In fiction, a MacGuffin is an object, device, or event that is necessary to the plot and the motivation of the characters, but insignificant, unimportant, or irrelevant in itself. The term was originated by Angus MacPhail for film, adopted by Alfred Hitchcock, and later extended to a similar device in other fiction.
The Keeper or Master of the Rolls and Records of the Chancery of England, known as the Master of the Rolls, is the President of the Civil Division of the Court of Appeal of England and Wales and Head of Civil Justice. As a judge, the Master of the Rolls is second in seniority in England and Wales only to the Lord Chief Justice. The position dates from at least 1286, although it is believed that the office probably existed earlier than that.
Patek Philippe SA is a Swiss luxury watch and clock manufacturer, located in the Canton of Geneva and the Vallée de Joux. Established in 1839, it is named after two of its founders, Antoni Patek and Adrien Philippe. Since 1932, the company has been owned by the Stern family in Switzerland and remains the last family-owned independent watch manufacturer in Geneva. Patek Philippe is one of the oldest watch manufacturers in the world with an uninterrupted watchmaking history since its founding. It designs and manufactures timepieces as well as movements, including some of the most complicated mechanical watches. The company maintains over 400 retail locations globally and over a dozen distribution centers across Asia, Europe, North America, and Oceania. In 2001, it opened the Patek Philippe Museum in Geneva.
The House of Plantagenet was a royal house which originated in the French County of Anjou. The name Plantagenet is used by modern historians to identify four distinct royal houses: the Angevins, who were also counts of Anjou; the main line of the Plantagenets following the loss of Anjou; and the Houses of Lancaster and York, two of the Plantagenets cadet branches. The family held the English throne from 1154, with the accession of Henry II, until 1485, when Richard III died.
The Reference Sequence (RefSeq) database is an open access, annotated and curated collection of publicly available nucleotide sequences and their protein products. RefSeq was introduced in 2000. This database is built by National Center for Biotechnology Information (NCBI), and, unlike GenBank, provides only a single record for each natural biological molecule for major organisms ranging from viruses to bacteria to eukaryotes.
The Réseau des Émetteurs Français (REF) is a national non-profit organization for amateur radio enthusiasts in France. Key membership benefits of the organization include QSL bureau services, a monthly membership magazine called Radio REF, and the promotion and sponsorship of radio contests and operating awards. REF promotes amateur radio by organizing classes and technical support to help enthusiasts earn their amateur radio license. The REF-Union also represents the interests of French amateur radio operators and shortwave listeners before French and international telecommunications regulatory authorities. REF is the national member society representing France in the International Amateur Radio Union.
The British Poet Laureate is an honorary position appointed by the monarch of the United Kingdom, currently on the advice of the prime minister. The role does not entail any specific duties, but there is an expectation that the holder will write verse for significant national occasions. The origins of the laureateship date back to 1616 when a pension was provided to Ben Jonson, but the first official holder of the position was John Dryden, appointed in 1668 by Charles II. On the death of Alfred, Lord Tennyson, who held the post between November 1850 and October 1892, there was a break of four years as a mark of respect; Tennyson's laureate poems "Ode on the Death of the Duke of Wellington" and "The Charge of the Light Brigade" were particularly cherished by the Victorian public. Four poets, Thomas Gray, Samuel Rogers, Walter Scott and Philip Larkin turned down the laureateship. Historically appointed for an unfixed term and typically held for life, since 1999 the position has been for a term of ten years. The holder of the position as at 2024 is Simon Armitage who succeeded Carol Ann Duffy in May 2019 after 10 years in office.
Ancystroglossus is a genus of beetles in the family Carabidae, containing the following species:
Menippus is a genus of leaf beetles (Chrysomelidae).
The Pharmacy Council of India (PCI) is the statutory body under the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare, Government of India. It is constituted under the Pharmacy Act of 1948. The Council was first constituted on 4 March 1948. Montukumar Patel was elected as the new president of PCI in May 2022.
Ochraethes is a genus of beetles in the family Cerambycidae.
Hemilophini is a tribe of longhorn beetles of the subfamily Lamiinae.
Hemilophus is a genus of longhorn beetles of the subfamily Lamiinae, containing the following species:
Leuconitocris is a genus of longhorn beetles of the subfamily Lamiinae, containing the following species:
A generative adversarial network (GAN) is a class of machine learning frameworks and a prominent framework for approaching generative AI. The concept was initially developed by Ian Goodfellow and his colleagues in June 2014. In a GAN, two neural networks contest with each other in the form of a zero-sum game, where one agent's gain is another agent's loss.
Hemilophus leucogrammus is a species of beetle in the family Cerambycidae. It was described by Bates in 1881. It is known from Brazil.
Hemilophus unicolor is a species of beetle in the family Cerambycidae. It was described by Bates in 1881. It is known from Argentina, Paraguay, and Brazil.
Leuconitocris dimidiaticornis is a species of beetle in the family Cerambycidae. It was described by Louis Alexandre Auguste Chevrolat in 1857.
