Question: How many episodes are there in season 14 of Grey's Anatomy?

The fourteenth season of Grey's Anatomy, which premiered on September 28, 2017, with a two-hour special episode, was ordered by ABC on February 10, 2017. This season is comprised of 24 episodes, including the series' landmark 300th episode. Produced by ABC Studios, in collaboration with Shondaland Production Company and The Mark Gordon Company, the season is overseen by showrunners Krista Vernoff and William Harper.

Star Trek: Discovery premiered on September 19, 2017, at ArcLight Hollywood, before debuting on CBS and CBS All Access on September 24. The rest of the 15-episode first season was streamed weekly on All Access. The series' release led to record subscriptions for All Access, and positive reviews from critics who highlighted Martin-Green's performance. A second season was ordered in October 2017.

The second season consists of 22 episodes and premiered on September 18, 2006. Due to Richard and Christine spending more time together after his breakup with New Christine, Ritchie believes that his parents have gotten back together, much to his parents' dismay. Christine starts dating an older man whom she later discovers is New Christine's father. Richard and New Christine rekindle their romance once again. Barb decides to start working at the gym with Christine, while Christine falls hard for Ritchie's new teacher, Mr. Harris. The season finale included Richard sleeping with Christine after breaking up with New Christine yet again. This causes a pregnancy scare for Christine, which is soon avoided. Eventually, New Christine takes Richard back and Mr. Harris takes a new teaching job at another school, allowing him and Christine to start dating.

A total of 295 episodes over five seasons were recorded. A 296th episode was recorded, but not aired.

My Little Pony: Friendship Is Magic is a 2010 animated television series developed by Lauren Faust. The show premiered on the launch of The Hub in the United States on Sunday, October 10, 2010. As of September 9, 2017, 161 episodes have aired through the show's seven seasons. All episodes are 22 minutes and a season comprises 26 episodes, with the exception of Season 3, which contained 13 episodes. My Little Pony: Friendship Is Magic is produced by Hasbro Studios in the United States and DHX Media/Vancouver in Canada. In the United States, the series is rated TV-Y. A seventh season has been announced by Hasbro, with episodes to broadcast in April 2017.[1] Like previous seasons with the exception of Season 3, Season 7 will consist of 26 episodes.[2]

Skam follows a new main character each season. While airing, a new clip, conversation or social media post was published on the NRK website on a daily basis. Each season has focus on particular topics, and during production, creator Julie Andem had extensive, hours-long interviews with individual persons in the target audience to be able to cover their stories. The first season, which premiered in September 2015, focuses on relationship difficulties, loneliness, identity, and belonging. The second season, which premiered in March 2016, focuses on a troubled relationship, feminism, eating disorders, and sexual assault. The third season, which premiered in October 2016, focuses on coming out difficulties, homosexuality, mental health illness and religion. The fourth and final season, which premiered in April 2017, focuses on the Islamic religion, forbidden love, cyberbullying, and the Norwegian russ celebratory period. The series finale episode, aired in June 2017, focuses on a variety of short stories through individual clips, including parental depression, love rejection, and mutual relationship support. Regarding the decision to end the series, NRK P3 editorial chief HÃ¥kon Moslet stated that the making of Skam had been "an extreme sport",[1] and in an Instagram post, creator, writer and director Julie Andem wrote that "Skam has been a 24/7 job. It has also been amazingly fun to work on, and I really believe that has given the series a unique energy, and ensured that Skam continues to surprise and entertain. We recently decided that we won't be making a new season this fall. I know many of you out there will be upset and disappointed to hear this, but I'm confident this is the right decision."[2]

The season premiere was watched by 8.52 million viewers, achieving an adult 18-49 rating/share of 2.6/7.[2] The mid-season finale received critical acclaim from critics with many praising the episode's ending, Mr. Gold's fate, and the flash-forward technique used. The spring premiere brought in the highest viewing figures since the season's second episode, earning the highest weekly viewership rank for the series since the second episode of the second season in October 2012. The episode was met with positive reviews, with critics complimenting the unpredictable nature of the new story lines created by the writers and producers. The 2-hour season finale was watched by 6.8 million viewers, with an adult rating/share of 2.3/7, becoming the least-viewed season finale yet, despite the improved ratings.[3] On May 8, 2014, the series was renewed for a fourth season, which premiered in September 28, 2014.[4]

The fourth season's DVD released on September 9, 2008, features an interview with Heigl and Chambers, extended episodes, bloopers, and deleted scenes.[370] Season five's DVD was released on September 15, 2009, and includes unaired scenes, bloopers, and extended episodes.[371] The DVD for season six, released on September 14, 2010, features deleted scenes, an extended finale, and bloopers.[372] The seventh season's DVD, released on September 13, 2011, includes an extended edition of and a behind-the-scenes featurette on the musical episode, bloopers, as well as deleted scenes.[373] In addition, the eighth season's DVD was released on September 4, 2012 with several bonus features and deleted scenes.[366]

Grey's Anatomy has received high viewership and ratings since its debut. The first four seasons of the program each ranked in the top ten among all viewers, reaching its peak Nielsen ratings in the second season, attracting an average of 19.44 million viewers per episode, and ranking at fifth place overall. Following the show's time-slot being relocated, overall rankings steadily declined, dropping below the top ten in its fifth season. Grey's Anatomy made its greatest fall from its sixth to seventh season, slipping from seventeenth place to thirty-first. The series is on a steady decline in terms of overall viewership and rankings, yet Grey's Anatomy still holds value in charts when numbers are pulled from the digital video recorder (DVR). It was the most recorded show between 2007 and 2011, based on cumulative totals, and has been for several years in a row.[242]

"Episode 14", also known as "Lonely Souls",[nb 1] is the seventh episode of the second season of the American mystery television series Twin Peaks. The episode was written by series co-creator Mark Frost and directed by series co-creator David Lynch. It features series regulars Kyle MacLachlan, Michael Ontkean, Ray Wise and Richard Beymer; and guest stars Frank Silva (uncredited) as Killer BOB, Hank Worden as The Waiter, Julee Cruise as Singer, and David Lynch as Gordon Cole.

Series regular Jerrika Hinton does not appear for the first time since her introduction at the start of the 9th season, after it was announced she landed a starring role in Alan Ball's new HBO drama series Here and Now.[19][4] Hinton had previously been in talks of leaving the show at the end of the 12th season when she was cast in the Shondaland comedy pilot Toast, but ABC passed on the project.[20] Renewing her contract for another three seasons as Dr. Arizona Robbins after the eleventh season, Jessica Capshaw will return for the 14th season.[21] On June 20, 2017, it was announced that Kim Raver is set to reprise her role as Dr. Teddy Altman for a guest arc.[8] In August 2017, it was announced that Abigail Spencer would replace Bridget Regan as Megan Hunt for a multi-episode arc this season.[9] After recurring in the previous season as the controversial character, Eliza Minnick, it was announced in August 2017 that Marika Dominczyk would not return to the show.[22] On September 13, 2017, another guest star was announced in Greg Germann (Ally McBeal), and later it was revealed that his character would be Tom Koracick, Amelia's neurosurgery mentor.[10]


Question: What is the name of the road that connects the tombs?

The road that connects the Ming Tombs is known as the "Spirit Way" or "Shéndào," which is a 7-kilometer (4 mi) path adorned with statues of guardian animals and officials. This impressive road begins at the "Great Red Gate," a three-arched structure painted red, and features a massive stone memorial archway constructed in 1540 during the Ming dynasty. This archway stands as one of the largest stone archways in China.

To the south of the Royal Enclosure lies a ring-fort known as Ráith Laoghaire (Laoghaire's Fort), where the eponymous king is said to have been buried in an upright position. Half a mile south of the Hill of Tara is another hill fort known as Rath Maeve, the fort of either the legendary queen Medb, who is more usually associated with Connacht, or the less well known legendary figure of Medb Lethderg, who is associated with Tara.

The central figure of the tortuous composition on the front is a young Roman military commander on horseback, presumed to represent the deceased. His face is serene, and his arm is extended confidently in a "gesture which is difficult to interpret but seems to be one of farewell".[6] An X-mark on his forehead has been interpreted as the cross received by initiates into the Mithraic mysteries as a sign of the god Mithras' favor. The Mithraic religion was popular among Roman soldiers. The valor (virtus) shown by the horseman may represent real-life bravery on the battlefield, but the religious connotation of the X may suggest victory over death, a theme of mounted warriors in funerary art. The horseman probably represents the deceased.[7]

On 13 May 2009, the government gave approval for a £25 million scheme to create a smaller visitors' centre and close the A344, although this was dependent on funding and local authority planning consent.[62] On 20 January 2010 Wiltshire Council granted planning permission for a centre 2.4 km (1.5 miles) to the west and English Heritage confirmed that funds to build it would be available, supported by a £10m grant from the Heritage Lottery Fund.[63] On 23 June 2013 the A344 was closed to begin the work of removing the section of road and replacing it with grass.[64][65] The centre, designed by Denton Corker Marshall, opened to the public on 18 December 2013.[66]

Beijing is connected by road links to all parts of China as part of the National Trunk Road Network. Nine expressways of China serve Beijing, as do eleven China National Highways. Beijing's urban transport is dependent upon the five "ring roads" that concentrically surround the city, with the Forbidden City area marked as the geographical centre for the ring roads. The ring roads appear more rectangular than ring-shaped. There is no official "1st Ring Road". The 2nd Ring Road is located in the inner city. Ring roads tend to resemble expressways progressively as they extend outwards, with the 5th and 6th Ring Roads being full-standard national expressways, linked to other roads only by interchanges. Expressways to other regions of China are generally accessible from the 3rd Ring Road outward. A final outer orbital, the Capital Ring Expressway (G95), is being built and will extend into neighboring Tianjin and Hebei.

By the 1980s, over ten thousand brick-and-stone underground Han tombs had been discovered throughout China.[137] Earlier Chinese tombs dating to the Warring States were often vertically dug pits lined with wooden walls.[138] In digging the tomb sites, Han workers would first build vertical pits and then dig laterally, hence the name "horizontal pits" for Han tombs; this method was also used for tomb sites dug into the sides of mountains.[137] The walls of most Western Han tombs were built of large hollow bricks while the smaller, non-hollow brick type that dominated Eastern Han tomb architecture (with some made out of stone) appeared in the late Western Han.[139] The smaller brick type was better-suited for Han tomb archways at entrances, vaulted chambers, and domed roofs.[140] Underground vaults and domes did not require buttress supports since they were held in place by earthen pits.[141] The use of brick vaults and domes in aboveground Han structures is unknown.[141]

Kabuli Gate or Khooni Darwaza (Coordinates: 28.635974N 77.241042E), literally translated means “Bloody Gate”, a “morbid sounding name”.
It is an impressive double–storied structure. Its construction is credited to Sher Shah Suri's reign from 1540–1545 (though the fort walls of the Suri period have not been seen to extend to this gate). It was built largely with grey stone but red stones were also used in the frames of its windows.[4][9][29]
Though not within the walls of the Shahajahan's fort, it is located on the Mathura road opposite to the Ferozshah Kotla near Maulana Azad Medical College .
At this gate, on September 21, 1857, during the Indian Rebellion, three sons of the last Mughal Emperor, Bahadur Shah Zafar, were executed by the British Officer, Captain William Hodson.

Ramsetu Bridge is a chain of limestone shoals, between Rameswaram and Mannar Island, off the northwestern coast of Sri Lanka. Geological evidence suggests that this bridge is a former land connection between India and Sri Lanka.[25] The bridge is 29 km (18 mi) long and separates the Gulf of Mannar (North-East) from the Palk Strait (South-West). It was reportedly passable on foot up to the 15th century until storms deepened the channel. The temple records record that Rama’s Bridge was completely above sea level until it broke in a cyclone in 1480 CE.[26] The bridge was first mentioned in the ancient Indian Sanskrit epic Ramayana of Valmiki.[27] The name Rama's Bridge or Rama Setu (Sanskrit; setu: bridge) refers to the bridge built by the Vanara (ape men) army of Rama in Hindu mythology, which he used to reach Lanka and rescue his wife Sita from the demon king Ravana.[27] The Ramayana attributes the building of this bridge to Rama in verse 2-22-76, naming it as Setubandhanam.[28] The sea separating India and Sri Lanka is called Sethusamudram meaning "Sea of the Bridge". Maps prepared by a Dutch cartographer in 1747 CE, available at the Tanjore Saraswathi Mahal Library show this area as Ramancoil, a colloquial form of the Tamil Raman Kovil (or Rama's Temple).[29] Many other maps in Schwartzberg's historical atlas[30] and other sources such as travel texts by Marco Polo call this area by various names such as Adam's Bridge, Sethubandha and Sethubandha Rameswaram.[31]

After Aragorn departs on his seemingly impossible task, King Théoden, Éomer, and Merry arrive in Dunharrow to muster the Rohirrim (mounted warriors) and come to the aid of Gondor. They enter the upper hold of Dunharrow via a narrow switchback path where they see old "Pukel-Men" sculptures guarding the turns.  Merry is so moved by the kindness of Théoden that he enters his service and is made a Knight of the Mark.  Seeing Éowyn grieved by Aragorn's departure, Merry then asks about the Paths of Dead and is told the story by Théoden of how King Brego and his son Baldor discovered the entrance to the chambers under the Haunted Mountain and how Baldor rashly spoke an oath to travel the Paths of the Dead. The next morning was dominated by the darkness of Mordor and two riders from Gondor showing Théoden the Red Arrow, which was Gondor's official call for aid from Rohan.  The King and Éomer then gather the riders and set out from Dunharrow and then Edoras.  Eager to go to war with his allies, Merry is refused by Théoden several times. Finally Dernhelm, one of the Rohirrim, secretly takes Merry up on his horse so that he can accompany the rest of the Rohirrim.

The TARDIS crew lands in the Himalayas of Cathay in 1289, their ship badly damaged, and are picked up by Marco Polo's caravan on its way along the fabled Silk Road to see the Emperor Kublai Khan. The story concerns the Doctor and his companions' attempts to thwart the machinations of Tegana, who attempts to sabotage the caravan along its travels through the Pamir Plateau and across the treacherous Gobi Desert, and ultimately to assassinate Kublai Khan in Peking, at the height of his imperial power. The Doctor and his companions also attempt to regain the TARDIS, which Marco Polo has taken to give to Kublai Khan in effort to regain the Emperor's good graces. Susan gets the key from Ping-Cho but is captured by Tegana before they can depart. They are finally able to thwart Tegana, who kills himself, and, in doing so, regain the Emperor's respect for Marco Polo, who allows them to depart.

Bu Halima's Tomb and Garden: When entering the complex from the West, visitor's first enter a garden complex, known as Bu Halima's Garden, though little is known about her, and since the tomb or the raised platform where it once stood is not at the centre, it appears to be a later addition.[32][40]


Question: Where is Blue Bell ice cream available?

Blue Bell Creameries is a popular ice cream brand in the United States, recognized as the best-selling ice cream brand in 2014 according to Statista. Its sales area is predominantly in the Southern United States, with distribution reaching as far west as Las Vegas, as far north as Indianapolis and Denver, and as far east as Richmond, Virginia. This sales area covers approximately 20% of the country. Despite this, Blue Bell has managed to secure a significant market share in the regions it serves, often outperforming competitors. For instance, in its home state of Texas, Blue Bell holds a 52% market share. In Louisiana, within five months of entering the market, Blue Bell captured 35% of the ice cream sales. For those residing outside of the company's sales area, Blue Bell ice cream can be shipped, although this service was temporarily paused during production ramp-up following a recall. Notably, former President George W. Bush would have Blue Bell ice cream delivered to Camp David during his presidency, and astronauts aboard the International Space Station have also enjoyed Blue Bell ice cream as a morale booster.

There are a number of glaciers existing in North America, currently or in recent centuries. In the United States, these glaciers are located in nine states, all in the Rocky Mountains or further west. The southernmost named glacier among them is the Lilliput Glacier in Tulare County, east of the Central Valley of California.

Corona Extra is a pale lager produced by CervecerÃa Modelo in Mexico for domestic distribution and export to all other countries besides the United States, and by Constellation Brands in Mexico for export to the United States. The Corona brand is one of the top-selling beers worldwide.[2] Outside Mexico, Corona is commonly served with a wedge of lime or lemon in the neck of the bottle to add tartness and flavor.

Spain is the most important market for Taco Bell inside Europe. There are 32 Taco Bell branches in Spain.[102] The first Taco Bell in Spain was opened at Naval Station Rota in 2004 and is available only to those authorized to access the naval base.[103] The first Taco Bell for the public was opened in the Islazul Shopping Mall, Madrid, in December 2008.[104] Yum! Brands announced that it would open additional restaurants in Spain in early 2009 as part of a test trial for the European market.[96][97] The second location of Taco Bell in Spain was opened at the La Vaguada Shopping Mall, Madrid (03/2010). Taco Bell announced, at least, 10 new restaurants through Spain.[105]

As of 2007, they manufactured over 197 products for facial and body skin care, lip care, hair care, baby care, men's grooming, and outdoor remedies[2] distributed in nearly 30,000 retail outlets including grocery stores and drug store chains across the United States, United Kingdom, Ireland, Canada, Australia, Germany, Hong Kong, Taiwan and New Zealand from their headquarters in Durham, North Carolina.[2] In late 2007, Clorox acquired Burt's Bees for a reported sum of $925,000,000 USD.[12] The company subsequently released a statement to their customers.[18]

In 1943, it became the home for Acme Feed and Hatchery, known as Acme Farm Supply in 1965.[2] The farm supply store, which sold "straw, feed, wire, tools" and more products needed on a farm, was owned by Currey L. Turner, a businessman from Nashville.[1][2] His pet calf, Beautena, appeared during commercials at the Grand Ole Opry.[2] In 1980, his son, Lester Turner Sr., bought the building.[2] The store closed down in September 1999.[2] The building, however, is still owned by the Turner family trust.[2] It was for rent in 2000, but it stayed vacant until 2013.[3]

Taco Bell is an American chain of fast food restaurants based out of Irvine, California and a subsidiary of Yum! Brands, Inc. The restaurants serve a variety of Tex-Mex foods that include tacos, burritos, quesadillas, nachos, novelty and specialty items, and a variety of "value menu" items. As of 2018[update], Taco Bell serves more than 2Â billion customers each year at 7,000 restaurants, more than 80 percent of which are owned and operated by independent franchisees and licensees.

The Source stocks a wide array of products. Most of the products are consumer electronics, including: cellular phones, computers, computer accessories, televisions, DVD players, Blu-ray players, home theatre systems, clock radios, traditional telephones, toys, SiriusXM satellite radio, console gaming equipment, cables (such as HDMI, DVI, RCA, Component, Composite, VGA, S-VIDEO, USB, SERIAL, etc.), Bell devices, Virgin Mobile devices, Bell TV, and MP3 players, as well as a large selection of headphones including the Monster and Skullcandy headphone line-up.

There are two different products by the name of Smirnoff Ice. One, sold in France and the United States, is a citrus-flavoured malt beverage (5.0% ABV) with variants in "Original," and "Triple Black." The other, sold in Europe (excluding France), Latin America, Australia and Canada, is a premixed vodka drink. It also has variants in "Original" and "Black Ice" (or in some markets, "Triple Black" or "Double Black"), ranging from 4.5% in the UK, to 7% ABV in different markets.

Hillerich & Bradsby Company (H&B) is a company located in Louisville, Kentucky that produces the famous Louisville Slugger baseball bat. The Louisville Slugger Museum & Factory in downtown Louisville features a retrospective of the product and its use throughout baseball history. H&B also makes baseball gloves, golf clubs, golf gloves and other equipment (under the PowerBilt brand).

Seattle's Best Coffee LLC, an American coffee retailer and wholesaler, based in Seattle, Washington. Since 2003, they have been a subsidiary of American coffeehouse chain Starbucks. Seattle's Best Coffee has retail stores and grocery sub-stores in 20 states and provinces and the District of Columbia. Sub-stores can also be found within many other businesses and college campuses, including JCPenney, Subway restaurants.


Question: Who proposed evolution in 1859 as the foundation of biological development?

In 1859, Charles Darwin and Alfred Russel Wallace presented their revolutionary theory of evolution through natural selection in the publication of Darwin's "On the Origin of Species." This theory proposed that species share common ancestors and evolve through a branching process. Darwin's concept of natural selection, which combined evidence from various scientific disciplines such as animal husbandry, biogeography, geology, morphology, and embryology, was initially met with skepticism. The mechanism of natural selection was not widely accepted until the 1920s to 1940s, when it was revived and integrated with Mendelian genetics by scientists like Ronald Fisher, J. B. S. Haldane, and Sewall Wright. This integration led to the development of population genetics and, subsequently, the modern synthesis of evolutionary theory, which has become a foundational aspect of biology. During the so-called "eclipse of Darwinism" from around 1880 to 1920, alternative theories such as neo-Lamarckism, orthogenesis, and saltationism were proposed, but they ultimately gave way to the robust framework of Darwin's theory bolstered by genetic principles.

Pangenesis was Darwin's attempt to provide such a mechanism of inheritance. The idea was that each part of the parent's body emitted tiny particles called gemmules, which migrated through the body to contribute to that parent's gametes, their eggs or sperms. The theory had an intuitive appeal, as characteristics of all parts of the body, such as shape of nose, width of shoulders and length of legs are inherited from both the father and the mother. However, it had some serious weaknesses. Firstly, many characteristics can change during an individual's lifetime, and are affected by the environment: blacksmiths can develop strong arm muscles during their work, so the gemmules from these muscles ought to carry this acquired characteristic. That implies the Lamarckian inheritance of acquired characteristics. Secondly, the fact that the gemmules were supposed to mix together on fertilisation implies blending inheritance, namely that the offspring wwould all be intermediate between the father and the mother in every characteristic. That directly contradicts the observed facts of inheritance, not least that children are usually either male or female rather than all intersex, and that traits such as flower colour often re-emerge after a generation, even when they seem to disappear when two varieties are crossed.[1][2][3] Darwin was aware of both these objections, and accordingly had strong doubts about blending inheritance, as evidenced in his private correspondence. In a letter to T.H. Huxley, dated November 12, 1857, Darwin wrote:

The opponents of evolution made a transition from the anti-evolution crusade of the 1920s to the creation science movement of the 1960s. Despite some similarities between these two causes, the creation science movement represented a shift from overtly religious to covertly religious objections to evolutionary theory — sometimes described as a Wedge Strategy — raising what it claimed was scientific evidence in support of a literal interpretation of the Bible. Creation science also differed in terms of popular leadership, rhetorical tone, and sectional focus. It lacked a prestigious leader like Bryan, utilized pseudoscientific rather than religious rhetoric,[56] and was a product of California and Michigan instead of the South.[56]

From 1830 to 1833, geologist Charles Lyell published his multi-volume work Principles of Geology, which, building on Hutton's ideas, advocated a uniformitarian alternative to the catastrophic theory of geology. Lyell claimed that, rather than being the products of cataclysmic (and possibly supernatural) events, the geologic features of the Earth are better explained as the result of the same gradual geologic forces observable in the present dayâ€”but acting over immensely long periods of time. Although Lyell opposed evolutionary ideas (even questioning the consensus that the fossil record demonstrates a true progression), his concept that the Earth was shaped by forces working gradually over an extended period, and the immense age of the Earth assumed by his theories, would strongly influence future evolutionary thinkers such as Charles Darwin.[59]

Later editions hint at his new ideas on evolution:

The publication of Alfred Wegener's (1880–1930) theory of continental drift 1912 gave additional impetus to comparative physiology and the study of biogeography while ecology in the 1930s contributed the important ideas of plant community, succession, community change, and energy flows.[115] From 1940 to 1950 ecology matured to become an independent discipline as Eugene Odum (1913–2002) formulated many of the concepts of ecosystem ecology, emphasising relationships between groups of organisms (especially material and energy relationships) as key factors in the field. Building on the extensive earlier work of Alphonse de Candolle, Nikolai Vavilov (1887–1943) from 1914 to 1940 produced accounts of the geography, centres of origin, and evolutionary history of economic plants.[116]

In the 1880s increased attention was given to the idea that it was necessary to push aside previous norms entirely, instead of merely revising past knowledge in light of contemporary techniques. The theories of Sigmund Freud (1856–1939), and Ernst Mach (1838–1916) influenced early Modernist literature. Ernst Mach argued that the mind had a fundamental structure, and that subjective experience was based on the interplay of parts of the mind in The Science of Mechanics (1883). Freud's first major work was Studies on Hysteria (with Josef Breuer) (1895). According to Freud, all subjective reality was based on the play of basic drives and instincts, through which the outside world was perceived. As a philosopher of science, Ernst Mach was a major influence on logical positivism, and through his criticism of Isaac Newton, a forerunner of Einstein's theory of relativity.

The concept was introduced by Patrick Geddes, Cities in Evolution (1910), but David Landes' use of the term in a 1966 essay and in The Unbound Prometheus (1972) standardized scholarly definitions of the term, which was most intensely promoted by Alfred Chandler (1918â€“2007). However, some continue to express reservations about its use.[3]

In a socioevolutionary approach, Durkheim described the evolution of societies from mechanical solidarity to organic solidarity (one rising from mutual need).[33][44][52][53] As the societies become more complex, evolving from mechanical to organic solidarity, the division of labour is counteracting and replacing collective consciousness.[44][54] In the simpler societies, people are connected to others due to personal ties and traditions; in the larger, modern society they are connected due to increased reliance on others with regard to them performing their specialized tasks needed for the modern, highly complex society to survive.[44] In mechanical solidarity, people are self-sufficient, there is little integration and thus there is the need for use of force and repression to keep society together.[52] Also, in such societies, people have much fewer options in life.[55] In organic solidarity, people are much more integrated and interdependent and specialisation and cooperation is extensive.[52] Progress from mechanical to organic solidarity is based first on population growth and increasing population density, second on increasing "morality density" (development of more complex social interactions) and thirdly, on the increasing specialisation in workplace.[52] One of the ways mechanical and organic societies differ is the function of law: in mechanical society the law is focused on its punitive aspect, and aims to reinforce the cohesion of the community, often by making the punishment public and extreme; whereas in the organic society the law focuses on repairing the damage done and is more focused on individuals than the community.[56]

An evolutionary tree (of Amniota, for example, the last common ancestor of mammals and reptiles, and all its descendants) illustrates the initial conditions causing evolutionary patterns of similarity (e.g., all Amniotes produce an egg that possesses the amnios) and the patterns of divergence amongst lineages (e.g., mammals and reptiles branching from the common ancestry in Amniota). Evolutionary trees provide conceptual models of evolving systems once thought limited in the domain of making predictions out of the theory.[54] However, the method of phylogenetic bracketing is used to infer predictions with far greater probability than raw speculation. For example, paleontologists use this technique to make predictions about nonpreservable traits in fossil organisms, such as feathered dinosaurs, and molecular biologists use the technique to posit predictions about RNA metabolism and protein functions.[55][56] Thus evolutionary trees are evolutionary hypotheses that refer to specific facts, such as the characteristics of organisms (e.g., scales, feathers, fur), providing evidence for the patterns of descent, and a causal explanation for modification (i.e., natural selection or neutral drift) in any given lineage (e.g., Amniota). Evolutionary biologists test evolutionary theory using phylogenetic systematic methods that measure how much the hypothesis (a particular branching pattern in an evolutionary tree) increases the likelihood of the evidence (the distribution of characters among lineages).[57][58][59] The severity of tests for a theory increases if the predictions "are the least probable of being observed if the causal event did not occur."[60] "Testability is a measure of how much the hypothesis increases the likelihood of the evidence."[61]

Although Greek and Roman evolutionary ideas died out in Europe after the fall of the Roman Empire, they were not lost to Islamic philosophers and scientists. In the Islamic Golden Age of the 8th to the 13th centuries, philosophers explored ideas about natural history. These ideas included transmutation from non-living to living: "from mineral to plant, from plant to animal, and from animal to man."[31]


Question: Does "The Jungle Book" take place in India?

The Jungle Book, written by Rudyard Kipling in 1894, is a series of tales featuring animals such as Shere Khan the tiger and Baloo the bear, with the central character being Mowgli, a human child raised by wolves. The narrative is situated in an Indian forest, frequently referencing "Seonee" (Seoni), a location in the Madhya Pradesh region.

Its present location is believed to be the Hakgala Botanical Garden, the area is known as Seetha Eliya, close to the resort city of Nuwara Eliya. The Garden is situated at the base of the Hakgala Rock forms, has Sita Pokuna, a barren area atop the Hakgala Rock Jungle, where Sita was supposedly held captive, the Sita Amman Temple is located here. Other connected site is a spot where Sita bathed in a stream at Sita Eliya, called Sita Jharna.[4] The site has attracted media interest owing to its connection with Hindu theology, in the recent years.[5][6]

Himachal Pradesh ([ɦɪmaːtʃəl prəd̪eːʃ] ( listen); literally "snow-laden province") is a state of India located in North India. Situated in the Western Himalayas, it is bordered by states of Jammu and Kashmir on the north, Punjab on the west, Haryana on the southwest, Uttarakhand on the southeast, and the Tibet Autonomous Region on the east. At its southernmost point, it also touches the state of Uttar Pradesh. The state's name was coined from the Sanskrit—Him means 'snow' and achal means 'land' or 'abode'—by acharya Diwakar Datt Sharma, one of the state's eminent Sanskrit scholars.[8]

The initial script by Santha Rama Rau pleased neither the producer, John Brabourne, nor David Lean. They considered it too worldly and literary, the work of a playwright, and unsuitable for a film. Most of the scenes took place indoors and in offices while Lean had in mind to film outdoor as much as possible. With India in the title of the film, he reasoned, audiences would expect to see many scenes filmed of the Indian landscape. Lean commented: "We are blessed with a fine movie title, A Passage to India. But it has built in danger; it holds out such a promise. The very mention of India conjures up high expectations. It has sweep and size and is very romantic". Lean did not want to present a poor man's pre-independence India when for the same amount of money he could show the country's visual richness.

For Abanindranath, the house he grew up in (5 Dwarakanath Tagore Lane) and its companion house (6 Dwarakanath Tagore Lane) connected two cultural worlds – 'white town' (where the British colonizers lived) and 'black town' (where the natives lived). According to architectural historian Swati Chattopadhay, Abanindranath "used the Bengali meaning of the word, Jorasanko – 'double bridge' to develop this idea in the form of a mythical map of the city. The map is, indeed, not of Calcutta, but an imaginary city, Halisahar, and is the central guide in a children's story Putur Boi (Putu's Book). The nineteenth-century place names of Calcutta, however, appear on this map, thus suggesting we read this imaginary city with the colonial city as a frame of reference. The map uses the structure of a board game—golokdham—and shows a city divided along a main artery; on one side a lion-gate leads to the Lal-Dighi in the middle of which is the 'white island.'[7]

Critics such as Harry Ricketts have observed that Kipling returns repeatedly to the theme of the abandoned and fostered child, recalling his own childhood feelings of abandonment. In his view, the enemy, Shere Khan, represents the "malevolent would-be foster-parent" who Mowgli in the end outwits and destroys, just as Kipling as a boy had to face Mrs Holloway in place of his parents. Ricketts writes that in "Mowgli's Brothers", the hero loses his human parents at the outset, and his wolf fosterers at the conclusion; and Mowgli is again rejected at the end of "Tiger! Tiger!", but each time is compensated by "a queue of would-be foster-parents" including the wolves, Baloo, Bagheera and Kaa. In Ricketts's view, the power that Mowgli has over all these characters who compete for his affection is part of the book's appeal to children.[19] The historian of India Philip Mason similarly emphasises the Mowgli myth, where the fostered hero, "the odd man out among wolves and men alike", eventually triumphs over his enemies. Mason notes that both Rikki-Tikki-Tavi and The White Seal do much the same.[20]

Traveling on, they become lost in Southtown, a small town in the Southern United States. They receive a citation from a policeman for "riding a vixen the wrong way on a one-way street, crossing the white line, and wearing funny-lookin' clothes on a Sunday." They try to disguise Vixen as a dog, but Vixen is captured and sent to the dog pound where she becomes very sick. They befriend a boy named Ignatius "Iggy" Thistlewhite and visit the skeptical Mayor of Southtown. The Mayor laughs hysterically at their story but agrees to free Vixen if Jingle and Jangle prove that they are elves by making it snow in Southtown on Christmas Day.

Dr. Henry Walton "Indiana" Jones, Jr. is a title character and protagonist of the Indiana Jones franchise. George Lucas created the character in homage to the action heroes of 1930s film serials. The character first appeared in the 1981 film Raiders of the Lost Ark, to be followed by Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom in 1984, Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade in 1989, The Young Indiana Jones Chronicles from 1992 to 1996, and Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull in 2008. The character is also featured in novels, comics, video games, and other media. Jones is also featured in several Disney theme parks, including the Indiana Jones Adventure, Indiana Jones et le Temple du Péril, and Epic Stunt Spectacular! attractions.

Young Raj Malhotra (Akshay Kumar) lives with his elder brother, Rohit, his sister-in-law, Kiran, and his niece. After an accident fractures his leg, he is unable to walk for some time. Due to psychological reasons, he cannot walk even after the fracture heals. When the Malhotras move to Dehra Dun, Raj befriends their neighbour, young tomboy Kajal (Lara Dutta), as both share a common passion for aeroplanes. Kajal encourages Raj to walk, and he succeeds. Years later the two continue to be fast friends, and everyone expects them to marry soon. Raj secretly loves Kajal and is waiting for the right time to propose to her. However, Kajal sees him only as her best friend. Raj is recruited by the Indian Air Force and goes for training for a year and a half. After his training is over, he rushes to Kajal to propose to her, only to find out that she is in love with multimillionaire businessman, Karan Singhania (Aman Verma). Raj tells Kajal that Karan is the best life partner for her, and does not reveal his true feelings. Kajal and Karan get married and during the reception party, Kajal comes to know of Raj's feelings for her. Hurt by the fact that she did not see his feelings for her despite being Raj's best friend, Kajal asks him to move on with his life. Thereafter the Malhotras move to Nainital, and Raj relocates to Cape Town, South Africa for training.

Many locations in the stories can be linked to real places in and around the forest. As Christopher Milne wrote in his autobiography: "Poohâ€™s forest and Ashdown Forest are identical". For example, the fictional "Hundred Acre Wood" was in reality Five Hundred Acre Wood; Galleon's Leap was inspired by the prominent hilltop of Gill's Lap, while a clump of trees just north of Gill's Lap became Christopher Robin's The Enchanted Place because no-one had ever been able to count whether there were sixty-three or sixty-four trees in the circle.[10]

India's only Nobel laureate in literature was the Bengali writer Rabindranath Tagore, who wrote some of his work originally in English, and did some of his own English translations from Bengali. India's best selling English-language novelists of all-time are the contemporary writers like Chetan Bhagat, Manjiri Prabhu and Ashok Banker. More recent major writers in English who are either Indian or of Indian origin and derive much inspiration from Indian themes are R. K. Narayan, Vikram Seth, Salman Rushdie, Arundhati Roy, Raja Rao, Amitav Ghosh, Rohinton Mistry, Vikram Chandra, Mukul Kesavan, Raj Kamal Jha, Vikas Swarup, Khushwant Singh, Shashi Tharoor, Nayantara Sehgal, Anita Desai, Kiran Desai, Ashok Banker, Shashi Deshpande, Arnab Jan Deka, Jhumpa Lahiri, Kamala Markandaya, Gita Mehta, Manil Suri, Manjiri Prabhu, Ruskin Bond, Chitra Banerjee Divakaruni and Bharati Mukherjee.


Question: Does "The Jungle Book" take place in India?

The Jungle Book, a collection of stories by Rudyard Kipling, is primarily set in India, where Kipling spent his childhood. The stories often reference "Seonee" (Seoni), located in Madhya Pradesh, and the first Mowgli story, "In the Rukh," is set in a forest reserve in northern India. Although "Mowgli's Brothers" was initially situated in the Aravalli hills of Rajasthan, it was later shifted to Seoni. Bagheera's journey originates from "Oodeypore" (Udaipur), which is a considerable distance from Seoni but closer to the Aravalli hills. Seoni features a tropical savanna climate, characterized by dry and rainy seasons, unsuitable for tropical rainforests. Various national parks and reserves, including Kanha Tiger Reserve and Pench National Park near Seoni, claim connections to the stories, despite Kipling never visiting these specific locations.

The term Jangladesha ("rough and arid country") appears to be older, as it mentioned in the Mahabharata.[9] The text does not mention the exact location of the region. The later Sanskrit texts, such as Bhava-Prakasha and Shabdakalpadruma-Kosha suggest that it was a hot, arid region, where trees requiring little water grew. The region is identified with the area around Bikaner.[10]

Many of the characters (marked *) are named simply for the Hindi names of their species: for example, Baloo is a transliteration of Hindi भालू Bhālū, "bear".

Anna and the King of Siam is a 1946 drama film directed by John Cromwell. An adaptation of the 1944 novel of the same name by Margaret Landon, it was based on the fictionalized diaries of Anna Leonowens, an Anglo-Indian woman who claimed to be British and became governess in the Royal Court of Siam (now modern Thailand) during the 1860s. Darryl F. Zanuck read Landon's book in galleys and immediately bought the film rights.

During British rule in India, the crown found that Madras had many talented and artistic minds.  As the British had also established a settlement in and around Madras, Georgetown was chosen to establish an institute that would cater to the artistic expectations of the royals in London.  At first traditional artists were employed to produce furniture, metalwork, and curios, and their work was sent to the royal palaces of the Queen.  The institute established itself as the first school of art in India, predating the University of Madras. The school was located at Pophamâ€™s Broadway. In 1852, it was shifted to its present premises, a four-acre campus on Poonamallee High Road.[1]

India boasts a variety of species and organisms.[1] Apart from a handful of the major farm animals such as cows, buffaloes, goats, chickens, and both Bactrian Camels and, Dromedary Camels, India has an amazingly wide spectrum of animals native to the country. It is home to Bengal and Indochinese tigers, Asiatic Lions, Leopards, Snow Leopards, Clouded Leopards, various species of Deer, including Chital, Hangul, Barasingha; the Indian Elephant, the Great Indian Rhinoceros, and many more amongst others.[2][3] The region's rich and diverse wildlife is preserved in 120+ national parks, 18 Bio-reserves and 500+ wildlife sanctuaries across the country. India has some of the most biodiverse regions of the world and hosts four of the world’s 35 biodiversity hotspots – or treasure-houses – that is the Western Ghats, the Eastern Himalayas, Indo-Burma and Nicobar islands in Sundaland.[4] Since India is home to a number of rare and threatened animal species, wildlife management in the country is essential to preserve these species.[5] India is one of the seventeen megadiverse countries. According to one study, India along with other 16 mega diverse countries is home to about 60-70% of the world's biodiversity.[6] India, lying within the Indomalaya ecozone, is home to about 7.6% of all mammalian, 12.6% of avian (bird), 6.2% of reptilian, and 6.0% of flowering plant species.[7]

Oliver & Company is a 1988 American animated musical comedy-drama film produced by Walt Disney Feature Animation and released on November 18, 1988, by Walt Disney Pictures. The 27th Disney animated feature film, the film is inspired by the classic Charles Dickens novel Oliver Twist, which has been adapted many other times for the screen. In the film, Oliver is a homeless kitten who joins a gang of dogs to survive in the streets. Among other changes, the setting of the film was relocated from 19th century London to modern-day New York City, Fagin's gang is made up of dogs (one of which is Dodger), and Sykes is a loan shark.

The film's depiction of Hindus caused controversy in India, and brought it to the attention of the country's censors, who placed a temporary ban on it.[5] The depiction of the goddess Kali as a representative of the underworld and evil was met with much criticism, as she is almost exclusively depicted as a goddess of change and empowerment (Shakti), meaning that while she does destroy, she almost always does so in order to effect positive change. The depiction of Indian cuisine was also criticized, as dishes such as baby snakes, eyeball soup, beetles, and chilled monkey brains are not actual Indian foods. Shashi Tharoor has condemned the film and has criticised numerous parts of the film as offensive and factually inaccurate.[6] Yvette Rosser has criticized the film for contributing to negative stereotypes of Indians in Western society, writing "[it] seems to have been taken as a valid portrayal of India by many teachers, since a large number of students surveyed complained that teachers referred to the eating of monkey brains."[7]

In Bombay, Palin finds himself a week behind Phileas Fogg. After getting a quick shave from a blind barber under a tree and seeing a snake charmer's cobra, he is able to get a train ticket to Madras in south-eastern India. Before leaving Bombay, he visits astrologer Jagjit Uppal[3] who, after giving him a chart for a baby to be born to one of his referees, Robert Hewison, tells him he will complete the journey on time, possibly even ahead of schedule and that time lost will be made up throughout the voyage.

For centuries, jute has been an integral part of the culture of East Bengal and some parts of West Bengal, precisely in the southwest of Bangladesh. Since the seventeenth century the British started trading in jute. During the reign of the British Empire jute was also used in the military. British jute barons grew rich processing jute and selling manufactured products made from jute. Dundee Jute Barons and the British East India Company set up many jute mills in Bengal and by 1895 jute industries in Bengal overtook the Scottish jute trade. Many Scots emigrated to Bengal to set up jute factories. More than a billion jute sandbags were exported from Bengal to the trenches during World War I and also exported to the United States southern region to bag cotton. It was used in the fishing, construction, art and the arms industry. Initially, due to its texture, it could only be processed by hand until it was discovered in Dundee that by treating it with whale oil, it could be treated by machine.[4] The industry boomed throughout the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries ("jute weaver" was a recognised trade occupation in the 1900 UK census), but this trade had largely ceased by about 1970 due to the emergence of synthetic fibers. In the 21st century, jute again rose to be an important crop for export around the world in contrast to synthetic fiber, mainly from Bangladesh

After breaking out with his first hit album "Pack That Smack" in 1986 and "Bombay City" the next year, he became the highest-selling English rock musician in India and the only one in the country to be awarded Gold Discs in this category.[4] "Pack That Smack" became his first album to be released by a national record company, CBS. This was an anti-drugs themed album, especially against addiction to Heroin which contained songs such as Down with Brown, Just a Hippie, as well as socio-political satire such as Mr Minister – a nursery rhyme-styled song on politician who went to sleep once elected to power; and So Wie Du – a recording of an award-winning live performance. Bombay City contained hits such as Ocean Queen, Against you/Against me, and a hilarious take on the condition of telephone services in India, Ode to Graham Bell.


Question: What is the name of the membrane located on the stomach's surface?

The serous membrane, also known as serosa, is a smooth tissue membrane in anatomy. It consists of two layers of mesothelium that secrete serous fluid. The visceral membrane, the inner layer, covers organs in body cavities, while the parietal layer, the second layer of epithelial cells, lines the body wall. Between these two layers lies a potential space, which is mostly empty except for a small amount of lubricating serous fluid secreted by the serous membranes. This type of membrane can be found on the surface of the stomach, known as the gastric serosa.

The placenta begins to develop upon implantation of the blastocyst into the maternal endometrium. The outer layer of the blastocyst becomes the trophoblast, which forms the outer layer of the placenta. This outer layer is divided into two further layers: the underlying cytotrophoblast layer and the overlying syncytiotrophoblast layer. The syncytiotrophoblast is a multinucleated continuous cell layer that covers the surface of the placenta. It forms as a result of differentiation and fusion of the underlying cytotrophoblast cells, a process that continues throughout placental development. The syncytiotrophoblast (otherwise known as syncytium), thereby contributes to the barrier function of the placenta.

Although frogs have lungs, they absorb oxygen through their skin; for this to occur efficiently, the skin must be moist. A disadvantage of moist skin is that pathogens such as molds and bacteria can thrive on it, increasing the chance of infection. To counteract this, frogs secrete peptides that destroy these pathogens. The secretion from the paratoid gland of the green tree frog contains 25 caerins, a group of peptides with antibacterial and antiviral properties. The caerins produced by frogs of this species from different geographical localities have subtle but reproducible differences.[21] The secretions also contain caeruleins, which have the same physiological effects as CCK-8, a digestive hormone and hunger suppressant.[22] These caeruleins now have a number of clinical applications.[8] Several peptides from the skin secretions of the green tree frog have been found to destroy HIV without harming healthy T cells.[23][24][25]

The lining of the jejunum is specialized for the absorption, by enterocytes, of small nutrient particles which have been previously digested by enzymes in the duodenum. Once absorbed, nutrients (with the exception of fat, which goes to the lymph) pass from the enterocytes into the enterohepatic circulation and enter the liver via the hepatic portal vein, where the blood is processed.[7] The jejunum is involved in magnesium absorption[citation needed].

Snails (like all molluscs) also have a mantle, a specialized layer of tissue which covers all of the internal organs as they are grouped together in the visceral mass. The mantle also extends outward in flaps which reach to the edge of the shell and in some cases can cover the shell, and which are partially retractable. The mantle is attached to the shell, and creates the shell and makes shell growth possible by secretion.

There are currently more than 50 known membrane proteins, which can exist in a few hundred up to a million copies per red blood cell. Approximately 25 of these membrane proteins carry the various blood group antigens, such as the A, B and Rh antigens, among many others. These membrane proteins can perform a wide diversity of functions, such as transporting ions and molecules across the red cell membrane, adhesion and interaction with other cells such as endothelial cells, as signaling receptors, as well as other currently unknown functions. The blood types of humans are due to variations in surface glycoproteins of red blood cells. Disorders of the proteins in these membranes are associated with many disorders, such as hereditary spherocytosis, hereditary elliptocytosis, hereditary stomatocytosis, and paroxysmal nocturnal hemoglobinuria.[26][27]

In contrast to Gram-positive bacteria, all archetypical Gram-negative bacteria are bounded by a cytoplasmic membrane and an outer cell membrane; they contain only a thin layer of peptidoglycan (2–3 nm) between these membranes. The presence of inner and outer cell membranes defines a new compartment in these cells: the periplasmic space or the periplasmic compartment. These bacteria have been designated as "diderm bacteria."[4][8] The distinction between the monoderm and diderm bacteria is supported by conserved signature indels in a number of important proteins (viz. DnaK, GroEL).[4][5][8][9] Of these two structurally distinct groups of bacteria, monoderms are indicated to be ancestral. Based upon a number of observations including that the Gram-positive bacteria are the major producers of antibiotics and that, in general, Gram-negative bacteria are resistant to them, it has been proposed that the outer cell membrane in Gram-negative bacteria (diderms) has evolved as a protective mechanism against antibiotic selection pressure.[4][5][8][9] Some bacteria, such as Deinococcus, which stain Gram-positive due to the presence of a thick peptidoglycan layer and also possess an outer cell membrane are suggested as intermediates in the transition between monoderm (Gram-positive) and diderm (Gram-negative) bacteria.[4][9] The diderm bacteria can also be further differentiated between simple diderms lacking lipopolysaccharide, the archetypical diderm bacteria where the outer cell membrane contains lipopolysaccharide, and the diderm bacteria where outer cell membrane is made up of mycolic acid.[6][9][10]

In front of the primitive streak, two longitudinal ridges, caused by a folding up of the ectoderm, make their appearance, one on either side of the middle line formed by the streak. These are named the neural folds; they commence some little distance behind the anterior end of the embryonic disk, where they are continuous with each other, and from there gradually extend backward, one on either side of the anterior end of the primitive streak. Between these folds is a shallow median groove, the neural groove. The groove gradually deepens as the neural folds become elevated, and ultimately the folds meet and coalesce in the middle line and convert the groove into a closed tube, the neural tube or canal, the ectodermal wall of which forms the rudiment of the nervous system. After the coalescence of the neural folds over the anterior end of the primitive streak, the blastopore no longer opens on the surface but into the closed canal of the neural tube, and thus a transitory communication, the neurenteric canal, is established between the neural tube and the primitive digestive tube. The coalescence of the neural folds occurs first in the region of the hind brain, and from there extends forward and backward; toward the end of the third week, the front opening (anterior neuropore) of the tube finally closes at the anterior end of the future brain, and forms a recess that is in contact, for a time, with the overlying ectoderm; the hinder part of the neural groove presents for a time a rhomboidal shape, and to this expanded portion the term sinus rhomboidalis has been applied. Before the neural groove is closed, a ridge of ectodermal cells appears along the prominent margin of each neural fold; this is termed the neural crest or ganglion ridge, and from it the spinal and cranial nerve ganglia and the ganglia of the sympathetic nervous system are developed.[4] By the upward growth of the mesoderm, the neural tube is ultimately separated from the overlying ectoderm.[5]

The trachea is lined with a layer of pseudostratified ciliated columnar epithelium. The epithelium contains goblet cells, which are glandular, modified simple columnar epithelial cells that produce mucins, the main component of mucus. Mucus helps to moisten and protect the airways.[4] Mucus lines the ciliated cells of the trachea to trap inhaled foreign particles that the cilia then waft upward toward the larynx and then the pharynx where it can be either swallowed into the stomach or expelled as phlegm. This self-clearing mechanism is termed mucociliary clearance.[5]

The dura mater (Latin: tough mother) (also rarely called meninx fibrosa or pachymeninx) is a thick, durable membrane, closest to the skull and vertebrae. The dura mater, the outermost part, is a loosely arranged, fibroelastic layer of cells, characterized by multiple interdigitating cell processes, no extracellular collagen, and significant extracellular spaces. The middle region is a mostly fibrous portion. It consists of two layers: the endosteal layer, which lies closest to the calvaria (skullcap), and the inner meningeal layer, which lies closer to the brain. It contains larger blood vessels that split into the capillaries in the pia mater. It is composed of dense fibrous tissue, and its inner surface is covered by flattened cells like those present on the surfaces of the pia mater and arachnoid mater. The dura mater is a sac that envelops the arachnoid mater and surrounds and supports the large dural sinuses carrying blood from the brain toward the heart.

The embryoblast forms an embryonic disc, which is a bilaminar disc of two layers, an upper layer called the epiblast (primitive ectoderm) and a lower layer called the hypoblast (primitive endoderm). The disc is stretched between what will become the amniotic cavity and the yolk sac. The epiblast is adjacent to the trophoblast and made of columnar cells; the hypoblast is closest to the blastocyst cavity and made of cuboidal cells. The epiblast migrates away from the trophoblast downwards, forming the amniotic cavity, the lining of which is formed from amnioblasts developed from the epiblast. The hypoblast is pushed down and forms the yolk sac (exocoelomic cavity) lining. Some hypoblast cells migrate along the inner cytotrophoblast lining of the blastocoel, secreting an extracellular matrix along the way. These hypoblast cells and extracellular matrix are called Heuser's membrane (or the exocoelomic membrane), and they cover the blastocoel to form the yolk sac (or exocoelomic cavity). Cells of the hypoblast migrate along the outer edges of this reticulum and form the extraembryonic mesoderm; this disrupts the extraembryonic reticulum. Soon pockets form in the reticulum, which ultimately coalesce to form the chorionic cavity or extraembryonic coelom.


Question: What is the purpose of the semicolon in a C statement?

In computer programming, the semicolon serves as a terminator in languages like Java and the C family, marking the end of a statement. This usage contrasts with its role as a statement separator in languages such as Perl, Pascal, PL/I, and SQL. The debate over semicolons as terminators was a significant issue in programming languages from the 1960s to the 1980s, with Gannon & Horning's 1975 study providing influential support for their use as statement terminators.

In such languages with variable stress, stress may be phonemic in that it can serve to distinguish otherwise identical words. For example, the English words insight and incite are distinguished in pronunciation only by the fact that the stress falls on the first syllable in the former and on the second syllable in the latter. Other examples include umschreiben ("rewrite") vs. umschreiben ("paraphrase, outline") in German, за́мок ("castle") vs. замо́к ("lock") in Russian, and ancora ("anchor"), ancora ("more, still, yet") in Italian, and the triple example sábia ("wise woman"), sabia ("know"), sabiá ("type of bird") from Portuguese. English compound nouns can change their meaning based on stress, as with paper bág (a bag made of paper) and páper bag (a bag for carrying newspapers).

The COBOL programming language supports pointers to variables. Primitive or group (record) data objects declared within the LINKAGE SECTION of a program are inherently pointer-based, where the only memory allocated within the program is space for the address of the data item (typically a single memory word). In program source code, these data items are used just like any other WORKING-STORAGE variable, but their contents are implicitly accessed indirectly through their LINKAGE pointers.

Automated source code checking and auditing are beneficial in any language, and for C many such tools exist, such as Lint. A common practice is to use Lint to detect questionable code when a program is first written. Once a program passes Lint, it is then compiled using the C compiler. Also, many compilers can optionally warn about syntactically valid constructs that are likely to actually be errors. MISRA C is a proprietary set of guidelines to avoid such questionable code, developed for embedded systems.[38]

While the true semantic web may depend on complex RDF ontologies and metadata, every HTML document makes its contribution to the meaningfulness of the Web by the correct use of headings, lists, titles and other semantic markup wherever possible. This "plain" use of HTML has been called "Plain Old Semantic HTML" or POSH.[9] The correct use of Web 2.0 'tagging' creates folksonomies that may be equally or even more meaningful to many.[8] HTML 5 introduced new semantic elements such as section, article, footer, progress, nav, aside, mark, and time.[10][11] Overall, the goal of the W3C is to slowly introduce more ways for browsers, developers, and crawlers to better distinguish between different types of data, allowing for benefits such as better display on browsers on different devices.[10]

In 1978, Brian Kernighan and Dennis Ritchie published the first edition of The C Programming Language.[1] This book, known to C programmers as "K&R", served for many years as an informal specification of the language. The version of C that it describes is commonly referred to as K&R C. The second edition of the book[16] covers the later ANSI C standard, described below.

The instruction set is very simple; there are 27 instructions in three families. Most instructions are available in .B (8-bit byte) and .W (16-bit word) suffixed versions, depending on the value of a B/W bit: the bit is set to 1 for 8-bit and 0 for 16-bit. A missing suffix is equivalent to .W. Byte operations to memory affect only the addressed byte, while byte operations to registers clear the most significant byte.

Published in June 2018, C18 is the current standard for the C programming language. It introduces no new language features, only technical corrections and clarifications to defects in C11. The standard macro __STDC_VERSION__ is defined as 201710L.

A character type (typically called "char") may contain a single letter, digit, punctuation mark, symbol, formatting code, control code, or some other specialized code (e.g., a byte order mark). In C, char is defined as the smallest addressable unit of memory. On most systems, this is 8 bits; Several standards, such as POSIX, require it to be this size. Some languages have two or more character types, for example a single-byte type for ASCII characters and a multi-byte type for Unicode characters. The term "character type" is normally used even for types whose values more precisely represent code units, for example a UTF-16 code unit as in Java and JavaScript.

Dereferencing a null pointer in C produces undefined behavior,[7] which could be catastrophic. However, most implementations[citation needed] simply halt execution of the program in question, usually with a segmentation fault.

Kernigan and Ritchie state in their book The C Programming Language two reasons for using a typedef. First, it provides a means to make a program more portable or easier to maintain. Instead of having to change a type everywhere it appears throughout the program's source files, only a single typedef statement needs to be changed. Second, a typedef can make a complex definition or declaration easier to understand.


Question: Where are mucosal-associated lymphoid tissues located in the human body and what is their function?

Mucosa-associated lymphoid tissue (MALT), also known as mucosa-associated lymphatic tissue, is a widespread system of small lymphoid tissue clusters found in various submucosal membrane locations throughout the body. These locations include the gastrointestinal tract, oral cavity, nasopharyngeal region, thyroid, breasts, lungs, salivary glands, eyes, and skin. MALT is populated by various lymphocytes, including T cells and B cells, as well as plasma cells and macrophages, all of which are strategically positioned to encounter antigens passing through the mucosal epithelium. In the gastrointestinal tract, specialized M cells are present to sample antigens from the intestinal lumen and deliver them to the lymphoid tissue, facilitating immune responses.

In a transplant procedure, as of an organ or stem cells, MHC molecules act themselves as antigens and can provoke immune response in the recipient, thus causing transplant rejection. MHC molecules were identified and named after their role in transplant rejection between mice of different strains, though it took over 20 years to clarify MHC's role in presenting peptide antigens to cytotoxic T lymphocytes (CTLs).[31]

Since the lymph is derived from the interstitial fluid, its composition continually changes as the blood and the surrounding cells continually exchange substances with the interstitial fluid. It is generally similar to blood plasma, which is the fluid component of blood. Lymph returns proteins and excess interstitial fluid to the bloodstream. Lymph may pick up bacteria and bring them to lymph nodes, where they are destroyed. Metastatic cancer cells can also be transported via lymph. Lymph also transports fats from the digestive system (beginning in the lacteals) to the blood via chylomicrons.

The system is highly adaptable because of somatic hypermutation (a process of accelerated somatic mutations), and V(D)J recombination (an irreversible genetic recombination of antigen receptor gene segments). This mechanism allows a small number of genes to generate a vast number of different antigen receptors, which are then uniquely expressed on each individual lymphocyte. Since the gene rearrangement leads to an irreversible change in the DNA of each cell, all progeny (offspring) of that cell inherit genes that encode the same receptor specificity, including the memory B cells and memory T cells that are the keys to long-lived specific immunity.

A well known example of selection occurring in human populations is lactose tolerance. Lactose intolerance is the inability to metabolize lactose, because of a lack of the required enzyme lactase in the digestive system. The normal mammalian condition is for the young of a species to experience reduced lactase production at the end of the weaning period (a species-specific length of time). In humans, in non-dairy consuming societies, lactase production usually drops about 90% during the first four years of life, although the exact drop over time varies widely.[203] Lactase activity persistence in adults is associated with two polymorphisms: C/T 13910 and G/A 22018 located in the MCM6 gene.[204] This gene difference eliminates the shutdown in lactase production, making it possible for members of these populations to continue consumption of raw milk and other fresh and fermented dairy products throughout their lives without difficulty. This appears to be an evolutionarily recent (around 10,000 years ago [and 7,500 years ago in Europe][205]) adaptation to dairy consumption,[206] and has occurred independently in both northern Europe and east Africa in populations with a historically pastoral lifestyle.[207][208]

The two types of bone marrow are "red marrow" (Latin: medulla ossium rubra), which consists mainly of hematopoietic tissue, and "yellow marrow" (Latin: medulla ossium flava), which is mainly made up of fat cells. Red blood cells, platelets, and most white blood cells arise in red marrow. Both types of bone marrow contain numerous blood vessels and capillaries. At birth, all bone marrows are red. With age, more and more of it is converted to the yellow type; only around half of adult bone marrow is red. Red marrow is found mainly in the flat bones, such as the pelvis, sternum, cranium, ribs, vertebrae and scapulae, and in the cancellous ("spongy") material at the epiphyseal ends of long bones such as the femur and humerus. Yellow marrow is found in the medullary cavity, the hollow interior of the middle portion of long bones. In cases of severe blood loss, the body can convert yellow marrow back to red marrow to increase blood cell production.

V(D)J recombination occurs in the primary lymphoid organs (bone marrow for B cells and thymus for T cells) and in a nearly random fashion rearranges variable (V), joining (J), and in some cases, diversity (D) gene segments. The process ultimately results in novel amino acid sequences in the antigen-binding regions of Igs and TCRs that allow for the recognition of antigens from nearly all pathogens including bacteria, viruses, parasites, and worms as well as "altered self cells" as seen in cancer. The recognition can also be allergic in nature (e.g., to pollen or other allergens) or may be "autoreactive" and lead to autoimmunity.

Generally, in animals, nasal turbinates (cochae) are convoluted structures of thin bone or cartilage located in the nasal cavity. These are lined with mucous membranes that can perform two functions. They can improve the sense of smell by increasing the area available to absorb airborne chemicals, and they can warm and moisten inhaled air, and extract heat and moisture from exhaled air to prevent desiccation of the lungs. Olfactory turbinates are found in all living tetrapods,[citation needed] and respiratory turbinates are found in most mammals and birds.

The MHC class I genes originated in the most recent common ancestor of all jawed vertebrates, and have been found in all living jawed vertebrates that have been studied thus far.[2] Since their emergence in jawed vertebrates, this gene family has been subjected to many divergent evolutionary paths as speciation events have taken place. There are, however, documented cases of trans-species polymorphisms in MHC class I genes, where a particular allele in an evolutionary related MHC class I gene remains in two species, likely due to strong pathogen-mediated balancing selection by pathogens that can infect both species.[9] Birth-and-death evolution is one of the mechanistic explanations for the size of the MHC class I gene family.

Microscopically, veins have a thick outer layer made of connective tissue, called the tunica externa or tunica adventitia. There is a middle layer of bands of smooth muscle called tunica media, which are, in general, much thinner than those of arteries, as veins do not function primarily in a contractile manner and are not subject to the high pressures of systole, as arteries are. The interior is lined with endothelial cells called tunica intima. The precise location of veins varies much more from person to person than that of arteries.[3]

Although the classical molecules of the adaptive immune system (e.g., antibodies and T cell receptors) exist only in jawed vertebrates, a distinct lymphocyte-derived molecule has been discovered in primitive jawless vertebrates, such as the lamprey and hagfish. These animals possess a large array of molecules called variable lymphocyte receptors (VLRs for short) that, like the antigen receptors of jawed vertebrates, are produced from only a small number (one or two) of genes. These molecules are believed to bind pathogenic antigens in a similar way to antibodies, and with the same degree of specificity.[8]


Question: When is the Publishers Clearing House sweepstakes drawing date?

Publishers Clearing House, known for its sweepstakes and magazine subscriptions, ensures that no purchase is necessary to enter or win. The company has a tradition of announcing winners of its $10 million prize just after the Super Bowl since 1995. As of 2012, PCH has distributed $225 million in prizes. The prizes offered can range from $1 Amazon gift cards to $2,500, $1 million, or even $10 million, with some larger cash prizes being paid in installments over 30 years, significantly reducing their present value compared to their nominal values.

To increase sales, a promotion was held later that summer in which five buyers received free BMW convertible vehicles, worth $37,000 each.[15] The opening was later scheduled to occur in February 2008.[16] However, building inspections began that month instead. Allen hoped to obtain a temporary certificate of occupancy the following month which would allow buyers to close escrow on their units.[6] The project was built at a cost of either $125 million[17] or $205 million.[5][15]

Because the book became a surprise hit, many further editions were printed, eventually settling into a pattern of one revision a year, published in September/October, in time for Christmas. The McWhirters continued to compile it for many years. Both brothers had an encyclopedic memory; on the TV series Record Breakers, based upon the book, they would take questions posed by children in the audience on various world records and were able to give the correct answer. Ross McWhirter was assassinated by the Provisional Irish Republican Army in 1975.[10] Following Ross' assassination, the feature in the show where questions about records posed by children were answered was called Norris on the Spot.

The deadline for the United States to begin using Clinical Modification ICD-10-CM for diagnosis coding and Procedure Coding System ICD-10-PCS for inpatient hospital procedure coding was set at October 1, 2015,[27][28] which is a year later than a previous 2014 deadline.[29] Before that 2014 deadline, the previous deadline has been a year before that on October 1, 2013.[30][31] All HIPAA "covered entities" must make the change; a pre-requisite to ICD-10-CM is the adoption of EDI Version 5010 by January 1, 2012.[32] Enforcement of 5010 transition by the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS), however, was postponed by CMS until March 31, 2012, with the federal agency citing numerous factors, including slow software upgrades.[33]  The implementation of ICD-10-CM has been subject to previous delays. In January 2009, the date was pushed back by two years, to October 1, 2013, rather than an earlier proposal of October 1, 2011.[34]

Celebrity Big Brother, also known as Big Brother: Celebrity Edition,[1] is a spin-off series of the American reality television series Big Brother. This season aired during the winter of the 2017–18 network television season on CBS and was the second U.S. Big Brother season to air outside the usual summer television season, the first being Big Brother 9 in 2008. Julie Chen returned as host, with Allison Grodner and Rich Meehan returning as executive producers. The season was produced by Fly on the Wall Entertainment in association with Endemol Shine North America. The season premiered on February 7, 2018.[2]

Produced by Mark Goodson and Bill Todman for CBS Television, the show was initially called Occupation Unknown before deciding on the name What's My Line?[4] The original series, which was usually broadcast live, debuted on Thursday, February 2, 1950, at 8:00 p.m. ET. After airing alternate Wednesdays, then alternate Thursdays, finally on October 1, 1950, it had settled into its weekly Sunday 10:30 p.m. ET slot where it would remain until the end of its network run on September 3, 1967.

The Budget and Accounting Act of 1921 requires the President to submit the budget to Congress for each fiscal year, which is the 12-month period beginning on October 1 and ending on September 30 of the next calendar year. The current federal budget law (31 U.S.C. § 1105(a)) requires that the President submit the budget between the first Monday in January and the first Monday in February. In recent times, the President's budget submission has been issued in the first week of February.[4] The budget submission has been delayed, however, in some new presidents' first year when the previous president belonged to a different party. The 2014 United States federal budget was not submitted by the President until April 10, 2013 due to negotiations over the United States fiscal cliff and implementation of the sequester cuts mandated by the Budget Control Act of 2011.[5] (The House had already prepared its budget proposal on March 21, and the Senate proposed a budget on March 23.)

In 2012, the James Randi Educational Foundation (JREF) awarded Caputo its Pigasus Award for being, in its view, the "psychic" performer who fooled the greatest number of people with the least effort in the preceding year. A Pigasus award was also given to TLC for continuing to air the show.[14] In an article published by Wired Magazine the organization's founder James Randi explained why he believed shows like Long Island Medium were deceptive and potentially harmful to its participants:

For its first American broadcast on January 18, 2007 on NBC, "The Return" aired to an estimated 10.15 million viewers according to Nielsen Media Research. It was positively received by television critics, with several focusing on the character development of Angela Martin (Angela Kinsey). Along with "Traveling Salesmen", NBC later re-broadcast "The Return" as a combined hour-long episode as part of their sweeps week. As a result, both episodes underwent editing which included the addition of four minutes of previously unseen footage.

Phase 1 applications for funding were due on January 19, 2010. 40 states applied for funding, as did the District of Columbia. Phase 1 finalists were announced on March 4, 2010, and phase 1 winners were announced on March 29, 2010.[10][11] The deadline for submitting Phase 2 applications was June 1; Phase 2 decisions were announced on August 24, 2010.[12] Phase 3 applications were split into two parts. Part I was due November 22, 2011 and Part II was due December 16. Awards were announced on December 23. Winners of Phase 3 included: Arizona, Colorado, Illinois, Kentucky, Louisiana, New Jersey, and Pennsylvania.[13] Only Phase 2 finalists who did not earn money were eligible.[14] Race to the Top - Early Learning Challenge, jointly conducted by the Department of Education and the United States Department of Health and Human Services, applications were due October 20. On April 9, 2012 the Department of Education announced there would be a second round of the Race to the Top - Early Learning Challenge. The five states that were close to winning in the first round (CO, IL, NM, OR, WI) would compete for $133 million.[15] On May 22, 2012, the Department of Education proposed draft criteria for a district-level Race to the Top program. On December 19, 2013, six additional states (Georgia, Kentucky, Michigan, New Jersey, Pennsylvania and Vermont) were awarded a total of $280 million from the 2013 Early Learning Challenge (RTT-ELC) fund.[16]

For centuries, engineering drawing was the sole method of transferring information from design into manufacture. In recent decades another method has arisen, called model-based definition (MBD) or digital product definition (DPD). In MBD, the information captured by the CAD software app is fed automatically into a CAM app (computer-aided manufacturing), which (with or without postprocessing apps) creates code in other languages such as G-code to be executed by a CNC machine tool (computer numerical control), 3D printer, or (increasingly) a hybrid machine tool that uses both. Thus today it is often the case that the information travels from the mind of the designer into the manufactured component without having ever been codified by an engineering drawing. In MBD, the dataset, not a drawing, is the legal instrument. The term "technical data package" (TDP) is now used to refer to the complete package of information (in one medium or another) that communicates information from design to production (such as 3D-model datasets, engineering drawings, engineering change orders (ECOs), spec revisions and addenda, and so on). However, even in the MBD era, where theoretically production could happen without any drawings or humans at all, it is still the case that drawings and humans are involved. It still takes CAD/CAM programmers, CNC setup workers, and CNC operators to do manufacturing, as well as other people such as quality assurance staff (inspectors) and logistics staff (for materials handling, shipping-and-receiving, and front office functions). These workers often use drawings in the course of their work that have been produced by rendering and plotting (printing) from the MBD dataset. When proper procedures are being followed, a clear chain of precedence is always documented, such that when a person looks at a drawing, s/he is told by a note thereon that this drawing is not the governing instrument (because the MBD dataset is). In these cases, the drawing is still a useful document, although legally it is classified as "for reference only", meaning that if any controversies or discrepancies arise, it is the MBD dataset, not the drawing, that governs.


Question: Where does the story "Summer of the Monkeys" take place?

In the novel "Summer of the Monkeys," the setting is the late 1800s, where the main character, 14-year-old Jay Berry Lee, lives with his family. Originally from Missouri, they relocate to Oklahoma when Jay Berry's grandfather offers them a piece of land. Jay Berry's sister, Daisy, has a disability that requires costly surgery. While searching for their missing cow, Jay Berry stumbles upon a group of monkeys that have escaped from a passing circus. His grandfather's store has information about a generous reward for their capture: $100 for the leader, "Jimbo," and $2 for each of the others. Jay Berry tries several times to catch them using traps and a net, but he only ends up with injuries and once, even loses his pants in the process. The story unfolds in Oklahoma, where Jay Berry attempts to catch the monkeys to earn money for his sister's surgery.

While skipping school one day, twelve-year-old Rob Peck finds himself assisting a neighbor's cow through the delivery of a pair of calves (and saving her life from her goiter), an action that earns him a piglet he names Pinky. Pinky quickly becomes Rob's best friend and closest companion save for his father, Haven, a butcher working to save money to pay off the Peck family's farm. Rob raises Pinky to be a prize-winning animal, while learning lessons about hard work, acceptance, and the importance of education from his family and friends in rural, fictional Learning, Vermont during the late 1920s. Ultimately, tragic circumstances force Rob to learn that life is heartbreakingly impermanent and that wealth should never be measured in material goods alone.

"The Children's Story" is a 4,300-word short story by James Clavell. It first appeared in Reader's Digest (June 1964 issue) and was republished in book form in 1981. It is also the title of a 1982 short film based upon the story, which aired on Mobil Showcase.[1]

In 1926, at the age of seven, Gaines is raised on a cotton plantation in Macon, Georgia. When the farm's owner rapes Cecil's mother, Cecil's father confronts him and is killed. Cecil is taken in by the estate's caretaker, who trains Cecil as a house servant.

A major theme in the book is abandonment followed by fostering, as in the life of Mowgli, echoing Kipling's own childhood. The theme is echoed in the triumph of protagonists including Rikki-Tikki-Tavi and The White Seal over their enemies, as well as Mowgli's. Another important theme is of law and freedom; the stories are not about animal behaviour, still less about the Darwinian struggle for survival, but about human archetypes in animal form. They teach respect for authority, obedience, and knowing one's place in society with "the law of the jungle", but the stories also illustrate the freedom to move between different worlds, such as when Mowgli moves between the jungle and the village. Critics have also noted the essential wildness and lawless energies in the stories, reflecting the irresponsible side of human nature.

Summer was about to go on an overseas trip to Italy with Zach and his family, when the feelings she still had for Seth prevented her from doing so and she left her heartbroken Zach at the airport, going back to Seth. Zach returned later on in the season however, and this along with Zach and Seth once again going into a partnership for a comic book strained her relationship with Seth. Zach also somewhat subtly exploited this to weaken Seth and Summer's relationship and restart his relationship with her, causing something of a love triangle. The introduction of Reed, a female attractive, older comic book executive who Seth was not initially truthful about also caused difficulties. This was eventually resolved when on the day of the Junior Prom they flipped a coin as to who would go to the prom with Summer and who would meet George Lucas for a comic book project meeting, with Zach winning the date with Summer.
However at the Prom both Summer and Zach seemed unhappy with their choices, and at the last minute Seth arrived at the prom to receive the Prom Queen/King award with Summer and reconciled their relationship. Zach apparently succeeded in impressing Lucas and it has been rumored he was given an internship and moved away from Newport as a result, explaining his absence for season 3.

Lee modeled the character of Dill on her childhood friend, Truman Capote, known then as Truman Persons.[17][18] Just as Dill lived next door to Scout during the summer, Capote lived next door to Lee with his aunts while his mother visited New York City.[19] Like Dill, Capote had an impressive imagination and a gift for fascinating stories. Both Lee and Capote were atypical children: both loved to read. Lee was a scrappy tomboy who was quick to fight, but Capote was ridiculed for his advanced vocabulary and lisp. She and Capote made up and acted out stories they wrote on an old Underwood typewriter that Lee's father gave them. They became good friends when both felt alienated from their peers; Capote called the two of them "apart people".[20] In 1960, Capote and Lee traveled to Kansas together to investigate the multiple murders that were the basis for Capote's nonfiction novel In Cold Blood.[21]

The lyrics tell a story of the ageless dragon Puff and his playmate, Jackie Paper, a little boy who grows up and loses interest in the imaginary adventures of childhood and leaves Puff to be with himself. (The line "A dragon lives forever, but not so little boys" is generally thought to imply only that "little Jackie Paper" grew up.) The story of the song takes place "by the sea" in the fictional land of "Honalee".

John (Alec Baldwin), a well-known architect, is visiting Rome with his wife and their friends. He had lived there some thirty years ago, and he would rather revisit his old haunts than go sightseeing with the others. While looking for his old apartment building, John meets Jack (Jesse Eisenberg), an American architecture student who recognizes him. Jack happens to live in John's old building, and invites him up to the apartment he shares with his girlfriend Sally (Greta Gerwig). Throughout the rest of the story, John appears as a quasi-real and quasi-imaginary figure around Jack and makes unusually frank observations of events.[5] Sally tells Jack that she invited her best friend Monica, an actress, to stay with them and tells him that Monica (Ellen Page) gives off a sexual vibe that drives men crazy. John predicts Monica will bring trouble, and John keeps telling Jack that Monica will lead him to trouble. Even though John cautions Jack against cheating with Monica, he begins to succumb to her charms. Sally sets Monica up with Leonardo, one of their friends, and Jack is jealous of their relationship. One night he and Monica decide to cook dinner for Sally and Leonardo. They flirt more and more until Jack kisses Monica; they go down to his car to have sex.

Barry is a private with the 101st Airborne Division of the United States Army, stationed at Fort Campbell, Kentucky while Calpernia works as a showgirl at a transgender revue in Nashville, Tennessee. Barry's roommate Justin Fisher (Shawn Hatosy) brings Barry to the club where Calpernia performs. When Barry and Calpernia start dating, Fisher, out of jealousy, participates in spreading rumors about Barry's alleged affair, which appeared to be a violation of the military's "don't ask, don't tell" policy which forbids discussion of sexual orientation of military personnel. Barry faces increasing harassment and pressure, which explodes into violence over a Fourth of July weekend after Barry easily bests Calvin Glover in a fight. While Calpernia performs in a pageant in Nashville, Barry is beaten to death in his sleep by Glover with a baseball bat given by Fisher. The film ends with a discussion of the aftermath.

Many of these discussions are tied together by the story of the narrator's own past self, who is referred to in the third person as Phaedrus (after Plato's dialogue). Phaedrus, a teacher of creative and technical writing at a small college, became engrossed in the question of what defines good writing, and what in general defines good, or "Quality". His philosophical investigations eventually drove him insane, and he was subjected to electroconvulsive therapy, which permanently changed his personality.