Coral rag is a rubbly limestone composed of ancient coral reef material. The term also refers to the building blocks quarried from these strata which are an important local building material in areas such as the east African coast and the Caribbean basin (e.g., Bermuda, Florida).

It is also the name of a member — the Coral Rag Member — of the Upper Oxfordian Coralline Oolite Formation of North Yorkshire, England.

Corals are marine animals in class Anthozoa of phylum Cnidaria typically living in compact colonies of many identical individual "polyps". The group includes the important reef builders that inhabit tropical oceans and secrete calcium carbonate to form a hard skeleton.

A coral "head" is a colony of myriad genetically identical polyps. Each polyp is a spineless animal typically only a few millimeters in diameter and a few centimeters in length. A set of tentacles surround a central mouth opening. An exoskeleton is excreted near the base. Over many generations, the colony thus creates a large skeleton that is characteristic of the species. Individual heads grow by asexual reproduction of polyps. Corals also breed sexually by spawning: polyps of the same species release gametes simultaneously over a period of one to several nights around a full moon.

Although corals can catch small fish and plankton, using stinging cells on their tentacles, most corals obtain the majority of their energy and nutrients from photosynthetic unicellular algae called zooxanthellae that live within the coral's tissue. Such corals require sunlight and grow in clear, shallow water, typically at depths shallower than 60 metres (200 ft). Corals can be major contributors to the physical structure of the coral reefs that develop in tropical and subtropical waters, such as the enormous Great Barrier Reef off the coast of Queensland, Australia. Other corals do not have associated algae and can live in much deeper water, with the cold-water genus Lophelia surviving as deep as 3,000 metres (9,800 ft). Examples live on the Darwin Mounds located north-west of Cape Wrath, Scotland. Corals have also been found off the coast of the U.S. in Washington State and the Aleutian Islands in Alaska.

Rag or rags may refer to:

The Ames Brothers were a singing quartet from Malden, Massachusetts, who were particularly famous in the 1950s for their traditional pop music hits.

The Ames Brothers got their beginning in Malden, where all four were born. The act consisted of brothers Joe (3 May 1921 – 22 December 2007), Gene (born 13 February 1923 – 4 April 1997), Vic (20 May 1925 – 23 January 1978) and Ed (born 9 July 1927).

Born into a non-professional but musically talented family, the boys were brought up on classical and operatic music. Their parents, David and Sarah Urick, were Jewish immigrants from the Ukraine who read Shakespeare and semi-classics to their nine children from the time they were old enough to listen.

The brothers formed a quartet with a cousin named Lennie, and had been touring United States Army and Navy bases entertaining the troops and were offered a job at The Fox and Hounds nightclub, one of the fanciest clubs in Boston. This one week engagement turned into several months when the word got around of their appearance. At the time, they were going by the name of the Amory Brothers, a name taken from Vic's middle name and they were becoming quite popular in the area. It was at this time that Joe decided to rejoin the group. He said they were just having too much fun together for him to miss out.^{[citation needed]} Taking their act to New York they got a job with bandleader Art Mooney. One day while at Leeds Publishing Company in search of a song called "Should I" that their mother had asked them to sing, Milt Gabler of Decca Records heard them singing it and had them cut a few sides for Decca Records just before the AFM recording ban which James Petrillo imposed in January, 1948.

Helen Elizabeth Clark, ONZ (born 26 February 1950) was the 37th Prime Minister of New Zealand serving three consecutive terms from 1999 to 2008, making her the fifth longest serving person to hold that office. She has been Administrator of the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP), the third-highest UN position, since 2009.

Born in and raised just south of Hamilton, Clark graduated from the University of Auckland in 1974 and became political in her teenage years, involving herself in the New Zealand Labour Party from a young age. A junior lecturer at the University in the early 1970s, Clark entered local politics in 1974 in Auckland but was not elected to any position. Returning to lecturing at University after studying abroad, she successfully ran as a Member of Parliament for the Mount Albert electorate in 1981, a position she held until her resignation in 2009. During the 1980s and early 90s, Clark held numerous Cabinet positions in the Fourth Labour government, including Minister of Housing, Minister of Health and Minister of Conservation. She would hold the position of Deputy Prime Minister for a year.