Beak
The beak, bill, or rostrum is an external anatomical structure of birds which is used for eating and for grooming, manipulating objects, killing prey, fighting, probing for food, courtship and feeding young. The terms beak and rostrum are also used to refer to a similar mouthpart in some Ornithischian dinosaurs, monotremes, cephalopods (see Cephalopod beak), cetaceans, billfishes, pufferfishes, turtles, Anuran tadpoles and sirens.
Although beaks vary significantly in size, shape, color and texture, they share a similar underlying structure. Two bony projections—the upper and lower mandibles—are covered with a thin keratinized layer of epidermis known as the rhamphotheca. In most species, two holes known as nares lead to the respiratory system.
Etymology
Although the word 'beak' was, in the past, generally restricted to the sharpened bills of birds of prey, in modern ornithology, the terms 'beak' and 'bill' are generally considered to be synonymous.
Anatomy
Although beaks vary significantly in size and shape from species to species, their underlying structures have a similar pattern. All beaks are composed of two jaws, generally known as the upper mandible (or maxilla) and lower mandible (or mandible). The upper, and in some cases the lower, mandibles are strengthened internally by a complex three-dimensional network of bony spicules (or trabeculae) seated in soft connective tissue and surrounded by the hard outer layers of the beak. The avian jaw apparatus is made up of two units; one four-bar linkage mechanism and one five-bar linkage mechanism.
Beak (bivalve)
The beak is part of the shell of a bivalve mollusk, i.e. part of the shell of a saltwater or freshwater clam. The beak is the basal projection of the oldest part of the valve of the adult animal. The beak usually, but not always, coincides with the umbo, the highest and most prominent point on the valve. Because by definition, all bivalves have two valves, the shell of a bivalve has two umbones, and two beaks.
In many species of bivalves the beaks point towards one another. However, in some species of bivalves the beaks point posteriorly, in which case they are referred to as opisthogyrate; in others the beaks point forward, and are described as being prosogyrate.
If the beak is not eroded or worn down at all, it may still be capped with the prodissoconch, which is the larval shell of the animal.
References
Beak (album)
Beak (stylized BEAK> and also named Recordings 05/01/09 > 17/01/09) is the self-titled debut studio album by British band Beak>, released by the label Invada in October 2009. It was improvised and recorded in a twelve day period without any overdubbing or repair. It earned generally positive reviews from critics upon release, holding an aggregate of 72 out of 100 on Metacritic.
Production
Beak was written and recorded between 5–17 January 2009, improvised live without any overdubbing, at State Of Art Studios in Bristol, England. The reason for the improvised recording was that, according to member Geoff Barrow, "We’ve all played on really overdub-y records, but we felt like this wasn’t about that. We had enough of a sound between the three of us that we didn’t need to mess around with it." However, in an L.A. Record interview with the entire group, they said there was might've been one tiny overdub, and that was done through discussion.
The recording on each day would start at twelve PM, and last until six. Some songs were played ten times, while some others had two or three versions made, but usually the first take was chosen to be featured on the final product. The only tracks that were done in one take were "Backwell" and "Battery Point". Barrow said about the lyric writing, "I never wrote anything down. And what you hear is what happened in the [recording] room. Non-traditional vocals, really. I’m not a very lyrical person, and I’m definitely not a singer. I felt a little weird about it." The album was engineered by Stuart Matthews, and finally mastered by Shawn Joseph at Optimum Mastering.
Cup
A cup is a small open container used for drinking and carrying drinks. It may be made of wood, plastic, glass, clay, metal, stone, china or other materials, and may have a stem, handles or other adornments. Cups are used for drinking across a wide range of cultures and social classes, and different styles of cups may be used for different liquids or in different situations.
Cups have been used for thousands of years for the purpose of carrying food and drink, as well as for decoration. They may also be used in certain cultural rituals and to hold objects not intended for drinking such as coins.
Types
Names for different types of cups vary regionally and may overlap. Any transparent cup, regardless of actual composition, is likely to be called a "glass"; therefore, while a cup made of paper is a "paper cup", a transparent one for drinking shots is called a "shot glass", instead.
Cups for hot beverages
While in theory, most cups are well suited to hold drinkable liquids, hot drinks like tea are generally served in either insulated cups or porcelain teacups.
Cup (disambiguation)
A cup is any of a variety of drinkware used to consume food or beverage.
Cup or cups may also refer to:
Cooking
Clothing
Mathematics, science, and technology
Music
Cup (unit)
The cup is a unit of measurement for volume, used in cooking to measure liquids (fluid measurement) and bulk foods such as granulated sugar (dry measurement). It is principally used in the United States and Liberia where it is a legally defined unit of measurement. Actual cups used in a household in any country may differ from the cup size used for recipes; standard measuring cups, often calibrated in fluid measure and weights of usual dry ingredients as well as in cups, are available.
Metric cup
Some countries in the Commonwealth of Nations, notably Australia and New Zealand, define a metric cup of 250 millilitres. Units such as metric cups and metric feet are derived from the metric system but are not official metric units
A "coffee cup" is 1.5 dl or 150 millilitres or 5.07 US customary fluid ounces, and is occasionally used in recipes. It is also used in the US to specify coffeemaker sizes (what can be referred to as a Tasse à café). A "12-cup" US coffeemaker makes 57.6 US customary fluid ounces of coffee, or 6.8 metric cups of coffee.
