea Jank.
 * Iris macrosiphon Torr. – Bowltube Iris
 * Iris missouriensis Nutt. – Rocky Mountain Iris
 * Iris monnieri DC.
 * Iris munzii R.C. Foster – Munz's Iris
 * Iris nelsonii Randolph – Abbeville iris
 * Iris orientalis Mill. – Yellowband Iris
 * Iris pontica Zapal.
 * Iris prismatica Pursh ex Ker-Gawl. – Slender Blue Iris
 * Iris pseudacorus L. – Yellow Iris
 * Iris purdyi Eastw. – Purdy's Iris
 * Iris ruthenica Ker-Gawl.
 * Iris sanguinea Hornem. ex Donn – Japanese Iris - ja:アヤメ
 * Iris setosa Pallas ex Link – Beachhead Iris
 * Iris sibirica L. – Siberian Iris
 * Iris sintenisii Janka
 * Iris spuria L. – Seashore Iris
 * Iris tenax Dougl. ex Lindl. – Toughleaf Iris
 * Iris tenuifolia Pall.
 * Iris tenuissima Dykes – Longtube Iris
 * Iris tridentata Pursh – Savanna Iris
 * Iris unguicularis Poir.
 * Iris verna L. – Dwarf Violet Iris
 * Iris versicolor L. – Harlequin Blueflag
 * Iris virginica L. – Virginia Iris
 * Iris wilsonii C.H.Wright
 * Iris subgenus Limniris sect. Lophiris
 * Iris confusa Sealy
 * Iris cristata Ait. – Crested Iris
 * Iris gracilipes A.Gray
 * Iris japonica Thunb.
 * Iris lacustris Nutt. – Dwarf Lake Iris
 * Iris milesii Foster
 * Iris tectorum Maxim. – Wall Iris
 * Iris tenuis S.Wats. – Clackamas Iris
 * Iris wattii Baker ex Hook.f.

 * Iris subgenus Xiphium (syn. genus Xiphion), a group of bulbous irises.
 * Iris subgenus Xiphium sect. Xiphium
 * Iris boissieri Henriq
 * Iris filifolia Boiss.
 * Iris juncea Poir.
 * Iris latifolia Mill.
 * Iris serotina Willk. in Willk. & Lange
 * Iris tingitana Boiss. & Reut. – Morocco Iris
 * Iris xiphium L. – Spanish Iris. or Dutch Iris

 * Iris subgenus Nepalensis (syn. genus Junopsis); also bulbous.
 * Iris subgenus Nepalensis sect. Nepalensis
 * Iris collettii Hook.
 * Iris decora Wall.

 * Iris subgenus Scorpiris (syn. genus Juno); also bulbous.
 * Iris subgenus Scorpiris sect. Scorpiris
 * Iris albomarginata R.C.Foster
 * Iris aucheri (Baker) Sealy
 * Iris bucharica Foster
 * Iris caucasica Hoffm.
 * Iris cycloglossa Wendelbo
 * Iris fosteriana Aitch. & Baker
 * Iris graeberiana Tubergen ex Sealy
 * Iris magnifica Vved.
 * Iris palaestina (Bak.) Boiss.
 * Iris persica L.
 * Iris planifolia (Mill.) Fiori & Paol.
 * Iris pseudocaucasica Grossh.
 * Iris regis-uzziae Feinbrun
 * Iris rosenbachiana Reg.
 * Iris vicaria Vved.

 * Iris subgenus Hermodactyloides (syn. genus Iridodictyum); also bulbous.
 * Iris subgenus Hermodactyloides sect. Hermodactyloides
 * Iris bakeriana Foster
 * Iris danfordiae (Baker) Boiss.
 * Iris histrio Rchb.f.
 * Iris histrioides (G.F.Wilson) S.Arn.
 * Iris reticulata Bieb.
 * Iris vartanii Fost.
 * Iris winogradowii Fomin

Some authors regard the Snake's Head Iris as lying outside genus Iris, and classify it as Hermodactylus tuberosus.

(the text below was left as an editors' note on wikipedia)

--(for transfer to species accounts when pages for them are started:)

 * Iris albicans, known as the white flag iris or the cemetery iris, has been cultivated since ancient times and may be the oldest iris in cultivation. Collected by Lange in 1860, it has been in cultivation since at least 1400 BC. Originating from Yemen and Saudi Arabia, it appears in a wall painting of the Botantical Garden of Tuthmosis III in the Temple of Amun at Karnak in ancient Thebes dated around 1426 BC. It grows to 30-60 cm tall and is fragrant.
 * Iris foetidissima, the Foetid Iris, the Xyris or stinking gladdon of Gerard, is a native of England south of Durham and also of Ireland, southern Europe and North Africa. Its flowers are usually of a dull, leaden-blue colour; the capsules, which remain attached to the plant throughout the winter, are 5-8 cm long; and the seeds scarlet. When bruised this species emits a peculiar and disagreeable odour.
 * Iris orienii Orjen iris, a close relative to Iris pallida. An endemic alpine species with white flowers found in the karst mountain Orjen in Montenegro. It is very rare and protected.
 * Iris pallida Dalmatian iris, Sweet iris; native to the Illyrian coast (former Yugoslavia) but widely naturalised elsewhere. Iris pallida is cultivated for extraction of essential oils from its rhizome orris root. Prefers rocky places in the mediterranean and submediterranean zone and reaches sometimes montane regions at its southern range in Montenegro. Four varieties (regularly described as separate species) are recognised with one possible new alpine species having white flowers. The variety with deep purplish flowers from Northern Italy and the Slovenian alps is called Iris cengialti.
 * Iris reichenbachii Reichenbach iris is a small bearded alpine iris from the Balkan peninsula. Specimens from the west Balkans are much smaller than those from Greece and the eastern Balkans.
 * Iris reticulata and Iris persica, both of which are fragrant, are also popular with florists.
 * Iris versicolor, or Blue Flag, is indigenous to North America, and yields "iridin", a powerful hepatic stimulant.
 * Iris xiphium, the Spanish Iris (also known as Dutch Iris) and
 * Iris xiphioides, the English Iris. Despite the common name of  I xiphioides, both are of Spanish origin, and have very showy flowers, so they are popular with gardeners and florists.  They are among the hardier bulbous irises, and can be grown in northern Europe.  They require to be planted in thoroughly drained beds in very light open soil, moderately enriched, and should have a rather sheltered position. Both these present a long series of beautiful varieties of the most diverse colours, flowering in May, June and July, the smaller Spanish iris being the earlier of the two.  --

Cultivation (from wp: mostly about individual species)
Irises are extensively grown as ornamental plants in gardens. The most commonly found garden iris is the bearded German Iris and its numerous cultivars. Various wild forms and naturally occurring hybrids of Iris pallida and I. variegata form the basis of most all modern hybrid bearded iris. Median forms of bearded iris [intermediate bearded (IB), miniature tall bearded (MTB), etc] are derived from crosses between tall and dwarf varieties. Other iris types commonly found in garden are I. siberica and its hybrids (Siberian irises) and I. ensata and its hybrids (Japanese irises).

The bearded irises are easy to cultivate and propagate, and have become very popular in gardens. They grow in any good free garden soil, the smaller and more delicate species needing only the aid of turf ingredients, either peat or loam, to keep it light and open in texture. The earliest to bloom are the dwarf forms of Iris pumila, which blossom during March, April and May; and during the latter month and the following one most of the larger growing 'tall bearded' varieties, such as I. germanica, florentina, pallida, variegata, amoena, flavescens, sambucina, neglecta, ruthenica and their modern hybrids.

It should be noted that a true red standard, tall bearded Iris remains an unattained goal of frequent hybridizing and selection. There are species and selections thereof, most notably, Iris fulva, which has a relatively pure red color. However, getting this color into a modern Iris breed has proven very difficult, and thus, the vast majority of Irises are in the purple\blue range of the color spectrum.

The section Iris subgen. Iris sect. Oncocyclus contains the cushion or royal irises, a group of plants noted for their large, strongly marked flowers. Between 30 and 60 species are classified in this section, depending on the authority. Compared with other irises the cushion varieties are scantily furnished with narrow sickle shaped leaves and the flowers are usually borne singly on the stalks. The closely allied Iris subgenus Iris sect. Regelia, includes several garden hybrids with species in sect. Oncocyclus, known as "Regelio-cyclus" irises. They are best planted in September or October in warm sunny positions, the rhizomes being lifted the following July after the leaves have withered.

Iris unguicularis (syn. I. stylosa) is a late winter flowering species from Algeria, with sky-blue flowers blotched with yellow, produced (in the Northern Hemisphere) from November to March or April.

Many other smaller species of bulbous iris, being liable to perish from excess of moisture, should have a well-drained bed of good but porous soil made up for them, in some sunny spot, and in winter should be protected by a covering of half-decayed leaves or fresh coco-fibre refuse. To this set belong I. milifolia, I. junonia, I. danfordiae, I. reichenbachii and others which flower as early as February and March.

The cushion irises are somewhat fastidious growers, and to be successful with them they must be planted rather shallow in very gritty well-drained soil. They should not be disturbed in the autumn, and after the leaves have withered the roots should be protected from heavy rains until growth starts again naturally.

title: Talk:Horticulture/Iris