Wikipedia:Picture of the day/October 2005

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The central electrode of a Plasma lamp, showing a glowing blue plasma streaming upwards. The colors are a result of the radiative recombination of electrons and ions and the relaxation of electrons in excited states back to lower energy states. These processes emit light in a spectrum characteristic of the gas being excited.

Photo credit: PiccoloNamek
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Carts have many different shapes but the basic idea of transporting material (or maintaining a collection of materials in a portable fashion) remains. Carts usually have two or four wheels. Those with four wheels (also known as drays or wagons) will often have a pivoting front axle that has a pole connected to the collars or yoke of the two guiding draught animals.

Photo credit: Fir0002
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Magnetic resonance imaging is a commonly used form of medical imaging which creates images of the inside of opaque organs in living organisms and detects the amount of bound water in geological structures. It is primarily used to visualise alterations of living tissues. A functional MRI scan (shown in the image) measures signal changes in the brain that are due to changing neural activity.

Image credit: Fastfission
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The geography of India is extremely diverse, with landscape ranging from snow-capped mountain ranges to deserts, plains, hills and plateaus. Climate ranges from equatorial in the far south, to tundra in the Himalayan altitudes. The Pangong Lake in Ladakh is a fine example of a mountain lake in the Himalayas.

Photo credit: Martin Louis
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1980 eruption of Mount St. Helens, Washington, US. Mount St. Helens from Monitor Ridge showing the cone of devastation, the huge crater open to the north, and the post eruption lava dome inside it. The small photos were taken from Spirit Lake before and after the eruption. Spirit Lake can also be seen in the larger image, as well as two other Cascade volcanos.

Image credit: Daniel Mayer, U.S. Forest Service and USGS
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Mist is a phenomenon of a liquid in small droplets floating through air. It can occur naturally as part of normal weather or volcanic activity, and is common in cold air above hot water, in exhaled air in the cold, and in a steam room of a sauna. It can also be created artificially with aerosol canisters.

Photo credit: Fir0002
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A newborn joey (baby kangaroo) in its mother's pouch. Kangaroo babies are born at a very early stage of development after a gestation of 31-36 days. At this stage, only the forelimbs are somewhat developed, to allow the newborn to climb to the pouch and attach to a teat. It will not re-emerge for several months, during which time it develops fully.

Photo credit: Geoff Shaw
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Sochi is the most popular Russian resort, situated in the Krasnodar Krai, near the Russian border with Abkhazia, Georgia. It is located in a spectacular natural setting with snow-capped peaks of the Caucasus mountains overlooking the Black Sea.

This picture of the sunset at Sochi, taken by Prokudin-Gorskii in 1915, is an example of early colour photography.

Photo credit: Sergei Mikhailovich Prokudin-Gorskii
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The Mallard, also known in North America as the Wild Duck, is a common and widespread dabbling duck which breeds throughout the temperate and sub-tropical areas. It is probably the best-known of all ducks. The females are light brown, with plumage much like most female dabbling ducks. They can be distinguished from other ducks, by the distinctive speculum.

Photo credit: Martin Correns
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The LG-118A Peacekeeper missile system being tested at the Kwajalein Atoll in the Marshall Islands. The Peacekeeper can carry up to ten re-entry vehicles, each armed with a nuclear warhead with the explosive power of up to 300 kilotons, 25 times the power of the bomb dropped on Hiroshima at the end of World War II). Under the unratified START II treaty, all are to be removed from service by 2005.

Photo credit: U.S. Army Forces Strategic Command
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The Senufo languages (Senoufo in Francophone usage) comprise ca. 15 languages spoken by the Senufo in the north of Côte d'Ivoire, the southeast of Mali and the southwest of Burkina Faso. An isolated language, Nafaanra, is also spoken in the northwest of Ghana.

The Senufo languages are like Gur languages in that they have a suffixal noun class system and that verbs are marked for aspect. Most Gur languages to the north of Senufo have a two tone downstep system, but the tonal system of the Senufo languages is mostly analysed as a three level tone system.

Photo credit: Mark Dingemanse
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A red sunset. The red-hue is explained by the phenomenon of Rayleigh scattering. The sunset is often more brightly coloured than the sunrise because there is more dust at the end of the day than at its beginning. Because the light from the Sun is bent by the variable density of the Earth's atmosphere, the Sun is still seen after it is below the horizon.

Photo credit: Fir0002
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A Lynx is any of several medium-sized wild cats. Lynxes have short tails, and usually a tuft of hair on the tip of the ears. They have large paws padded for walking on snow, and long whiskers on the face. The lynx inhabits high altitude forests with dense cover of shrubs, reeds and grass.

Photo credit: Bernard Landgraf
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In the life cycle of a frog, a female lays her eggs in a shallow pond or creek, where they will be sheltered from the current and from predators. The eggs, known as frogspawn, hatch into tadpoles. The tadpoles develop gradually into adolescent froglets and finally the froglet develops into an adult frog.

Photo credit: Tarquin
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A skull, or cranium, is a bony structure of vertebrates which serves as the general framework for a head. The skull supports the structures of the face and protects the brain against injury.

This example of a hippopotamus 's skull also shows the large canine teeth, used for fighting, which can grow up to 50 cm long.

Photo credit: Raul654
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For five years after their completion in 1998, the Petronas Towers in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, were the world's tallest buildings. The architectural design by César Pelli includes motifs found in Islamic art — a reflection of Malaysia's Muslim heritage.

In an unusual move, a different construction company was contracted to build each tower and set to compete against each other. The builders of Tower 2 won the race, despite starting a month behind Tower 1.

Photo credit: Ángel Riesgo Martínez
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A Hansom cab is a kind of horse- drawn carriage first designed and patented in 1834 by Joseph Hansom, an architect from Leicestershire, England. Its purpose was to combine speed with safety, with a low center of gravity that was essential for safe cornering. The Hansom Cab was introduced to the United States during the late 19th century, and was most commonly used there in New York City.

Photo credit: Solipsist
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Goa is India's smallest state in terms of area and the fourth smallest in terms of population. It is located on the west coast of India, in the region known as the Konkan. The state is divided into two districts: North Goa (purple shades) and South Goa (orange shades) and the districts are further divided into eleven talukas. Panjim is the state's capital, and Vasco da Gama (Vasco) its largest town.

Photo credit: Nichalp
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Henry Moore was an influential 20th century sculptor who helped to introduce modernism into Britain. By the end of his life, Moore was internationally famous for his abstract monumental bronze and carved marble sculptures. Reclining Figure (1951), an abstract female figure intercut with voids, is typical of Moore's style.

Photo credit: Solipsist
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A coconut shy is a traditional game frequently found as a sidestall at funfairs and fêtes. The game consists of throwing wooden balls at a row of coconuts balanced on posts. The origins of the game are unclear, although it probably derives from the similar, older game called Aunt Sally.

Photo credit: Solipsist
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"Promenade des Anglais" in Nice, a major tourist centre and a leading resort on the French Riviera - Côte d'Azur. During the middle ages Nice had its share in the wars and disasters of Italy. As an ally of Pisa it was the enemy of Genoa, and both the king of France and the emperor endeavoured to subjugate it; but in spite of all it maintained its municipal liberties.

Photo credit: W. M. Connolley
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The Red-whiskered Bulbul, Pycnonotus jocosus, is a member of the bulbul family. It is resident in tropical Asia from India through to southeast Asia and China. It has been introduced to New South Wales, Mauritius and Florida. These passerine birds feed on fruit, nectar and insects. The loud and evocative call is a sharp kink-a-joo, and the song is a scolding chatter.

Photo credit: Shiva shankar
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Takakkaw Falls is a group of three waterfalls located in Yoho National Park, near Field, British Columbia, in Canada. Its highest point is 309 m (1016 feet), making it the second-highest waterfall in Canada, after Della Falls on Vancouver Island. "Takakkaw" is pronounced TA-kuh-koh, from the Cree word for "magnificent."

Photo credit: Michael Rogers
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Controlling fire was one of the first great achievements of humankind. It made possible migration to colder climates which otherwise would have remained out of reach for colonization. It allowed for cooking food and using flame and heat to process materials. Archeological studies indicates that ancestors of modern humans such as Homo erectus may have been using controlled fire as early as 790,000 years ago.

Photo credit: Fir0002
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The Snowy Egret is a small white heron. It is the American counterpart to the very similar Old World Little Egret, which has established a foothold in the Bahamas. These birds stalk their prey in shallow water, often running or shuffling their feet, flushing prey into view. Snowy egrets may also stand still and wait to ambush prey.

Photo credit: David Hall USFWS
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Nattō (納豆) is a traditional Japanese dish made from fermented soybeans, popular especially at breakfast, when it is eaten on top of rice. A rich source of protein, nattō and the soybean paste miso formed a vital source of nutrition in feudal Japan. An acquired taste due to its powerful smell and sticky consistency, even in Japan nattō is consumed mostly in the eastern Kantō region.

Photo credit: Gleam
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The Silver Gull is the most common gull seen in Australia. It has been found throughout the continent, but particularly coastal areas. It has adapted well to urban environments, thriving around shopping centres and garbage dumps. Gulls are seabirds in the family Laridae. Most gulls, particularly Larus species, are ground nesting omnivores, which will take live food or scavenge opportunistically.

Photo credit: Fir0002
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Fire ants, like these Red Imported Fire Ants (Solenopsis invicta), are more aggressive than most native ant species and have a painful sting that is rarely life-threatening to humans and other large animals, but can kill smaller animals such as birds. Fire ants cannot be killed by flooding. If the ants sense a change in water levels in their nests, they will come together and form a huge ball that is able to float on the water and protects the queen in its center.

Photo credit: Scott Bauer
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Lightning is a powerful natural electrostatic discharge produced during a thunderstorm. Lightning's abrupt electric discharge is accompanied by the emission of visible light and other forms of electromagnetic radiation. The electric current passing through the discharge channels rapidly heats and expands the air into a plasma, producing acoustic shock waves (thunder) in the atmosphere.

Photo credit: Nelumadau
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Bees are flying insects, closely related to wasps and ants, that are adapted for feeding on nectar. They play an important role in pollinating flowering plants, and are called pollinators. Bees have a long proboscis that they use in order to obtain the nectar from flowers. They have two pairs of wings, the back pair being the smaller.

Photo credit: Fir0002
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The Caterpillar of the Large White butterfly. Caterpillars eat leaves voraciously, grow rapidly, shed their skins generally four or five times, and eventually pupate into an adult form. Caterpillars do not breathe through their mouths. Air enters their bodies through a series of small tubules along the sides of their thorax and abdomen. These tubules are called 'spiracles', and inside the body they connect together into a network of airtubes or 'tracheae'.

Photo credit: Sannse
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