Mona (elephant)

Mona (c. 1951 — June 21, 2007) was a 7,800 pound Asian elephant (Elephas maximus) on exhibit at the Birmingham Zoo in Birmingham, Alabama (USA). Mona's age was contested. According to zoo officials, she was born in the wild around 1947. An entry in a stud book maintained by the Association of Zoos and Aquariums gives an approximate birth year of 1951.

She was housed in Miami, Florida for about two years before debuting in Birmingham on July 4, 1955, the year the Zoo reopened at its present location in Lane Park. She was estimated to be 55 or 56 at the time of her death. The average life span of female Asian elephants, in the wild, is currently estimated to be about 60 years. In captivity it is estimated to be 43. Some individuals outside of the United States have lived in excess of 70 years in captivity.

During her tenure at the zoo, Mona inhabited a 1,000-square-foot (100 m²) pen with access to two concrete-floored stalls in the zoo's pachyderm building. The effect of concrete floors on captive elephants has been shown to be detrimental, and Mona's feet were badly damaged by the so-called "Zoo-Genic Elephant Foot Disease". Her outdoor enclosure was dirt-floored, but the surface had been packed hard by her continual pacing.

Elephant

Elephants are large mammals of the family Elephantidae and the order Proboscidea. Two species are traditionally recognised, the African elephant (Loxodonta africana) and the Asian elephant (Elephas maximus), although some evidence suggests that African bush elephants and African forest elephants are separate species (L. africana and L. cyclotis respectively). Elephants are scattered throughout sub-Saharan Africa, South Asia, and Southeast Asia. Elephantidae is the only surviving family of the order Proboscidea; other, now extinct, members of the order include deinotheres, gomphotheres, mammoths, and mastodons. Male African elephants are the largest extant terrestrial animals and can reach a height of 4 m (13 ft) and weigh 7,000 kg (15,000 lb). All elephants have several distinctive features the most notable of which is a long trunk or proboscis, used for many purposes, particularly breathing, lifting water and grasping objects. Their incisors grow into tusks, which can serve as weapons and as tools for moving objects and digging. Elephants' large ear flaps help to control their body temperature. Their pillar-like legs can carry their great weight. African elephants have larger ears and concave backs while Asian elephants have smaller ears and convex or level backs.

Gaja

Gaja (a -Sanskrit word for elephant) is one of the significant animals finding references in Hindu scriptures and Buddhist and Jain texts. In general, a gaja personifies a number of positive attributes, including abundance, fertility and richness; boldness and strength; and wisdom and royalty. In European Portuguese, it means "physically attractive female"; its origin in the Portuguese language can be related to a personification of fertility, as mentioned.

History

In the context of the history of Ancient India, the earliest depiction of gaja is found on the seals discovered at sites (like Harappa and Mohenjo Daro) of the Indus Valley Civilization (3000 BC – 1700 BC). Some scholars believe that by that time elephants had been tamed and domesticated, and used for peaceful and possibly for other purposes. In the Vedas, there is no direct reference to elephants. Megasthenes, the Greek ambassador to the court of Chandragupta Maurya reports use of war elephants during warfare.

Over a period of time encompassing several centuries, elephants became an important part of Indian life and society, particularly of religious tradition, the royalty, and the aristocratic segment of the society. Capturing, taming and training of elephants developed into a specialized skill. In Ancient India, a number of treatises were written about caring and management of elephants, which included the following:

Elephant (1989 film)

Elephant is a 1989 British short film directed by Alan Clarke and produced by Danny Boyle. The film is set in Northern Ireland during the Troubles and its title comes from Bernard MacLaverty's description of the conflict as "the elephant in our living room" — a reference to the collective denial of the underlying social problems of Northern Ireland. Produced by BBC Northern Ireland, it first screened on BBC2 in 1989. The film was first conceived by Boyle, who was working as a producer for BBC Northern Ireland at the time.

The film, which contains very little dialogue, depicts eighteen murders and is partly based on actual events drawn from police reports at the time. It is shot with 16mm film with much of it filmed using a steadicam and features a series of tracking shots, a technique the director used regularly. The grainy 16mm film, together with the lack of dialogue, plot, narrative and music give the film a cold, observational documentary feel. Nothing is learnt about any of the gunmen or victims. Each of the murders are carried out calmly and casually; in one scene the gunman is seen to drive away slowly, even stopping to give way for traffic. The victims are shown for several seconds in a static shot of the body.

Shift JIS art

Shift_JIS art is artwork created from characters within the Shift JIS character set, a Japanese Industrial Standard (JIS) superset of ASCII intended for Japanese usage. Naturally there are many similarities between Shift_JIS artwork and ASCII art.

Shift_JIS has become very popular on web-based bulletin boards, notably 2channel, and has even made its way into mainstream media and commercial advertising in Japan.

Within the Japanese community, Shift_JIS art is sometimes abbreviated as SJIS art, but is most commonly referred to as "AA" meaning ASCII art, although it rarely restricts itself to the 95 printable characters within the ASCII standard.

As with ANSI art, SJIS art is sometimes used for animation. However, due to technical advances, SJIS art also appears in the form of Adobe Flash files and animated GIFs.

Unlike Western ASCII art, which is generally designed to be viewed with a monospaced font, Shift_JIS art is designed around the proportional-width (albeit CJK characters are always the same width) MS PGothic font supplied with Microsoft Windows, which is the default font for web sites in Japanese versions of Windows. This dependency has led to the development of the free Mona Font, in which each character is the same width as its counterpart in MS PGothic. This is useful on operating systems lacking the PGothic font, such as Linux.

Hey! Bo Diddley

"Hey! Bo Diddley" is Bo Diddley's eighth Checker Records single (not to be confused with the song "Bo Diddley" released as a single in April 1955 by Checker Records). The single's b-side was "Mona" (sometimes known as "I Need You Baby").

Recording

"Hey! Bo Diddley" was recorded in Chicago, Illinois on February 8, 1957 – the same day as "Mona". The song was produced by Diddley with Leonard and Phil Chess, and backing Diddley (vocals, guitar) were Jerome Green (maracas), and either Frank Kirkland or Clifton James (drums). The backing vocals on the song were Peggy Jones and the Flamingos.

Rhythm

Like many of Bo Diddley's songs (e.g. "Bo Diddley", "Gunslinger, and "Pretty Thing") "Hey! Bo Diddley" features a Bo Diddley beat.

Live versions

The song was recorded either July 5 or 6 at Myrtle Beach, South Carolina and released on the 1964 live album, Bo Diddley's Beach Party with the Dutchess. The song was performed live with Ronnie Wood on Live at the Ritz in 1988.

Cover versions

"Hey! Bo Diddley" was covered by Bill Black, John P. Hammond, Kenny Rogers, Ronnie Hawkins, Maureen Tucker on Playin' Possum and Life in Exile After Abdication, the Grateful Dead on Steppin' Out with the Grateful Dead: England '72, and The Temptations.

Ancylosis

Ancylosis is a genus of snout moth. It was described by Zeller, in 1839, and is known from South Africa, Uzbekistan, Spain, Turkmenistan, Lebanon, Algeria, Tunisia, Russia, Israel, Palestine, Tinos, Australia, Seychelles, Afghanistan, the United States, Iraq, Namibia, Kazakhstan, Iran, Mauritius, Mozambique, Sarepta, Argentina, Sri Lanka, and Aden.

Species