David C. H. Austin was a British rose breeder and writer who lived in Shropshire, England. His emphasis was on breeding roses with the character and fragrance of old garden roses (such as gallicas, damasks and alba roses) but with the repeat-flowering ability and wide colour range of modern roses such as hybrid teas and floribundas.
The blue-footed booby is a marine bird native to subtropical and tropical regions of the eastern Pacific Ocean. It is easily recognizable by its distinctive bright blue feet, which is a sexually selected trait and a product of their diet. Males display their feet in an elaborate mating ritual by lifting them up and down while strutting before the female. To stay cool in very hot environments, Blue-footed Boobies sometimes defecate on their feet (a behavior called urohydrosis). They also flutter the skin of their throats (the gular pouch) by rapidly vibrating bones in their throat, which creates evaporative cooling through the open mouth. The blue color of Blue-footed Booby’s feet varies in its intensity. Boobies with bluer feet appear to have more success in finding a mate than birds with duller blue feet. One study looked at foot color in relation to the health of young chicks and found that healthiest chicks tended to have fathers with intensely blue feet—possibly an indication of the father’s ability to keep himself well fed.
Heteropoda davidbowie is a species of huntsman spider of the genus Heteropoda. It was described from the Cameron Highlands District in peninsular Malaysia and named in honour of singer David Bowie. Heteropoda davidbowie was first described by Peter Jäger in 2008, based on a specimen collected by G. Ackermann in 2007 in the Cameron Highlands of peninsular Malaysia. The species name honours David Bowie, with particular reference to songs such as "Glass Spider" (from the 1987 album Never Let Me Down), as well as the 1972 album The Rise and Fall of Ziggy Stardust and the Spiders from Mars, and the resemblance of the frontal view of the spider to the singer's painted face in his early career.
This seemingly innocent location was used as the central hub of torture and interrogation by the French during the French Algerian war.
Palazzina Cinese is an architectural gem nestled within the verdant landscape of Palermo, Sicily. Built in the late 18th century during the Bourbon rule of Sicily, this exquisite structure represents a unique blend of European and Oriental design influences, making it a captivating testament to cultural exchange and artistic innovation.
Alec Cobbe is an Irish designer, artist, musical instrument collector and decorator. Cobbe studied medicine at Corpus Christi College, Oxford, and underwent his clinical training at the London Hospital. Cobbe gave up his study of medicine to become a painter and trained as an art conservator at the Tate. Since the early 1980s Cobbe has advised on the redecoration of historic British country houses.
C. T. Loo was a controversial art dealer of Chinese origin who maintained galleries in Paris and New York and supplied important pieces for collectors and American museums by illegally exporting a large amount of significant state cultural relics from China. He has been called "the preeminent dealer of Chinese art and artifacts for the first half of the twentieth century," but also criticized for his illegal active role in removing antiques and archaeological treasures from China for sale to western collectors.
The Travellers Club is a private gentlemen's club situated at 106 Pall Mall in London, United Kingdom. It is the oldest of the surviving Pall Mall clubs and one of the most exclusive, having been established in 1819. The original concept of the club, by Lord Castlereagh and others, dates from the conclusion of the Napoleonic Wars. They envisaged a club where gentlemen who travelled abroad might meet and offer hospitality to distinguished foreign visitors. The original rules of 1819 excluded from membership anyone “who has not travelled out of the British islands to a distance of at least five hundred miles from London in a direct line”.
Bermeja is a phantom islet lying off the north coast of the Yucatán peninsula according to several maps of the Gulf of Mexico from the 16th to the 20th centuries. Despite being located somewhat precisely in relation to neighboring islands by notable Spanish cartographers of the 16th century, the island was not found in a 1997 survey, nor in an extensive 2009 study conducted by the National Autonomous University of Mexico (UNAM) on behalf of the Mexican Chamber of Deputies. Interest in the island arose in late 2008, fueled by the fact that if such an island existed, it would be important for determining the boundaries for exploitation rights of oil in Hoyos de Dona in the Gulf of Mexico.
Teodoro Nguema Obiang Mangue is an Equatoguinean politician who has served as the first vice president of Equatorial Guinea since 22 June 2016. He is a son of Teodoro Obiang, the authoritarian leader of Equatorial Guinea, by his first wife, Constancia Mangue. He has been appointed to numerous government positions by his father's regime, including Minister of Agriculture and Forestry and "Second Vice-President", in charge of defense and security, in May 2012. He was promoted to the position of First Vice-President in June 2016. Known for his lavish lifestyle, he has been the subject of a number of international criminal charges and sanctions for alleged embezzlement and corruption. His net worth is $600 Million including his yacht, private jets, and luxury cars.