Condor

Condor is the common name for two species of New World vultures, each in a monotypic genus. They are the largest flying land birds in the Western Hemisphere.

They are:

Taxonomy

Condors are part of the family Cathartidae, whereas the 15 species of Old World vultures are in the family Accipitridae, that also includes ospreys, hawks, and eagles. The New World and Old World vultures evolved from different ancestors. However, they both are carrion-eaters and have distinctive bare heads.

See Sibley-Ahlquist taxonomy for an alternative classification.

Description

Both condors are very large broad-winged soaring birds, the Andean condor being 5 cm shorter (beak to tail) on average than the northern species, but larger in wingspan. California condors are the largest flying land birds in North America. The Andean condor is second only to the wandering albatross (up to 3.5 m) in terms of wingspan among all living flying birds.

Condor Flugdienst

Condor Flugdienst GmbH, usually shortened to Condor, is a German leisure airline based in Frankfurt. It operates scheduled flights to leisure destinations in the Mediterranean, Asia, Africa, North America, South America and the Caribbean. Its main base is at Frankfurt Airport from where most of its long-haul flights depart; secondary bases for Mediterranean flights are Munich Airport which also features long-haul flights, Hamburg Airport, Hannover Airport, Düsseldorf Airport, Stuttgart Airport and Berlin Schönefeld Airport.

Condor is Germany's third largest commercial airline based on fleet size and passengers flown. It is headquartered at Gateway Gardens near Frankfurt Airport with an important branch office at Berlin Schönefeld Airport. It is a subsidiary of the British Thomas Cook Group, but still partners with its former parent the German Lufthansa Group through the use of the Lufthansa Group's Miles & More program and its business lounges at Frankfurt Airport.

History

Par (score)

In golf, par is the pre-determined number of strokes that a scratch (or 0 handicap) golfer should require to complete a hole, a round (the sum of the pars of the played holes), or a tournament (the sum of the pars of each round). Pars are the central component of stroke play, the most common kind of play in professional golf tournaments. The term is also used in golf-like sports such as disc golf with the same meaning.

The length of each hole from the tee placement to the pin determines par values for each hole primarily but not exclusively. Almost invariably, holes are assigned par values between three and five strokes. For a casual player from the middle tees, a par-three hole will be 100–250 yards (90–230 m) from the tee to the pin. Par-four holes are 250–470 yards (230–430 m), although tournament players will often encounter par-four holes 500 yards (460 m) or more, as it is not uncommon for short par-five holes for normal play to be turned into par-four holes in championship play. Par-five holes are typically 470–600 yards (430–550 m), but in the modern game holes of over 600 yards are becoming more common in championship play. Other relevant factors in setting the par for the hole include the terrain and obstacles (such as trees, water hazards, hills, or buildings) that may require a golfer to take more (or fewer) shots. Some golf courses feature par-sixes and, very rarely, par-sevens, although the latter are not recognised by the United States Golf Association.

Positron

The positron or antielectron is the antiparticle or the antimatter counterpart of the electron. The positron has an electric charge of +1 e, a spin of ½, and has the same mass as an electron. When a low-energy positron collides with a low-energy electron, annihilation occurs, resulting in the production of two or more gamma ray photons (see electron–positron annihilation).

Positrons may be generated by positron emission radioactive decay (through weak interactions), or by pair production from a sufficiently energetic photon which is interacting with an atom in a material.

History

Theory

In 1928, Paul Dirac published a paper proposing that electrons can have both a positive charge and negative energy. This paper introduced the Dirac equation, a unification of quantum mechanics, special relativity, and the then-new concept of electron spin to explain the Zeeman effect. The paper did not explicitly predict a new particle, but did allow for electrons having either positive or negative energy as solutions. Hermann Weyl then published "Gravitation and the Electron" (Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America, Vol. 15, No. 4-Apr. 15, 1929, pp. 323–334) discussing the mathematical implications of the negative energy solution. The positive-energy solution explained experimental results, but Dirac was puzzled by the equally valid negative-energy solution that the mathematical model allowed. Quantum mechanics did not allow the negative energy solution to simply be ignored, as classical mechanics often did in such equations; the dual solution implied the possibility of an electron spontaneously jumping between positive and negative energy states. However, no such transition had yet been observed experimentally. He referred to the issues raised by this conflict between theory and observation as "difficulties" that were "unresolved".

Positron Corporation

Positron Corporation is an American nuclear medicine healthcare company specializing in cardiac Positron Emission Tomography (PET) imaging. Positron operates in a variety of business areas combining cardiac PET imaging technology, radiopharmaceuticals and radioisotopes. Positron is headquartered in Westmont, Illinois and holds three facilities: a radioisotope manufacturing facility in Lubbock, Texas, a clinical and technical cardiovascular PET training institute in Niagara Falls, New York and an automation manufacturing facility in Fishers, Indiana.

The company's products and services enable healthcare providers to diagnose cardiac disease and improve patient outcomes. Positron Corporation is a public company and traded on the Financial Industry Regulatory Authority, Inc.'s OTC Bulletin Board under the ticker symbol POSC.

History

Positron was originally founded in 1983 as a research and development company. The company expanded from a medical imaging device manufacturer to a nuclear healthcare company integrating the key components of the cardiac PET supply chain. Positron's strategy focuses on stabilizing and securing the Sr-82 supply chain.

Positron (video game)

Positron is a video game which was published for the BBC Micro and Acorn Electron computers by Micro Power in 1983. It was developed on a pre-release Electron and was one of the few games (other than those produced by Acornsoft) available for the machine on its launch.

Gameplay

The player controls a laser base which can move left and right and fire vertically. The object of the game is to destroy all alien creatures on each screen, then proceed to the next. The first sheet of aliens follows the classic Space Invaders style of moving, that being left to right, then moving down one row before moving right to left. The standard Invaders strategy of picking off the end columns to stop a rapid descent also applies to the first sheet of Positron. This first sheet however is not representative of the rest of the game and serves only to lull the player into a false sense of security.

All subsequent sheets follow a pseudo-random formation, generally moving down the screen but at various speeds and with greatly varying levels of firepower for each individual enemy. This means the strategy must change to looking to find which enemies are descending fastest and picking them off while also trying to break up big groups.