Flocking (behavior)

Flocking behavior is the behavior exhibited when a group of birds, called a flock, are foraging or in flight. There are parallels with the shoaling behavior of fish, the swarming behavior of insects, and herd behavior of land animals.

Computer simulations and mathematical models which have been developed to emulate the flocking behaviors of birds can generally be applied also to the "flocking" behavior of other species. As a result, the term "flocking" is sometimes applied, in computer science, to species other than birds.

This article is about the modelling of flocking behavior. From the perspective of the mathematical modeller, "flocking" is the collective motion of a large number of self-propelled entities and is a collective animal behavior exhibited by many living beings such as birds, fish, bacteria, and insects. It is considered an emergent behavior arising from simple rules that are followed by individuals and does not involve any central coordination.

Flocking behavior was first simulated on a computer in 1987 by Craig Reynolds with his simulation program, Boids. This program simulates simple agents (boids) that are allowed to move according to a set of basic rules. The result is akin to a flock of birds, a school of fish, or a swarm of insects.

Separation (United States military)

In the U.S. armed forces, separation means that a person is leaving active duty, but not necessarily leaving the service entirely. Separation typically occurs when someone reaches the date of their Expiration of Term of Service (ETS) and are released from active duty, but still must complete their military reserve obligations. Upon separation, they receive form DD214, which indicates their former and future status.

When a person completes their full military obligation, they are discharged and receive a formal certificate of discharge, usually an Honorable Discharge.

Richard Rohmer

Honorary Lieutenant General Richard Heath Rohmer OC CMM OOnt DFC CD QC (born January 24, 1924) is a Canadian aviator, lawyer, adviser, author and historian.

Rohmer was born in Hamilton, Ontario, and spent some of his early youth in Pasadena, California as well as in western Ontario at Windsor and Fort Erie. The Peterborough Examiner's lead editorial of 14 January 2009 describes Rohmer as "one of Canada's most colourful figures of the past half-century". General Rohmer is the Honorary Advisor to the Chief of the Defence Staff of the Canadian Armed Forces. He is the Advisor to the Minister of Veterans Affairs for the organization and conduct of Canada's celebration of the 70th Anniversary of D-Day celebrations in Normandy in June 2014 and the 70th Anniversary of the Liberation of Holland in May of 2015. He is the senior Canadian Veteran of D-Day, the Battle of Normandy and the Liberation of Holland.

Military career

He was an unexceptional student in high school and worked briefly at Fleet Aerospace before joining in 1942 on his 18th birthday the Royal Canadian Air Force (RCAF). In Europe in 1943/44 as a reconnaissance pilot flying North American Mustang fighters he completed a 135 mission Tour of Operations at the end of November 1944 in Holland. On July 17th, 1944, he had spotted a fast moving staff car, usually used to carry German officers. In this case, the German officer being carried was Field Marshal Erwin Rommel. Rohmer reported the car's location to Group Control Centre, which sent in a Spitfire flown by a pilot, Later Identified as Canadian Charley Fox who strafed the target and seriously wounded Rommel. Rohmer took part in D-Day and the Battles of Normandy, Belgium and Holland. He is the Senior Canadian Veteran of all of those Battles.

Camel

A camel is an even-toed ungulate within the genus Camelus, bearing distinctive fatty deposits known as "humps" on its back. The two surviving species of camel are the dromedary, or one-humped camel (C. dromedarius), which inhabits the Middle East and the Horn of Africa; and the bactrian, or two-humped camel (C. bactrianus), which inhabits Central Asia. Both species have been domesticated; they provide milk, meat, hair for textiles or goods such as felted pouches, and are working animals with tasks ranging from human transport to bearing loads.

The term "camel" is derived via Latin and Greek (camelus and κάμηλος kamēlos respectively) from Hebrew or Phoenician gāmāl.

"Camel" is also used more broadly to describe any of the six camel-like mammals in the family Camelidae: the two true camels and the four New World camelids: the llama, alpaca, guanaco, and vicuña of South America.

Biology

The average life expectancy of a camel is 40 to 50 years. A full-grown adult camel stands 1.85 m (6 ft 1 in) at the shoulder and 2.15 m (7 ft 1 in) at the hump. Camels can run at up to 65 km/h (40 mph) in short bursts and sustain speeds of up to 40 km/h (25 mph). Bactrian camels weigh 300 to 1,000 kg (660 to 2,200 lb) and dromedaries 300 to 600 kg (660 to 1,320 lb).

Camel (chess)

The camel (or long knight) is a fairy chess piece that moves like an elongated knight. When it moves, it can jump to a square that is three squares horizontally and one square vertically, or three squares vertically and one square horizontally, regardless of intervening pieces; thus, it is a (1,3)-leaper. Below, it is given the symbol L from Betza notation.

History and nomenclature

The camel is a very old piece, appearing in some very early chess variants, such as Tamerlane chess. It is still known as such in fairy chess problems.

Value

The camel by itself is worth about two pawns (appreciably less than a knight), because of its colorboundedness and lack of sufficient freedom of movement on an 8×8 board. However a camel and a bishop and a king can force checkmate on a bare king (assuming that the attacking pieces are not on the same color); a camel, a knight and a king can force checkmate on a bare king, but not easily (there are thirteen types of fortress draws); a camel, a wazir and a king can sometimes force checkmate on a bare king, but it can take up to 77 moves. Even if they are on different colours, two camels cannot checkmate a lone king. While the rook versus camel endgame is a draw in general, there are more winning positions than there are in rook versus knight and rook versus bishop: the longest win takes 35 moves. (All endgame statistics mentioned are for the 8×8 board.)

Camel (color)

Camel is a color that resembles the color of the hair of a camel.

The first recorded use of camel as a color name in English was in 1916.

The source of this color is: ISCC-NBS Dictionary of Color Names (1955)--Color Sample of Camel (color sample #76).

Camel in human culture

Fashion

See also

References