Motorway

A motorway (in the United Kingdom, Ireland, New Zealand and some Commonwealth nations) is both a type of road and a classification. Motorways are highways intended to carry a large volume of traffic where a normal road would not suffice or would be unsafe, usually between cities. In the UK they are predominantly dual-carriageway roads, typically with three lanes in each direction, although four-lane and two-lane carriageways are also common, and all have grade-separated access.
Equivalent terms in other countries include autoroute, Autobahn, freeway, autostrada, autopista, motorvej, motorväg and autoput

Home computer

The home computer is a consumer-friendly word for the second generation of microcomputers, entering the market in 1977 and becoming common during the 1980s.
The home computer became affordable for the general public due to the mass production of the silicon chip based microprocessor and as the name indicates, tended to be used in the home rather than in business/industrial contexts (the name also marks the difference from the first generation of microcomputers (from 1974/75 onwards) which catered mostly to engineers and hobbyists with good soldering skills, as they were often sold as kits to be assembled by the customer). The home computer largely died out at the end of the decade or in the early 1990s (in Europe) due to the rise of the IBM PC compatible personal computer (the IBM PC and its clones are not covered in this article).

Street light

A street light or street lamp, also well-known as a light standard or lamp standard, is a raised light on the edge of a road, turned on or lit at a convinced time every night. Modern lamps may also have light-sensitive photocells to turn them on at dusk and off at sunrise, or activate automatically in dark weather. It is also not uncommon for street lights to be on posts which have wires strung between them (telephone poles or electrical poles).

Piers

The Palace Pier (renamed Brighton Pier in 2000) opened in May 1899 and is still popular. It suffered a large fire on 4 February 2003 but the injure was limited and most of the pier was able to reopen the next day.
The even older West Pier, built in 1866, has been closed since 1975 awaiting renovation. The West Pier is one of only two Grade I listed piers in the UK, the other being Clevedon Pier. Plans to renovate the pier have been different by some local residents who claim that the future new onshore structures - which the renovators need to pay for the work on the pier - would obstruct their view of the sea. The restoration is also opposed by the owners of the Brighton Pier, who supposedly see its subsidised rebuilding, were it to happen, as unfair competition.
The West Pier incompletely collapsed on December 29, 2002 when a walkway connecting the concert hall and pavilion fell into the sea after being battered by storms. On January 20, 2003 a further collapse saw the destruction of the concert hall in the middle of the pier. On March 28, 2003 the pavilion at the end of the pier caught fire. Firefighters were unable to save the building from destruction because of the precarious state of the walkway. The cause of the fire remains unknown. On May 12, 2003, another fire broke out, intense most of what was left of the concert hall. Arson was supposed. On June 23, 2004 high winds caused the middle of the pier to completely collapse.
Despite all these setbacks, the owner of the site West Pier Trust remained obstinate they would soon begin full restoration work. Finally, in December 2004, the trust admitted defeat, after their plans were discarded by English Heritage and the Lottery Heritage Fund. They still hope to reconstruct the pier in some form, though restoration is no longer their goal.

Niagara Falls

Niagara Falls is a set of massive waterfalls situated on the Niagara River in eastern North America, on the border among the United States and Canada. Niagara Falls (French: les Chutes du Niagara) comprises three separate waterfalls: the Horseshoe Falls (Canadian Falls), the American Falls, and the smaller, nearby Bridal Veil Falls. The Falls are situated 16 miles (26 km) away from the U.S. city of Buffalo and 43 miles (69 km) from the Canadian city of Toronto. The distance to downtown Toronto is 80 miles (123 km) when using roads.
The Falls formed after the receding of the glaciers of the most recent Ice Age, as water from the newly created Great Lakes carved a path through the Niagara Escarpment enroute to the Atlantic Ocean. While not exceptionally high, Niagara Falls is very wide. With more than 6 million cubic feet (168,000 m³) of water falling over the crestline every minute in high flow, and almost 4 million cubic feet (110,000 m³) on average, it is the most powerful waterfall in North America.
Niagara Falls is not well-known only for its beauty. The Falls are a valuable source of hydroelectric power for both Ontario and New York. Preserving this natural wonder from commercial overdevelopment, while allowing for the needs of the area's people, has been a tough project for environmental preservationists since the nineteenth century. A popular tourist site for over a century, the Falls are shared between the twin cities of Niagara Falls, Ontario and Niagara Falls, New York.

Antarctic flora

The climate of Antarctica does not permit extensive vegetation. A combination of sub-zero temperatures, poor soil quality, lack of moisture, and lack of sunlight inhibit the flourishing of plants. As a result, plant life is limited to frequently mosses and liverworts. The autotrophic community is ended up of mostly protists. The flora of the continent mainly consists of lichens, bryophytes, algae, and fungi. Growth normally occurs in the summer, and only for a few weeks at most.
There are more than 200 species of lichens and approximately 50 species of bryophytes, such as mosses. Seven hundred types of algae exist, most of which are phytoplankton. Multicolored snow algae and diatoms are particularly abundant in the coastal regions during the summer. There are two species of flowering plants found in the Antarctic Peninsula: Deschampsia antarctica (Antarctic hair grass) and Colobanthus quitensis (Antarctic pearlwort).

Mimosa pudica

The Sensitive plant is a creeping annual or perennial herb often grown for its interest value: the compound leaves fold inner and droop when touched, re-opening within minutes. Mimosa pudica is native to Brazil, but is now a pantropical weed. Other names given to this curious plant are Humble plant, Shame plant, Sleeping grass, Prayer Plant, Touch-me-not, Makahiya (Philippines, meaning "shy"), and Mori Vivi (West Indies). The Chinese name for this plant translates to "shyness grass". The species epithet, pudica, is Latin for "bashful" or "shrinking".
Because of its curious nature and easy reproduction. Its sinhala name is Nidikumba, where 'nidi' means 'sleep'. It is marketed to children under the name of the "Mr Tickle" plant, (based on the Mr Men characters by Roger Hargreaves).The stem is erect in young plants, but becomes creeping or trailing with age. The stem is slender, branching, and sparsely to densely prickly,
growing to a length of 1.5 m (5 ft). The leaves are compound, with one or two pinnae pairs, and 10-26 leaflets per pinna. The petioles are also prickly. Pedunculate (stalked) pale pink or purple flower heads arise from the leaf axils. The globose to ovoid heads are 8-10 mm in diameter
(excluding the stamens). On close examination, it is seen that the floret petals are red in their upper part and the filaments are pink to lavender. The fruit consists of clusters of 2-8 pods from 1-2 cm long each, these prickly on the margins. The pods break into 2-5 segments and contain
pale brown seeds some 2.5 mm long.