Tadpole

A tadpole (also called a pollywog or porwigle in British English) is the larval stage in the life cycle of an amphibian, particularly that of a frog or toad. They are usually wholly aquatic, though some species have tadpoles that are terrestrial. When first hatched from the egg they have a more or less globular body, a laterally compressed tail and internal or external gills. As they grow they undergo metamorphosis, during which process they grow limbs, develop lungs and reabsorb the tail. Most tadpoles are herbivorous and during metamorphosis the mouth and internal organs are rearranged to prepare for an adult carnivorous lifestyle.

Having no hard parts, it might be expected that fossil tadpoles would not exist. However, traces of biofilms have been preserved and fossil tadpoles have been found dating back to the Miocene. Tadpoles are eaten in some parts of the world and are mentioned in folk tales and used as a symbol in ancient Egyptian numerals.

Etymology

The name "tadpole" is from Middle English taddepol, made up of the elements tadde, "toad", and pol, "head" (modern English "poll"). Similarly, "polliwog" is from Middle English polwygle, made up of the same pol, "head" and wiglen, "to wiggle".

Tadpole (band)

Tadpole was a New Zealand rock band from Auckland fronted by female vocalist Renée Brennan. The band formed in June, 1994, and, after numerous line-up changes, disbanded in late 2006.

Before 2000

Between the band's beginning and 1999, Tadpole went through so many line-up changes that there soon ended up being no original members left in the band. At one point, Tadpole was almost a girl band as there were three female members.

However, vocalist Renée Brennan and drummer/manager Dean Lawton have been stable members of the band since the late 1990s, just prior to their New Zealand rise to fame.

During that time, the singles "Blind" (Radio release only, 1998), "For Me" (single release, 1999) and "Backdoor" (also a single release, 1999), were released.

They said their song "Backdoor" was "about our struggle thus far to make it in the New Zealand music industry, and the initial frustration of trying to get our music played on radio, TV - or anywhere really. The 'backdoor' part came about because we felt we were never going to be accepted by the student radio stations, we'd just have to come in through the back door somehow. And yes - for those who want to know, the metaphor of anal sex is intended. I liken our struggle to getting buggered over, and over, and over again. In a very loving and tongue in cheek way."

Tadpole (dinghy)

The Tadpole is a small dinghy with an approximate length of 6 feet (2 m) and an approximate beam of 3¹⁄₂ feet. Its gaff rig has 30 square feet (3 m²) of sail area.

References

Wilcox, Butch; Wilcox, Rita (1987). Dinghies and Daysailers. Phoenix, Arizona: Barca De Vela Publishing. p. 349. ISBN 0-944236-39-1. 

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List of minor planets: 27001–28000

Fast Auroral Snapshot Explorer

The Fast Auroral Snapshot Explorer (FAST) is a NASA plasma physics satellite, and is the second spacecraft in the Small Explorer program. It was launched on August 21, 1996, from Vandenberg Air Force Base aboard a Pegasus XL rocket. The spacecraft was designed and built by NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center. Flight operations were handled by Goddard for the first three years, and thereafter were transferred to the University of California, Berkeley's Space Sciences Laboratory.

FAST was designed to observe and measure the plasma physics of the auroral phenomena which occur around both of Earth's poles. While its Electric Field Experiment failed around 2002, all other instruments continued to operate normally until science operations were ended on May 1, 2009. Various engineering tests were conducted afterward.

Instruments

Stuff.co.nz

Stuff.co.nz is a New Zealand news website published by Fairfax Digital, a division of Fairfax New Zealand Ltd, a subsidiary of Australian company Fairfax Media Ltd. Stuff hosts the websites for Fairfax's New Zealand newspapers, including the country's second and third highest circulation daily newspapers, The Dominion Post and The Press, and the highest circulation weekly, The Sunday Star-Times. It is also a web portal to other Fairfax websites. As of June 2012, the website had an Alexa rank in New Zealand of 8; the site's main competitor, The New Zealand Herald website, had a rank of 9. The site statistics for April 2012 were 4.9 million unique browsers, and 147.5 million page views. Stuff is widely regarded by New Zealand readers as a tabloid style of publication.

History

The former New Zealand media company Independent Newspapers Ltd (INL) launched Stuff on 27 June 2000 at a cybercafe in Auckland, after announcing its intention to go online more than a year earlier. Advertising agency Saatchi & Saatchi conceived the name "Stuff", and INL had to buy the domain name from a cyber squatter. In its first month, the site had 120,000 unique visitors.