Head louse

The head louse (Pediculus humanus capitis) is an obligate ectoparasite of humans that causes pediculosis capitis. Head lice are wingless insects spending their entire life on the human scalp and feeding exclusively on human blood.Humans are the only known hosts of this specific parasite, while chimpanzees host a closely related species, Pediculus schaeffi. Other species of lice infest most orders of mammals and all orders of birds, as well as other parts of the human body.

Lice differ from other hematophagic ectoparasites such as fleas in spending their entire life cycle on a host. Head lice cannot fly, and their short stumpy legs render them incapable of jumping, or even walking efficiently on flat surfaces.

The non-disease-carrying head louse differs from the related disease-carrying body louse (Pediculus humanus humanus) in preferring to attach eggs to scalp hair rather than to clothing. The two subspecies are morphologically almost identical but do not normally interbreed, although they will do so in laboratory conditions. From genetic studies, they are thought to have diverged as subspecies about 30,000–110,000 years ago, when many humans began to wear a significant amount of clothing. A much more distantly related species of hair-clinging louse, the pubic or crab louse (Pthirus pubis), also infests humans. It is visually different from the other two species and is much closer in appearance to the lice which infest other primates. Lice infestation of any part of the body is known as pediculosis.

Quest

In mythology and literature, a quest, a journey towards a goal, serves as a plot device and (frequently) as a symbol. Quests appear in the folklore of every nation and also figure prominently in non-national cultures. In literature, the objects of quests require great exertion on the part of the hero, and the overcoming of many obstacles, typically including much travel. The aspect of travel also allows the storyteller to showcase exotic locations and cultures (an objective of the narrator, not of the character).

Quest objects

The hero normally aims to obtain something or someone by the quest, and with this object to return home. The object can be something new, that fulfills a lack in his life, or something that was stolen away from him or someone with authority to dispatch him.

Sometimes the hero has no desire to return; Sir Galahad's quest for the Holy Grail is to find it, not return with it. A return may, indeed, be impossible: Aeneas quests for a homeland, having lost Troy at the beginning of Virgil's Aeneid, and he does not return to Troy to re-found it but settles in Italy (to become an ancestor of the Romans).

Quest (lifestyle magazine)

Quest is an American magazine.

History

Quest was founded in 1986 by Heather Cohane as a real estate magazine for "Manhattan Properties & Country Estates". In 1995, Meigher Communications, which already owned Family Health, Garden Design, and Saveur purchased Quest. Today, Quest Media publishes Quest, Quest Greenwich Polo, and the quarterly fashion magazine Q.

Content

Quest's target audience includes both first and second generation readers, those who helped launch the magazine, and those who grew up on it. The magazine showcases New York's most elegant charities, parties, and families, both past and present. Each edition is themed, including the "The 400", "Arts and Culture", "Fall Fashion", and "Holiday" issues. The magazine also publishes David Patrick Columbia's "New York Social Diary", a monthly chronicle of society circuit parties. Contributors have included Dominick Dunne, David Halberstam, Liz Smith, Taki Theodoracopulos, Michael Thomas, and photographers Slim Aarons and Harry Benson.

Quest (disambiguation)

A quest is a journey toward a goal, frequently used as a plot device in fictional works.

Quest or The Quest may also refer to:

Computing

Entertainment and media

Fictional characters

Film

Gaming