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.

Pill

Pill or The Pill may refer to:

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Pill (rapper)

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Tyrone Rivers, better known by his stage name Pill, is an American former rapper from Atlanta, Georgia.

Career

In early 2009 Pill's first mixtape 4180: The Prescription and his first single "Trap Goin' Ham" was released. Pill was featured in The Source's Unsigned Hype section. The mixtape received praise from fellow Atlanta rapper André 3000. Later that year he was featured in XXL Magazine's Show & Prove section. He also appeared on Killer Mike's Underground Atlanta compilation on the tracks "Bunkin'" and "Grind Time." His second mixtape 4075: The Refill and his second single off the mixtape "Glass" was released.

In 2010 he was featured on the cover of XXL as part of the XXL Freshman 10 line-up with Donnis, Nipsey Hussle, Jay Rock, J. Cole, OJ da Juiceman and more. In June he released his third mixtape and first Gangsta Grillz mixtape 1140: The Overdose which was hosted by DJ Drama. He later appeared on fellow XXL Freshman Freddie Gibbs's EP Str8 Killa No Filla on the track "Do Wrong." He was also featured on "Introducing the Business" by Mark Ronson, which featured on Ronson's album Record Collection (album).

Pill (textile)

A pill, colloquially known as a bobble, is a small ball of fibers that forms on a piece of cloth. 'Pill' is also a verb for the formation of such balls.

Pilling is a surface defect of textiles caused by wear, and is considered unsightly. It happens when washing and wearing of fabrics causes loose fibres to begin to push out from the surface of the cloth, and, over time, abrasion causes the fibres to develop into small spherical bundles, anchored to the surface of the fabric by protruding fibers that haven't broken. The textile industry divides pilling into four stages: fuzz formation, entanglement, growth, and wear-off. Pilling normally happens on the parts of clothing that receive the most abrasion in day-to-day wear, such as the collar, cuffs, and around the thighs and rear on trousers.

All fabrics pill to some extent, although fibres such as linen and silk pill less than most. The primary drivers of pilling are the physical characteristics of the textile (including both the initial fibre, and the way in which it is processed during manufacturing), the personal habits of the textile's wearer, and the environment in which the textile is used. Fibres such as wool, cotton, polyester, nylon and acrylic have a tendency to pill the most, but wool pilling diminishes over time as non-tenacious wool fibres work themselves free of the fabric and break away, whereas pilling of synthetic textiles is a more serious problem, because the stronger fibres hold on to the pills and don't allow pills to fall off.