Python

A python is a constricting snake belonging to the Python (genus), or, more generally, any snake in the family Pythonidae (containing the Python genus).

In ancient Greece

In computing

In media and entertainment

In roller coasters

Python (genus)

Python, from the Greek word (πύθων/πύθωνας), is a genus of nonvenomous pythons found in Africa and Asia. Currently, 12 species are recognised. A member of this genus, P. reticulatus, is among the longest snake species and extant reptiles in the world.

Geographic range

In Africa, members of the genus are found in the tropics south of the Sahara, but not in the extreme south-western tip of southern Africa (Western Cape) or in Madagascar. In Asia, they are found from Bangladesh, Nepal, India, Pakistan, and Sri Lanka, including the Nicobar Islands, through Myanmar, east to Indochina, southern China, Hong Kong and Hainan, as well as in the Malayan region of Indonesia and the Philippines.

Some suggest that P. molurus and P. sebae have the potential to be problematic invasive species in South Florida. The United States Department of Agriculture reports that only Python molurus bivittatus is an invasive species in the United States. More recent data suggest that these pythons would not withstand winter climates north of Florida, contradicting previous research suggesting a more significant geographic potential range.

Python (nuclear primary)

According to researcher Chuck Hansen, the W34 Python was a gas-boosted fission primary used in several designs of American thermonuclear weapons.

Primary is the technical term for the fission bomb trigger of a thermonuclear or fusion bomb, which is used to compress, heat and ignite the fusion fuel in the thermonuclear secondary.

Hansen's research indicates that the W34 Python primary was used in the US B28 nuclear bomb, W28, W40, and W49, and as a boosted fission warhead without a thermonuclear second stage in several other weapons. These were the Mark 45 ASTOR wire-guided 19-inch, submarine-launched heavyweight torpedo; the Mark 101 Lulu nuclear depth bomb; the Mark 105 Hotpoint laydown bomb.

Additionally, an anglicised W34 Python known to the British as 'Peter' was manufactured in Britain as the primary for Red Snow, itself an anglicised W28 warhead. Peter was also proposed as a replacement for the Red Beard warhead housed in a Red Beard carcass, and as the Violet Mist nuclear land mine for the British Army in Germany.

Watch

A watch is a small timepiece intended to be carried or worn by a person. It is designed to keep working despite the motions caused by the person's activities. A wristwatch is designed to be worn on a wrist, attached by a watch strap or other type of bracelet. A pocket watch is designed for a person to carry in a pocket.

Watches evolved in the 17th century from spring-powered clocks, which appeared as early as the 14th century. The first watches were strictly mechanical, driven by clockwork. As technology progressed, mechanical devices, used to control the speed of the watch, were largely superseded by vibrating quartz crystals that produce accurately timed electronic pulses. Some watches use radio clock technology to regularly correct the time. The first digital electronic watch was developed in 1970.

Most inexpensive and medium-priced watches, used mainly for timekeeping, are electronic watches with quartz movements. Expensive collectible watches, valued more for their elaborate craftsmanship, aesthetic appeal and glamorous design than for simple timekeeping, often have purely mechanical movements and are powered by springs, even though these movements are generally less accurate and more expensive than electronic ones. Various extra features, called "complications", such as moon-phase displays and the different types of tourbillon, are sometimes included. Modern watches often display the day, date, month and year, and electronic watches may have many other functions. Time-related features such as timers, chronographs and alarm functions are common. Some modern designs incorporate calculators, GPS and Bluetooth technology or have heart-rate monitoring capabilities. Watches incorporating GPS receivers use them not only to determine their position. They also receive and use time signals from the satellites, which make them essentially perfectly accurate timekeepers, even over long periods of time.

Watch system

A watch system, watch schedule, or watch bill is a method of assigning regular periods of work duty aboard ships and some other areas of employment. A watch system allows the ship's crew to effectively operate the ship 24 hours a day for the duration of long voyages or operations.

Many watch systems incorporate the concept of dogging, whereby one watch is split into two shorter watches so that there is an odd number each day. Doing so allows crew members to have a different watch schedule each day. Often, the dog watches are set at dinner time to allow the entire crew to be fed in short order.

Traditional system

In the traditional Royal Navy watch system, 'watch' refers to a period of time and to a grouping of personnel. Those members of the crew whose work must be done at all times of the day - known as 'watch-keepers' - are assigned to one of two watches: the Starboard or the Port watch. These can be further divided into two parts, e.g. First Port, Second Starboard. These two watches - or more usually the four parts of watches - alternate in working the following watches:

Breakpoint

In software development, a breakpoint is an intentional stopping or pausing place in a program, put in place for debugging purposes. It is also sometimes simply referred to as a pause.

More generally, a breakpoint is a means of acquiring knowledge about a program during its execution. During the interruption, the programmer inspects the test environment (general purpose registers, memory, logs, files, etc.) to find out whether the program is functioning as expected. In practice, a breakpoint consists of one or more conditions that determine when a program's execution should be interrupted.

Breakpoint conditions

Breakpoints are most commonly used to interrupt a running program immediately before the execution of a programmer-specified instruction. This is often referred to as an instruction breakpoint.

Other kinds of conditions can also be used, such as the reading, writing, or modification of a specific location in an area of memory. This is often referred to as a conditional breakpoint, a data breakpoint, or a watchpoint.