Melissa

Melissa is a given name for a female child. The name comes from the Greek word μέλισσα (melissa), "honey bee", which in turn comes from μέλι (meli), "honey". In Hittite melit signifies "honey". Thus the name is the approximate Greek equivalent for the Hebrew name Deborah (דְּבוֹרָה), meaning bee.

Melissa also refers to the plant Melissa officinalis (Lamiaceae family), known as lemon balm.

Melisa is a common variant form, with others being Malissa, Melesa, Melessa, Meliza, Mellisa, Melosa, and Molissa.

In Ireland it is sometimes used as a feminine form of the Gaelic male name Maoilíosa, which means "servant of Jesus".

According to Greek mythology, perhaps reflecting Minoan culture, making her the daughter of a Cretan king Melissos, whose -issos ending is pre-Greek, Melissa was a nymph who discovered and taught the use of honey and from whom bees were believed to have received their name. She was one of the nymph nurses of Zeus, sister to Amaltheia, but rather than feeding the baby milk, Melissa, appropriately for her name, fed him honey. Or, alternatively, the bees brought honey straight to his mouth. Because of her, Melissa became the name of all the nymphs who cared for the patriarch god as a baby.

Kasakela Chimpanzee Community

The Kasakela chimpanzee community is a habituated community of wild eastern chimpanzees that lives in Gombe National Park near Lake Tanganyika in Tanzania. The community was the subject of Dr Jane Goodall's pioneering study that began in 1960, and studies have continued ever since. As a result, the community has been instrumental in the study of chimpanzees, and has been popularized in several books and documentaries. The community's popularity was enhanced by Dr Goodall's practice of giving names to the chimpanzees she was observing, in contrast to the typical scientific practice of identifying the subjects by number. Dr Goodall generally used a naming convention in which infants were given names starting with the same letter as their mother, allowing the recognition of matrilineal lines.

Melissa (plant)

Melissa is a genus of perennial herbs in the Lamiaceae, native to Europe and Asia but cultivated and naturalized in many other places. The name Melissa is derived from the Greek word mélissa meaning honey, owing to the abundance of nectar in the flowers. The stems are square, like most other plants in the mint family. The leaves are borne in opposite pairs on the stems, and are usually ovate or heart-shaped and emit a lemony scent when bruised. Axillary spikes of white or yellowish flowers appear in the summer.

The most commonly grown species of this genus is Melissa officinalis, commonly known in the United States as lemon balm, and as balm in England.

Species

Today

Today may refer to:

News media

Radio

Press

Today (BBC Radio 4)

Today (often referred to as "the Today programme" to avoid ambiguity) is BBC Radio 4's long-running early morning news and current affairs programme, now broadcast from 6.00 am to 9.00 am Monday to Friday, and 7.00 am to 9.00 am on Saturdays. It is also the most popular programme on Radio 4 and one of the BBC's most popular programmes across its radio networks. It consists of regular news bulletins, serious and often confrontational political interviews, in-depth reports and Thought for the Day. Today has been voted the most influential news programme in Britain in setting the political agenda. The programme has 7.18 million listeners per week. It was voted the Best Breakfast Show of the Year at the 2010 Sony Radio Academy Awards.

History

Today was launched on the BBC's Home Service on 28 October 1957 as a programme of 'topical talks' to give listeners a morning alternative to light music. It was initially broadcast as two 20-minute editions slotted in around the existing news bulletins and religious and musical items. In 1963 it became part of the BBC's Current Affairs department, and it started to become more news-orientated. The two editions also became longer, and by the end of the 1960s it had become a single two-hour-long programme that enveloped the news bulletins and the religious talk that had become Thought for the Day in 1970. Radio 4 controller Ian McIntyre cut it back to two parts in 1976–78 (creating a gap which was filled by Up to the Hour), but it was swiftly returned to its former position.

Today (Poe song)

"Today" is a song Poe contributed to the soundtrack of the film Great Expectations in 1998. The song was released as a single in order to promote the film and soundtrack.