Apuleius ( APP-yuu-LEE-əs; also called Lucius Apuleius Madaurensis; c. 124 – after 170) was a Numidian Latin-language prose writer, Platonist philosopher and rhetorician. He was born in the Roman province of Numidia, in the Berber city of Madauros, modern-day M'Daourouch, Algeria. He studied Platonism in Athens, travelled to Italy, Asia Minor, and Egypt, and was an initiate in several cults or mysteries. The most famous incident in his life was when he was accused of using magic to gain the attentions (and fortune) of a wealthy widow. He declaimed and then distributed his own defense before the...

A Googlewhack was a contest to find a Google Search query that returns a single result. A Googlewhack must consist of two words found in a dictionary and was only considered legitimate if both of the search terms appear in the result. Published googlewhacks were short-lived since when published to a website, the new number of hits would become at least two: one to the original hit found, and one to the publishing site, unless a screenshot was provided. Googlewhacks generally no longer exist due to changes in Google search indexing. == History == The term googlewhack, coined by Gary Stock, first...

Biological soil crusts are communities of living organisms on the soil surface in arid and semi-arid ecosystems. They are found throughout the world with varying species composition and cover depending on topography, soil characteristics, climate, plant community, microhabitats, and disturbance regimes. Biological soil crusts perform important ecological roles including carbon fixation, nitrogen fixation and soil stabilization; they alter soil albedo and water relations and affect germination and nutrient levels in vascular plants. They can be damaged by fire, recreational activity, grazing and...

Adjective: poikilohydric (not comparable)

1. (biology, of a plant) Having no mechanism to prevent desiccation

Hossein Shanbehzadeh (Persian: حسین شنبه‌زاده) is an Iranian writer and activist. He was arrested in 2024 after tweeting a single period ("."). == Career == Hossein has worked as a translator, literary editor and activist. He has gained notoriety for his critical or satirical messages about the Iranian regime and Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei. In 2019 he was arrested in relation with the 2019 Iranian protests, charged with “insulting the sanctities and the leader of the Islamic Republic.”, He was imprisoned in Evin Prison and sentenced to six years in prison. He was released at the beginning of...