In botany,
a sport or bud sport, traditionally called lusus, is
a part of a plant that shows morphological differences from the rest of the
plant. Sports may differ by foliage
shape or color, flowers, fruit, or branch structure.
The cause is generally thought to be chance in a single cell. Sports with desirable characteristics may be
grown into new plants by vegetative reproduction and
are often propagated as new cultivars that
retain the characteristics of the new morphology. Such
selections are often prone to "reversion", meaning that part or all
of the plant reverts to its original form.
An example of a bud sport is the nectarine, at
least some of which developed as a bud sport from peaches. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sport_(botany)
Having red hair and blue eyes is very rare. Only 17% of the world’s population have blue
eyes, and only 1 to 2% have red hair. In
the array of possible natural hair colors, dark hues are the most common—more
than 90 percent of
people worldwide have brown or black hair. That’s followed by blonde hair. Red hair, occurring in just 1 to 2
percent of the population, is the least common. Blue eyes are similarly uncommon, and they may
be becoming rarer. One study found that
between 1899 and 1905, more than half of
non-Hispanic white people in the United States had blue eyes. But from 1936 to 1951, that number fell
to 33.8 percent. Today, estimates suggest about 17 percent of
people worldwide have blue eyes. Your
hair color and eye color come down to what genes you inherit from your parents. If one
person has both red hair and blue eyes, there’s a good chance one or both of
their parents do, too, but not always. You
must inherit two sets of genetic information for both your hair color and your
eye color to have these less-common characteristics. The likelihood of this happening is quite
rare, especially if neither of your parents has red hair or blue eyes. Sometimes, however, the genetic stars align,
and individuals are born with the rare combination of red hair and blue eyes. Gene characteristics fall into two
categories: recessive and dominant. Parents share the blueprint of many features,
from hair color to personality, in their genes.
Though hair color is influenced by multiple genes, in general, dominant
genes win out in a head-to-head matchup against recessive genes. Brown hair and brown eyes, for example, are
both dominant, which is why they make up such a large percentage of hair-eye
color combinations. Parents can also be
carriers for recessive genes. While they
may display the dominant genes, they still have and can pass to their kids—the
recessive genes. For example, two
brown-haired, brown-eyed parents can have a child with blonde hair and blue
eyes. Both parents can display recessive gene
characteristics, and they can pass those to their children, too. For example, if both parents have red hair, a
child receives mostly the genetic information for red hair, so the chances they
will have red hair is almost 100 percent.
If one parent is redheaded and the other isn’t, the chances their child
will have red hair is about 50
percent, though the shade of red may vary greatly. Lastly, if both parents are carriers of the
gene variant but don’t have red hair, the child has about a 1 in 4 chance of
having truly red hair. The true pattern
of inheritance of hair color is somewhat more complicated, though, as there are
many genes involved. Melanocytes
are melanin-forming
cells in your skin. The amount and type
of melanin your body produces determines how dark or light your skin will be. Red hair is the result of a genetic variant
that causes the body’s skin cells and hair cells to produce more of one
particular type of melanin and less of another.
Whether you have one or both MC1R gene copies inactivated can also
determine the shade of red hair you have, from strawberry blonde to deep auburn
to bright red. This gene is responsible
for freckles in
many redheads, too. You might believe
that because these genetic traits are rare, they could be diluted out of the
gene pool entirely. That’s not likely to
happen. Even when you can’t see recessive
characteristics—red hair, for example—they’re still there, hiding out in a
person’s chromosomes. When a person has
a child, they can pass their recessive gene information to their offspring, and
the trait could win out. That’s why
something like red hair or blue eyes could “skip” generations and show up a few
steps down the family line. Red hair is
more common in women, according to research. However, Caucasian males are more likely to
have blue eyes than females, research shows.
https://www.healthline.com/health/red-hair-blue-eyes#genetics
A poet laureate (plural: poets
laureate) is a poet officially
appointed by a government or conferring institution, typically expected to
compose poems for special events and occasions.
Albertino Mussato of Padua and Francesco Petrarca (Petrarch)
of Arezzo were
the first to be crowned poets laureate after the classical age, respectively in
1315 and 1342. In
Britain, the term dates from the appointment of Bernard
André by Henry VII of England. The royal office of Poet Laureate in England
dates from the appointment of John
Dryden in 1668.
In modern times, the title of poet laureate may be conferred by an
organization such as the Poetry
Foundation, which designates a Young People's Poet
Laureate, unconnected with the National Youth Poet Laureate and
the United States Poet Laureate. The office is also popular with
regional and community groups. Examples
include the Pikes Peak Poet Laureate, which is designated by a
"Presenting Partners" group from within the community, the Minnesota
poet laureate chosen by the League of Minnesota Poets (est. 1934) the
Northampton Poet Laureate chosen
by the Northampton Arts Council, and the Martha's
Vineyard Poet Laureate chosen by ten judges representing the
Martha's Vineyard Poetry Society. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Poet_laureate#
Marcus Aurelius (26
April 121–17 March 180) was Roman
emperor from 161 to 180 and a Stoic philosopher.
He was a member of the Nerva–Antonine dynasty, the
last of the rulers later known as the Five Good Emperors and the last emperor
of the Pax Romana, an
age of relative peace, calm, and stability for the Roman
Empire lasting from 27 BC to 180 AD https://en.wikipedia.org
April 27, 2026
