The Mesoamerican civilizations consist of four main cultures, Olmec, Maya, Aztec, and Inca. The Olmec Empire (1400 BCE - 500 BCE) was the first major Mesoamerican civilization. The Olmecs inhabited the Gulf coast of Mexico. The Mayan Civilization (300 - 900 CE) lived in various city-states along the Yucatan Peninsula of Mexico and in much of Central America. The Aztec Civilization flourished from the late 1200's until the time of European conquest. The Aztecs established an empire that consisted of most of Mexico. In the 1400's, the Inca conquered an empire that stretched along the Pacific coast of South America. See more at: http://regentsprep.org/Regents/global/themes/goldenages/meso.cfm

Vertex (Latin: corner; plural vertices or vertexes) may refer to: mathematics
Vertex (geometry), an angle point of any shape or angle
Vertex (graph theory), a node in a graph
Vertex (curve), a local extreme point of curvature
Vertex of a representation in finite group theory Find other uses of the word; for instance, physics at: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vertex

Our good Puritan fathers intended to form a state of society of such equality of conditions, and to make the means of securing the goods of life so free to all, that everybody should find abundant employment for his faculties in a prosperous seeking of his fortunes. Hence, while they forbade theatres, operas, and dances, they made a state of unparalleled peace and prosperity, where one could go to sleep at all hours of day or night with the house door wide open, without bolt or bar, yet without apprehension of any to molest or make afraid. There were, however, some few national fetes, — election day, when the Governor took his seat with pomp and rejoicing, and all the housewives outdid themselves in election cake, and one or two training days, when all the children were refreshed, and our military ardor quickened, by the roll of drums, and the flash of steel bayonets, and marchings and evolutions, —sometimes ending in that sublimest of military operations, a sham fight, in which nobody was killed. The Fourth of July took high rank, after the Declaration of Independence; but the king and high priest of all festivals was the autumn Thanksgiving. When the apples were all gathered and the cider was all made, and the yellow pumpkins were rolled in from many a hill in billows of gold, and the corn was husked, and the labors of the season were done, and the warm, late days of Indian Summer came in, dreamy and calm and still, with just frost enough to crisp the ground of a morning, but with warm trances of benignant, sunny hours at noon, there came over the community a sort of genial repose of spirit, a sense of something accomplished, and of a new golden mark made in advance on the calendar of life . . . How We Kept Thanksgiving at Oldtown (extract) from chapter 27 of of Oldtown Folks by Harriet Beecher Stowe http://books.google.com/books?id=6cxEAAAAYAAJ&pg=PA385&lpg=PA385&dq=thanksgiving+oldtown+harriet+beecher+stowe&source=bl&ots=EYde2-6lMc&sig=dD3sjaIJTvYRxe-WgJFDIKTAOP8&hl=en&ei=_z0gTqqPBsjOgAeW9LXkBQ&sa=X&oi=book_result&ct=result&resnum=1&ved=0CBkQ6AEwAA#v=onepage&q&f=false

On a recent ramble through the Scottish woods, Roy Watling fingered a dull yellow mushroom and said proudly: "Do you know whose fungus that is? It's mine." The mushroom Boletus porosporus isn't especially rare, isn't poisonous, and, Dr. Watling says, "It has a taste like old socks." He knows what he is talking about: He discovered and officially named the species more than four decades ago. After a lifetime spent rummaging in the woods, Dr. Watling, 74 years old, has discovered and classified more than 50 fungus species around the world. But now, like some of the toadstools he studies, Dr. Watling is part of a vanishing breed. Founded in 1758 by Swede Carl Linnaeus, taxonomy was long a flourishing science. Even today, it underpins the study of biodiversity, evolution and animal conservation. But Britain doesn't have enough taxonomists to help it catalog lichens, fungi and insects. In the U.S. and elsewhere a similar shortage exists for specialists of certain types of black flies, beetles, nematodes, mites, spiders, centipedes, millipedes, clams and parasitic wasps. CABI International, a U.K. nonprofit group that helps countries fight agricultural pests and diseases, employed a dozen formally trained taxonomists in the 1980s. Today, the demand for taxonomic services is greater but CABI employs just two such specialists. Dr. Watling belongs to a dwindling generation of obsessed taxonomists. Three mushroom species bear his name, including the rare Ramaria watlingii. About 1.2 million species of living things have been cataloged so far, according to one estimate. A recent study suggests that another 7.5 million have yet to be identified. Scientists are racing to tabulate new species—even as many become extinct. Knowledge about individual species can be useful. When Nicholas Evans, author of "The Horse Whisperer," fell dangerously ill after picking and then eating some mystery mushrooms in 2008, British doctors sent the contents of the author's stomach to Dr. Watling. He immediately identified the fungal culprit as a highly toxic variety, Cortinarius rubellus, or the deadly webcap, and advised doctors on how to treat Mr. Evans. The author had to go on dialysis and later had a kidney transplant. Dr. Watling says he is frequently called on for help in mushroom-poisoning incidents. http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424053111904716604576544373054363118.html

When Apricot Met Plum by Melanie Grayce West For 50 years, the Zaiger family has been striving for a perfect piece of fruit: juicy like a plum, but not as messy. Sweeter, too, with a cherry snap. The Zaigers own Zaiger's Inc. Genetics in Modesto, Calif., one of country's few commercial fruit breeders specializing in hybrid fruits. Next month, they will decide whether to grant any of the farmers who tasted their pluerry, named for its mix of plum and cherry, at a sampling last week the exclusive rights to grow the new fruit and sell it to supermarkets across the country. Hybrid fruit is a potentially lucrative, and delicious, market. Fruit growers are motivated by the lure of inventing a product that commands premium prices, from 50 cents to $1 or more per pound than conventional fruit. The breeders are also aiming for fruit that will have a longer harvest period to be available to shoppers longer. And with the rise in cooking styles that celebrate the ingredients, American consumers are demonstrating a willingness to spend more on food and a desire to hear the stories behind their produce. To cross fruit varieties, Glen Bradford of Bradford Farms in Le Grand, Calif., chooses a female parent, or "mother" tree, and brings the male component, the pollen, directly to it. For peach and nectarine "mother" plants, workers remove the petals and pollen-producing anthers of every flower, leaving only the pistil. Workers then touch each pistil, by hand, with pollen taken from the "father" tree, such as a different peach or nectarine. "There might be 500 pistils on the tree that we left, and we come and touch each of those, like a bee would accidentally touch them," says Mr. Bradford. To pollinate most plum trees, bees are released into a covering wood and plastic structure, along with pollen-bearing bouquets from other plum or apricot trees. The resulting fruit from a mother tree is planted and the seedling produced is the new mixed variety, technically called an "interspecific" fruit. It will take another three to four years before that seedling matures and begins to bear fruit. The new variety must grow easily and produce ample quantities of attractive and hardy fruit that is easy to ship and store. Also critical is the fruit's so-called brix, or sugar level. http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424053111904900904576552543026705926.html