From a very young age, I discovered the joy of dictionaries and encyclopedias. Even though I was quite talkative, if you gave me a resource book, you would be guaranteed a bit of silence. Now that I am much older and have the world of words at my fingertips, I have rediscovered the same joy in learning new facts. The center of this feather (the radis or shaft) sets apart the symmetrical bits of the feather (the vane). Hooray for new knowledge!