Falcon

A falcon (/ˈfɔːlkən, ˈfæl-/) is any one of 37 species of raptors in the genus Falco, widely distributed on all continents of the world except Antarctica.

Adult falcons have thin, tapered wings, which enable them to fly at high speed and to change direction rapidly. Fledgling falcons, in their first year of flying, have longer flight feathers, which make their configuration more like that of a general-purpose bird such as a broadwing. This makes it easier to fly while learning the exceptional skills required to be effective hunters as adults.

The falcons are the largest genus in the Falconinae subfamily of Falconidae, which itself also includes another subfamily comprising caracaras and a few other species. All these birds kill with their beaks, using a "tooth" on the side of their beaks — unlike the hawks, eagles, and other birds of prey in Accipitridae, which use their feet.

Peregrine falcons have been recorded diving at speeds of 200 miles per hour (320 km/h), making them the fastest-moving creatures on Earth. Other falcons include the gyrfalcon, lanner falcon, and merlin. Some small falcons with long, narrow wings are called hobbies, and some which hover while hunting are called kestrels.

Falcons (disambiguation)

Falcons are a genus of raptor (bird of prey).

Falcons may also refer to:

See also

Falcons (rugby team)

The Falcons – better known by their Afrikaans name the Valke and currently known as the Hino Valke for sponsorship reasons – are a South African rugby union team in Gauteng province that participates in the annual Currie Cup and Vodacom Cup tournaments.

Their home ground is currently Barnard Stadium in Kempton Park, to which they have returned in 2009. The Falcons have operated out of both Bosman Stadium in Brakpan and Pam Brink Stadium in Springs. They occasionally still host matches at Bosman Stadium. The Falcons draw players from Ekurhuleni and other municipalities to the east and south of Johannesburg.

History

The Falcons Rugby Union was originally founded in 1947, and was previously known as the Eastern Transvaal Rugby Football Union. After the 1995 World Cup, rugby was declared a professional sport in South Africa, after which the Eastern Transvaal Rugby Football Union merged with the Vaal Triangle Rugby Union to form the Gauteng Falcons Rugby Union and are one of only fourteen Provincial Unions in the country.

Let

Let or LET may refer to:

Diminutive

A diminutive is a word which has been modified to convey a slighter degree of its root meaning, to convey the smallness of the object or quality named, or to convey a sense of intimacy or endearment. A diminutive form (abbreviated DIM) is a grammatical inflection used to express such meanings; in many languages, such inflections can be translated as "little" and diminutives can also be formed as multi-word constructions such as "Tiny Tim". Diminutives are used frequently when speaking to small children or when expressing extreme tenderness and intimacy to an adult. As such, they are often employed for nicknames and pet names. The opposite of the diminutive form is the augmentative.

In many languages, formation of diminutives by adding suffixes is a productive part of the language. A double diminutive is a diminutive form with two diminutive suffixes rather than one. While many languages apply a grammatical diminutive to nouns, a few—including Dutch, Latin, Macedonian and Russian—also use it for adjectives and even other parts of speech. In English the alteration of meaning is often conveyed through clipping, making the words shorter and more colloquial. Diminutives formed by adding affixes in other languages are often longer and not necessarily understood as colloquial.

List of Rave Master characters

The Rave Master manga and anime series features an extensive cast of characters created by Hiro Mashima. The series takes place in a fictional universe that exists as a parallel world where vast numbers of humans as well as species known as sentenoids and demonoids fight using weapons, magic and evil artifacts known as Dark Bring (Shadow Stone in the anime's English dub). One of the most primary users of the artifact known as Dark Bring is an evil terrorist organization known as Demon Card (Shadow Guard in the anime's English dub) which plans to use it to take over the world and bring it into darkness.

The main character Haru Glory, is chosen by the holy artifact known as Rave to wield the Ten Powers and go on a quest with the strange dog like creature known as Plue to find the other four remaining Rave stones and put an end to the usage of Dark Bring and bring peace to the world. In his travel, fate brings him to ally himself with a girl that lost her memories and believes she is named Elie and is unaware that she has a strong involvement with the Rave stones. Together on their quest, they gain allies known as the Rave Warriors which consist of the thief that can manipulate silver known as Hamrio Musica, a cartographer which is the strange blue creature known as Griffon Kato, Let Dahaka and Julia who are both martial artists and members of a species from the mystic realm known as the Dragon Race, Ruby, a rich penguin-like sentenoid, and Belnika, a kind sorceress.

Phrase

In everyday speech, a phrase may be any group of words, often carrying a special idiomatic meaning; in this sense it is roughly synonymous with expression. In linguistic analysis, a phrase is a group of words (or possibly a single word) that functions as a constituent in the syntax of a sentence—a single unit within a grammatical hierarchy. A phrase appears within a clause, although it is also possible for a phrase to be a clause or to contain a clause within it.

Common and technical use

There is a difference between the common use of the term phrase and its technical use in linguistics. In common usage, a phrase is usually a group of words with some special idiomatic meaning or other significance, such as "all rights reserved", "economical with the truth", "kick the bucket", and the like. It may be a euphemism, a saying or proverb, a fixed expression, a figure of speech, etc.

In grammatical analysis, particularly in theories of syntax, a phrase is any group of words, or sometimes a single word, which plays a particular role within the grammatical structure of a sentence. It does not have to have any special meaning or significance, or even exist anywhere outside of the sentence being analyzed, but it must function there as a complete grammatical unit. For example, in the sentence Yesterday I saw an orange bird with a white neck, the words an orange bird with a white neck form what is called a noun phrase, or a determiner phrase in some theories, which functions as the object of the sentence.