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Mount Nagamine. Mount Nagamine (長峰山, Nagamine-san) is a 687.8 m (2,257 ft) mountain in Nada, Kobe, Hyōgo Prefecture, Japan. This mountain is one of the major mountains of Rokko Mountains. Mount Nagamine literally means, long ridge mountain. Mount Nagamine is on a ridge, which branches off a main ridge of Rokko Mountains. Because the ridge stretches to the south, toward the Osaka-Kobe metropolitan area, climbers can enjoy attractive views from the top. On the top of the mountain, there is a rock called ‘Tenguzuka’. This mountain belongs to the Setonaikai National Park. This mountain has major two routes to the top. One is from Hankyu Rokko Station, and the other is from Ōji-kōen Station. It takes one and half hours from these stations to the top.
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Kobe (disambiguation). Kobe is a city in Japan and capital of the Hyōgo prefecture. Kobe or KOBE may also refer to:
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Mainland China. Mainland China, also referred to as the Chinese mainland, is a geopolitical term defined as the territory under direct administration of the Peoples Republic of China (PRC) in the aftermath of the Chinese Civil War. In addition to the geographical mainland, the geopolitical sense of the term includes islands such as Hainan, Chongming, and Zhoushan.[1] By convention, territories outside of mainland China include: In Taiwan it is also often used to refer to all territories administered by the PRC.[3][4][5] The term is widely used in all of the above territories as well as internationally, including by many Overseas Chinese communities especially Malaysian Chinese and Chinese Singaporeans, use this term to describe people from the ancestral land. In 1949, the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) and the Peoples Liberation Army had largely defeated the Kuomintang (KMT)s National Revolutionary Army in the Chinese Civil War. This forced the Kuomintang to relocate the government and institution of the Republic of China to the relative safety of Taiwan, an island which was placed under its control after the surrender of Japan at the end of World War II in 1945. With the establishment of the Peoples Republic of China on 1 October 1949, the CCP-controlled government saw itself as the sole legitimate government of China,[6] competing with the claims of the Republic of China, whose authority is now limited to Taiwan and other islands. This resulted in a situation in which two co-existing governments competed for international legitimacy and recognition as the government of China. With the democratisation of Taiwan in the 1990s and the rise of the Taiwanese independence movement, some people began simply using the term China instead.[7] Due to their status as colonies of foreign states during the establishment of the Peoples Republic of China in 1949, the phrase mainland China excludes Hong Kong and Macau.[8] Since the return of Hong Kong and Macau to Chinese sovereignty in 1997 and 1999, respectively, the two territories have retained their legal, political, and economic systems. The territories also have their distinct identities. Therefore, mainland China generally continues to exclude these territories, because of the one country, two systems policy adopted by the Chinese government towards the regions.[9] The term is also used in economic indicators, such as the IMD Competitiveness Report. International news media often use China to refer only to the mainland of the Peoples Republic of China.
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Aerodrome. An aerodrome, airfield, or airstrip is a location from which aircraft flight operations take place, regardless of whether they involve air cargo, passengers, or neither, and regardless of whether it is for public or private use. Aerodromes include small general aviation airfields, large commercial airports, and military air bases. The term airport may imply a certain stature (having satisfied certain certification criteria or regulatory requirements) that not all aerodromes may have achieved. That means that all airports are aerodromes, but not all aerodromes are airports. Usage of the term aerodrome (or airfield) remains more common in Commonwealth English, and is conversely almost unknown in American English, where the term airport is applied almost exclusively. A water aerodrome is an area of open water used regularly by seaplanes, floatplanes or amphibious aircraft for landing and taking off. In formal terminology, as defined by the International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO), an aerodrome is a defined area on land or water (including any buildings, installations, and equipment) intended to be used either wholly or in part for the arrival, departure, and surface movement of aircraft.[1] The word aerodrome derives from Ancient Greek ἀήρ (aḗr), air, and δρόμος (drómos), road or course, literally meaning air course. An ancient linguistic parallel is hippodrome (a stadium for horse racing and chariot racing), derived from ἵππος (híppos), horse, and δρόμος (drómos), course. A modern linguistic parallel is velodrome, an arena for velocipedes. Αεροδρόμιο is the word for airport in Modern Greek, which transliterates as aerodromio.
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Code. In communications and information processing, code is a system of rules to convert information—such as a letter, word, sound, image, or gesture—into another form, sometimes shortened or secret, for communication through a communication channel or storage in a storage medium. An early example is an invention of language, which enabled a person, through speech, to communicate what they thought, saw, heard, or felt to others. But speech limits the range of communication to the distance a voice can carry and limits the audience to those present when the speech is uttered. The invention of writing, which converted spoken language into visual symbols, extended the range of communication across space and time. The process of encoding converts information from a source into symbols for communication or storage. Decoding is the reverse process, converting code symbols back into a form that the recipient understands, such as English, Spanish, etc. One reason for coding is to enable communication in places where ordinary plain language, spoken or written, is difficult or impossible. For example, semaphore, where the configuration of flags held by a signaler or the arms of a semaphore tower encodes parts of the message, typically individual letters, and numbers. Another person standing a great distance away can interpret the flags and reproduce the words sent. In information theory and computer science, a code is usually considered as an algorithm that uniquely represents symbols from some source alphabet, by encoded strings, which may be in some other target alphabet. An extension of the code for representing sequences of symbols over the source alphabet is obtained by concatenating the encoded strings.
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Meriken Park. Meriken Park (メリケンパーク, Meriken pāku) is a waterfront park located in the port city of Kobe, Hyōgo Prefecture, Japan. The park features the Kobe Port Tower, Kobe Maritime Museum, and a memorial to victims of the Great Hanshin earthquake. The name of the park comes from the word American, which was commonly translated as Meriken during the Meiji era.[1] Meriken Park is also the location of the Hotel Okura Kobe and Kobe Meriken Park Oriental Hotel. 34°40′54″N 135°11′18″E / 34.68167°N 135.18833°E / 34.68167; 135.18833
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Irreligious (album). Irreligious is the second studio album by Portuguese gothic metal band Moonspell, released in 1996. It features some of the bands best-known songs, such as Opium, Ruin & Misery, Awake! and Full Moon Madness. The latter usually closes almost every Moonspell concert. The third track, Awake!, features a recording of Aleister Crowley reading his poem The Poet. The album was promoted by the first Moonspell music video Opium, which contained imagery of 19th-century-looking opium den. Guest musicians Production
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Kobe Maritime Museum. Kobe Maritime Museum is a museum in Kobe, Japan focusing on the history of Japanese shipping and Kobe harbor. One of the exhibits is the Yamato 1. 34°40′58″N 135°11′18″E / 34.68278°N 135.18833°E / 34.68278; 135.18833 This article related to a museum in Japan is a stub. You can help Wikipedia by expanding it. This Hyōgo Prefecture location article is a stub. You can help Wikipedia by expanding it.
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Venetian language. Venetian,[7][8] also known as wider Venetian or Venetan[9][10] (łengua vèneta[11] [ˈɰeŋɡwa ˈvɛneta] or vèneto [ˈvɛneto]), is a Romance language spoken natively in the northeast of Italy,[12] mostly in Veneto, where most of the five million inhabitants can understand it. It is sometimes spoken and often well understood outside Veneto: in Trentino, Friuli, the Julian March, Istria, and some towns of Slovenia, Dalmatia (Croatia) and Bay of Kotor (Montenegro)[13][14] by a surviving autochthonous Venetian population, and in Argentina, Australia, Brazil, Canada, Mexico, the United States and the United Kingdom by Venetians in the diaspora. Although referred to as an Italian dialect (Venetian: diałeto; Italian: dialetto) even by some of its speakers, the label is primarily geographic. Venetian is a separate language from Italian, with many local varieties. Its precise place within the Romance language family remains somewhat controversial. Both Ethnologue and Glottolog group it into the Gallo-Italic branch (and thus, closer to French and Emilian–Romagnol than to Italian).[8][7] Devoto, Avolio and Ursini reject such classification,[15][16][17] and Tagliavini places it in the Italo-Dalmatian branch of Romance.[18] Like all members of the Romance language family, Venetian evolved from Vulgar Latin, and is thus a sister language of Italian and other Romance languages. Venetian is first attested in writing in the 13th century. The language enjoyed substantial prestige in the days of the Republic of Venice, when it attained the status of a lingua franca in the Mediterranean Sea. Notable Venetian-language authors include the playwrights Ruzante (1502–1542), Carlo Goldoni (1707–1793) and Carlo Gozzi (1720–1806). Following the old Italian theatre tradition (commedia dellarte), they used Venetian in their comedies as the speech of the common folk. They are ranked among the foremost Italian theatrical authors of all time, and plays by Goldoni and Gozzi are still performed today all over the world. Other notable works in Venetian are the translations of the Iliad by Giacomo Casanova (1725–1798) and Francesco Boaretti, the translation of the Divine Comedy (1875) by Giuseppe Cappelli and the poems of Biagio Marin (1891–1985). Notable too is a manuscript titled Dialogo de Cecco di Ronchitti da Bruzene in perpuosito de la stella Nuova attributed to Girolamo Spinelli, perhaps with some supervision by Galileo Galilei for scientific details.[19]
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Secularity. Secularity, also the secular or secularness (from Latin saeculum, worldly or of a generation or century), is the state of being unrelated to, or neutral in regard to, religion. The origins of secularity as a concept can be traced to the Bible, and it was fleshed out through Christian history into the modern era.[1] Since the Middle Ages, there have been clergy not pertaining to a religious order called secular clergy.[2][3][4] Furthermore, secular and religious entities were not separated in the medieval period, but coexisted and interacted naturally.[5][6] The word secular has a meaning very similar to profane as used in a religious context. Today, anything that is not directly connected with religion may be considered secular, in other words, neutral to religion.[7] Secularity does not mean anti-religious, but unrelated to religion. Many activities in religious bodies are secular, and though there are multiple types of secularity or secularization, most do not lead to irreligiosity.[8] Linguistically, a process by which anything becomes secular is named secularization, though the term is mainly reserved for the secularization of society; any concept or ideology promoting the secular may be termed secularism, a term generally applied to the ideology dictating no religious influence on the public sphere. Both religion and secular are Western terms and concepts that are not universal across cultures, languages, or time.[9] Since both are Western concepts that were formed under the influence of Christian theology, other cultures do not necessarily have words or concepts that resemble or are equivalent to them.[10] Many scholars have problematized the concept of secularity, arguing that it has been heavily structured by Protestant models of Christianity such as emphasis of beliefs and skepticism towards rituals.[11] Of the cultures that do have conceptions of religion and secular, most do not have tension or dichotomous views of religion and secularity.[12] Historically, the word secular was not related or linked to religion, but was a freestanding term in Latin that would relate to any mundane endeavour.[13] However, the term, saecula saeculorum (saeculōrum being the genitive plural of saeculum) as found in the New Testament in the Vulgate translation (c. 410) of the original Koine Greek phrase εἰς τοὺς αἰῶνας τῶν αἰώνων (eis toùs aionas ton aiṓnōn), e.g. at Galatians 1:5, was used in the early Christian church (and is still used today), in the doxologies, to denote the coming and going of the ages, the grant of eternal life, and the long duration of created things from their beginning to forever and ever.[14] Secular and secularity derive from the Latin word saeculum which meant of a generation, belonging to an age or denoted a period of about one hundred years.[13] The Christian doctrine that God exists outside time led medieval Western culture to use secular to indicate separation from specifically religious affairs and involvement in temporal ones.[citation needed]
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Italian language. Italian (italiano, pronounced [itaˈljaːno] ⓘ, or lingua italiana, pronounced [ˈliŋɡwa itaˈljaːna]) is a Romance language of the Indo-European language family. It evolved from the colloquial Latin of the Roman Empire,[7] and is the least divergent language from Latin, together with Sardinian.[8] It is spoken by 68 to 85 million people, including 64 million native speakers as of 2024.[2][1] Some speakers of Italian are native bilinguals of both Italian (either in its standard form or regional varieties) and a local language of Italy, most frequently the language spoken at home in their place of origin.[1] Italian is an official language in Italy, San Marino, Switzerland (Ticino and the Grisons), and Vatican City, and it has official minority status in Croatia, Slovenia (Istria), Romania,[6][9] Bosnia and Herzegovina,[6] and in 6 municipalities of Brazil.[10][11] It is also spoken in other European and non-EU countries, most notably in Malta (by 66% of the population),[12] Albania and Monaco,[2] as well as by large immigrant and expatriate communities in the Americas, Australia and on other continents.[1] Italian is a major language in Europe, being one of the official languages of the Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe and one of the working languages of the Council of Europe. It is the third-most-widely spoken native language in the European Union (13% of the EU population) and it is spoken as a second language by 13 million EU citizens (3%).[13][14][15] Italian is the main working language of the Holy See, serving as the lingua franca in the Roman Catholic hierarchy and the official language of the Sovereign Military Order of Malta. Italian influence led to the development of derivated languages and dialects worldwide. It is also widespread in various sectors and markets, with its loanwords used in arts, luxury goods, fashion, sports and cuisine; it has a significant use in musical terminology and opera, with numerous Italian words referring to music that have become international terms taken into various languages worldwide, including in English.[16] Almost all native Italian words end with vowels, and the language has a 7-vowel sound system (e and o have mid-low and mid-high sounds).[17] Italian has contrast between short and long consonants and gemination (doubling) of consonants.
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Kobe Port Tower. The Kobe Port Tower (神戸ポートタワー, Kōbe Pōto Tawā) is a landmark in the port city of Kobe, Japan. The sightseeing tower was completed in 1963 and was temporarily closed from late 2009 to 28 April 2010 and again from 27 September 2021 to 26 April 2024 for renovation. It is located in Chuo-ku, Kobe, Hyōgo Prefecture, Japan. The Kobe Port Tower was designed by the Nikken Sekkei Company and was completed in 1963.[1] The maintenance of the whole facility began on November 2009 and the Kobe Port Tower was closed to the public from 12 January 2010 for refurbishment. It was renovated and re-opened to the public for the sightseeing deck on 19 March 2010 but Kobe Port Tower completed the installation of 7,000 light-emitting diodes (LED) lighting equipment with 40 lighting effects starting from the re-opening day of 28 April 2010. The building also pays homage to the late Kobe Bryant.[2][3] The facility was once again closed to the public from 27 September 2021 for renovation and seismic retrofitting.[4] It reopened on 26 April 2024.[5]
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Nasreddine Dinet. Nasreddine Dinet (born as Alphonse-Étienne Dinet on 28 March 1861 – 24 December 1929, Paris) was a French orientalist painter and was one of the founders of the Société des Peintres Orientalistes Society for French Orientalist Painters. He became so enchanted with Algeria and its culture, that he converted to Islam, and was proficient in Arabic. In addition to his paintings, he translated Arabic literature into French. Born in Paris, Alphonse-Étienne Dinet, was the son of a prominent French judge, Philippe Léon Dinet and Marie Odile Boucher.[1] In 1865 his sister Jeanne, who would be his biographer, was born.[2] From 1871, he studied at the Lycée Henry IV, where the future president Alexandre Millerand was also among the students. Upon graduation in 1881 he enrolled in the École nationale supérieure des Beaux-Arts and entered the studio of Victor Galland. The following year he studied under William Bouguereau and Tony Robert-Fleury at the Académie Julian. He also exhibited for the first time at the Salon des artistes français. Dinet made his first trip to Bou Saâda by the Ouled Naïl Range in northern Algeria in 1884, with a team of entomologists. The following year he made a second trip on a government scholarship, this time to Laghouat.[1] At that time he painted his first two Algerian pictures: les Terrasses de Laghouat and l’Oued M’Sila après l’orage. He won the silver medal for painting at the Exposition Universelle in 1889, and in the same year founded the Société Nationale des Beaux-Arts along with Meissonier, Puvis de Chavannes, Rodin, Carolus-Duran and Charles Cottet. In 1887 he further founded with Léonce Bénédite, director of the Musée du Luxembourg, the Société des Peintres Orientalistes Français.[3]
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Secularism. Secularism is the principle of seeking to conduct human affairs based on naturalistic considerations, uninvolved with religion. It is most commonly thought of as the separation of religion from civil affairs and the state and may be broadened to a similar position seeking to remove or to minimize the role of religion in any public sphere.[1] Secularism may encapsulate anti-clericalism, atheism, naturalism, non-sectarianism, neutrality on topics of religion, or antireligion.[2] Secularism is not necessarily antithetical to religion, but may be compatible with it.[3] As a philosophy, secularism seeks to interpret life based on principles derived solely from the material world, without recourse to religion. It shifts the focus from religion towards temporal and material concerns.[4] There are distinct traditions of secularism like the French, Turkish, American and Indian models. These differ greatly, from the American emphasis on avoiding an established religion and freedom of belief, to the French interventionist model, and more. The purposes and arguments in support of secularism vary widely, ranging from assertions that it is a crucial element of modernization, or that religion and traditional values are backward and divisive, to the claim that it is the only guarantor of free religious exercise. Both religion and secular are Western concepts that are not universal across cultures, languages, or time; with experiences of secularism varying significantly.[5] Secularism has origins going back to the ancient world into religious texts such as the Bible, being refined through history by religious thinkers.[6] Secular individuals hold complex relations to religion.[7][8] Secularism takes different forms with varying stances on where and how religion should be separate from other aspects of society.[9] People of any religious denomination can support a secular society, or adopt the principles of secularism, although secularist identity is often associated with non-religious individuals such as atheists.[10] Political secularism encompasses the schools of thought in secularism that consider the regulation of religion by a secular state.[11] Religious minorities and non-religious citizens in a country tend to support political secularism while members of the majority religion tend to oppose it.[12] Secular nationalists are people that support political secularism within their own state.[13]
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Emam. Emam may refer to:
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Iman. Iman, Imann, Imaan, Eman, Eiman, Imane, Emaan, or Imman may refer to:
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Imamate. The term imamate or imamah (Arabic: إمامة, imāmah) means leadership and refers to the office of an imam or a Muslim theocratic state ruled by an imam.[1]
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Shakespeare (disambiguation). William Shakespeare (1564–1616) was an English playwright and poet. Shakespeare may also refer to:
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Anti-clericalism. Anti-clericalism is opposition to religious authority, typically in social or political matters. Historically, anti-clericalism in Christian traditions has been opposed to the influence of Catholicism. Anti-clericalism is related to secularism, which seeks to separate the church from public and political life.[1] Some have opposed clergy on the basis of moral corruption, institutional issues and/or disagreements in religious interpretation, such as during the Protestant Reformation. Anti-clericalism became extremely violent during the French Revolution, because revolutionaries claimed the church played a pivotal role in the systems of oppression which led to it.[2] Many clerics were killed, and French revolutionary governments tried to put priests under the control of the state by making them employees. Anti-clericalism appeared in Catholic Europe throughout the 19th century, in various forms, and later in Canada, Cuba, and Latin America. According to the Pew Research Center several communist and post-communist states are current practitioners of political anti-clericalism, including Uzbekistan, Azerbaijan, Kazakhstan, Tajikistan, Kyrgyzstan, Turkmenistan, Vietnam, China and North Korea.[3] During the Protestant Reformation, anti-clericalism resulted from opposition to the political and economic privileges of the clergy.[4] The Civil Constitution of the Clergy was passed on July 12, 1790, requiring all clerics to swear allegiance to the French government and, by extension, to the increasingly anti-clerical National Constituent Assembly. All but seven of the 160 bishops refused the oath, as did about half of the parish priests.[5] Persecution of the clergy and of the faithful was the first trigger of the rebellion; the second being conscription. Nonjuring priests were exiled or imprisoned and women on their way to Mass were beaten in the streets.[5]
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William Shakespeare (disambiguation). William Shakespeare (1564–1616) was an English poet, playwright and actor. William Shakespeare may also refer to:
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Antireligion. Antireligion is opposition to religion or traditional religious beliefs and practices.[1][2][3] It involves opposition to organized religion, religious practices or religious institutions. The term antireligion has also been used to describe opposition to specific forms of supernatural worship or practice, whether organized or not. Antireligion is distinct from deity-specific positions such as atheism (the lack of belief in deities) and antitheism (an opposition to belief in deities); although antireligionists may also be atheists or antitheists. Unlike antitheism, antireligion is also against those religions that do not have deities, such as some sects of Buddhism and Jainism. Some Catholics have accused the Reformation of Martin Luther as having inspired anti religiosity.[4] Early anti religious tendencies were expressed by skeptics such as Christopher Marlowe.[5] Significant antireligion was advanced during the Age of Enlightenment, as early as the 17th century. Baron dHolbachs book Christianity Unveiled, published in 1766, attacked not only Christianity but religion in general as an impediment to the moral advancement of humanity. According to historian Michael Burleigh, antireligion found its first mass expression of barbarity in revolutionary France as organised ... irreligion...an anti-clerical and self-styled non-religious state responded violently to religious influence over society.[6] The Soviet Union adopted the political ideology of Marxism–Leninism and by extension the policy of state atheism, which opposed the growth of religions.[7] It directed varying degrees of antireligious efforts at varying faiths, depending on what threat they posed to the Soviet state, and their willingness to subordinate themselves to political authority. In the 1930s, during the Stalinist period, the government destroyed church buildings or put them into secular use (as museums of religion and atheism, clubs or storage facilities), executed clergy, prohibited the publication of most religious material and persecuted some members of religious groups.[8] Less violent attempts to reduce or eliminate the influence of religion in society were also carried out at other times in Soviet history. For instance, it was usually necessary to be an atheist in order to acquire any important political position or any prestigious scientific job; thus, many people became atheists in order to advance their careers. Some estimate that 12–15 million Christians were killed in the Soviet Union.[9][10][11] Up to 500,000 Russian Orthodox Christians were persecuted by the Soviet government, not including other religious groups.[12] At least 106,300 Russian clergymen were executed between 1937 and 1941.[13] The Moldavian Soviet Socialist Republic targeted numerous clergy for arrest and interrogation as enemies of the state,[14] and many churches, mosques, and synagogues were converted to secular uses.[15] The Peoples Republic of Albania had an objective for the eventual elimination of all religion in Albania with the goal of creating an atheist nation, which it declared it had achieved in 1967. In 1976, Albania implemented a constitutional ban on religious activity and actively promoted atheism.[16][17] The government nationalized most property of religious institutions and used it for non-religious purposes, such as cultural centers for young people. Religious literature was banned. Many clergy and theists were tried, tortured, and executed. All foreign Roman Catholic clergy were expelled in 1946,[citation needed] and Albania officially tried to eradicate religion.[17]
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Chandos portrait. The Chandos portrait is an oil painted portrait thought to depict William Shakespeare (1564–1616). Painted between 1600 and 1610, it may have served as the basis for the engraved portrait of Shakespeare used in the First Folio in 1623.[1] It is named after the 3rd Duke of Chandos, who was a former owner. The portrait was given to the National Portrait Gallery, London, on its foundation in 1856, and it was the first portrait to be acquired for its collection.[2] It has not been possible to determine with certainty who painted the portrait, or whether it actually depicts Shakespeare. However, the National Portrait Gallery believes that it certainly fairly likely does depict the writer.[2][3] The first known reference to the painting is in a note written in 1719 by George Vertue, who stated that it was painted by John Taylor, a respected member of the Painter-Stainers Company, who may also have been the same John Taylor who acted with the Children of Pauls.[4] Vertue refers to Taylor as an actor and painter and as Shakespeares intimate friend. Katherine Duncan-Jones argues that John Taylor could have been a misreading of what had originally been Jo: Taylor; she suggests that this may refer to the actor Joseph Taylor, who was a protégé of the older Shakespeare.[5] In 1719, in a note in the margin of a book, George Vertue wrote the name Richard Burbridge [sic], then crossed it out. It is thought that Vertue temporarily and mistakenly assigned the painting to Shakespeares friend Richard Burbage (1567–1619), then crossed it out, and instead wrote that the painting was by one Taylor.[6]
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Principles of Islamic jurisprudence. Principles of Islamic jurisprudence (Arabic: أصول الفقه, romanized: ʾUṣūl al-Fiqh) are traditional methodological principles used in Islamic jurisprudence (fiqh) for deriving the rulings of Islamic law (sharia).[1] Traditional theory of Islamic jurisprudence elaborates how the scriptures (Quran and hadith) should be interpreted from the standpoint of linguistics and rhetoric.[2] It also comprises methods for establishing authenticity of hadith and for determining when the legal force of a scriptural passage is abrogated by a passage revealed at a later date.[2] In addition to the Quran and hadith, the classical theory of Sunni jurisprudence recognizes secondary sources of law: juristic consensus (ijmaʿ) and analogical reasoning (qiyas).[3] It therefore studies the application and limits of analogy, as well as the value and limits of consensus, along with other methodological principles, some of which are accepted by only certain legal schools (madhahib).[2] This interpretive apparatus is brought together under the rubric of ijtihad, which refers to a jurists exertion in an attempt to arrive at a ruling on a particular question.[2] The theory of Twelver Shia jurisprudence parallels that of Sunni schools with some differences, such as recognition of reason (ʿaql) as a source of law in place of qiyās and extension of the notions of hadith and sunnah to include traditions of the imams.[1][4] Uṣūl al-fiqh is a genitive construction with two Arabic terms, uṣūl and fiqh. Uṣūl means roots or basis. Some says, Uṣūl, the plural form of Aṣl, means Rājih (preponderant). It also signifies Qā’idah (rules), which is the real-world application of the word. For example: every sentence must contain a verb is a rule of Grammar. Fiqh linguistically refers to knowledge, deep understanding or comprehension. In the context of Islamic law, it refers to traditional Islamic jurisprudence.[citation needed] Classical jurists held that human reason is a gift from God which should be exercised to its fullest capacity.[5] However, they believed that use of reason alone is insufficient to distinguish right from wrong, and that rational argumentation must draw its content from the body of transcendental knowledge revealed in the Quran and through the sunnah of Muhammad.[5] In Islam, the Quran is considered to be the most sacred source of law.[6] Classical jurists held its textual integrity to be beyond doubt on account of it having been handed down by many people in each generation, which is known as recurrence or concurrent transmission (tawātur).[3][6] Only several hundred verses of the Quran have direct legal relevance, and they are concentrated in a few specific areas such as inheritance, though other passages have been used as a source for general principles whose legal ramifications were elaborated by other means.[7][6]
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Korea. Korea[a] is a peninsular region in East Asia consisting of the Korean Peninsula,[b] Jeju Island, and smaller islands. Since the end of World War II in Asia in 1945, it has been politically divided at or near the 38th parallel between North Korea (Democratic Peoples Republic of Korea; DPRK) and South Korea (Republic of Korea; ROK). Both countries proclaimed independence in 1948, and the two countries fought the Korean War from 1950 to 1953. The region is bordered by China to the north and Russia to the northeast, across the Amnok (Yalu) and Duman (Tumen) rivers, and is separated from Japan to the southeast by the Korea Strait. Known human habitation of the Korean peninsula dates to 40,000 BC.[3] The kingdom of Gojoseon, which according to tradition was founded in 2333 BC, fell to the Han dynasty in 108 BC. It was followed by the Three Kingdoms period, in which Korea was divided into Goguryeo, Baekje, and Silla. In 668 AD, Silla conquered Baekje and Goguryeo with the aid of the Tang dynasty, forming Unified Silla; Balhae succeeded Goguryeo in the north. In the late 9th century, Unified Silla collapsed into three states, beginning the Later Three Kingdoms period. In 918, Goguryeo was resurrected as Goryeo, which achieved what has been called a true national unification by Korean historians, as it unified both the Later Three Kingdoms and the ruling class of Balhae after its fall.[4] Goryeo, whose name developed into the modern exonym Korea, was highly cultured and saw the invention of the first metal movable type. During the 13th century, Goryeo became a vassal state of the Mongol Empire. Goryeo overthrew Mongol rule before falling to a coup led by General Yi Seong-gye, who established the Joseon dynasty in 1392. The first 200 years of Joseon were marked by peace; the Hangul, the Korean alphabet was created and Confucianism became influential. This ended with Japanese and Qing invasions, which brought devastation to Joseon and led to Korean isolationism. After the invasions, an isolated Joseon experienced another nearly 200-year period of peace and prosperity, along with cultural and technological development. In the final years of the 19th century, Japan forced Joseon to open up and Joseon experienced turmoil such as the Kapsin Coup, Donghak Peasant Revolution, and the assassination of Empress Myeongseong. In 1895, Japan defeated China in the First Sino-Japanese War and China lost suzerainty over Korea and Korea was placed under further Japanese influence. In 1897, the centuries old Joseon was replaced by the Korean Empire with the Joseons last king, Gojong, becoming the Emperor of the Korean Empire. Japans further victory in the 1904–1905 Russo-Japanese War, expelled Russian influence in Korea and Manchuria. In 1905, the Korean Empire became a protectorate of the Empire of Japan. In 1910, the Empire of Japan officially annexed the Korean peninsula. Korea under Japanese rule was marked by industrialization and modernization, economic exploitation, and brutal suppression of the Korean independence movement, as reflected in the 1919 March First Movement. The Japanese suppressed Korean culture, and during World War II forcefully mobilized millions of Koreans to support its war effort. In 1945, Japan surrendered to the Allies, and the Soviet Union and United States agreed to divide Korea into two military occupation zones divided by the 38th parallel, with the Soviet zone in the north and American zone in the south. The division was meant to be temporary, with plans for Korea to be reunited under a single government. In 1948, the DPRK and ROK were established with the backing of each power, and ongoing tensions led to the outbreak of the Korean War in 1950, which came to involve U.S.-led United Nations and communist Chinese forces. The war ended in stalemate in 1953, but without a peace treaty. A demilitarized zone was created between the countries, approximating the original partition. This status contributes to the high tensions that divide the peninsula, and both states claim to be the sole legitimate government of Korea. South Korea is a regional power and a developed country, with its economy ranked as the worlds fourteenth-largest by GDP (PPP). Its armed forces are one of the worlds strongest militaries, with the worlds second-largest standing army by military and paramilitary personnel. South Korea has been renowned for its globally influential pop culture, particularly in music (K-pop) and cinema, a phenomenon referred to as the Korean Wave. North Korea follows Songun, a military first policy which prioritizes the Korean Peoples Army in state affairs and resources. It possesses nuclear weapons, and is the country with the highest number of military personnel, with a total of 7.8 million active, reserve, and paramilitary personnel, or approximately 30% of its population. Its active duty army of 1.3 million soldiers is the fourth-largest in the world, consisting of 4.9% of its population. North Korea is widely considered to have the worst human rights record in the world.
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Ryukyu (disambiguation). Ryukyu may refer to:
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Southwest Islands (Palau). The Southwest Islands of Palau are several small islands spread across the Pacific Ocean about 600 km from the main island chain of Palau. They make up the Palauan states of Sonsorol and Hatohobei. The nearshore islands to the southwest of the main island of Palau (Babeldaob), which belong to the states of Koror, Peleliu and Angaur and the unincorporated Rock Islands, are not considered part of the Southwest Islands. The Southwest Islands are located some 275 to 325 km southwest of Angaur. These small outer islands, which include Sonsorol, Pulu Ana, and Meriir, are both physically and culturally distinct from the rest of the Palau. The islands are miniature platforms of raised reef composed of coralline limestone. The islands have sandy soils covered with atoll-like forest and brush. The islands are low, and have depressed, swampy interiors. Large stands of coconut palms line the beaches forming the primary resource for the only industry on the islands: copra production. Today, the islands are largely uninhabited as most of the native population lives in Koror or on Ngerekebesang Island. Even so, the natives retain a strong sense of cultural pride in their heritage and a firm commitment to their islands.[1] The state governments operate the vessel connecting with Koror every 3 months. The Southwest Islands, grouped by their state, from north to south, are: There is little information available on traditional village patterns in the Southwest Islands. Osborne noted several individual old dwelling places and one concentration of platforms and pathways. There is some information available on traditional fishing practices. The surrounding ocean provided the primary source of protein and was probably intensely exploited prehistorically. Given the limited amount of land, it is expected that almost all of it would have been intensively exploited by settlement or subsistence activities.[1] The people of the Southwest Islands and Tochobei (Tobi) share a cultural heritage that shows close ties with peoples of the central Caroline Islands, more than 1000 km to the northeast and on the other side of Palau. The migration of these people to the Southwest Islands must be one of the truly remarkable events in the prehistory of the Pacific.[1]
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Church of the Holy Trinity, Stratford-upon-Avon. The Collegiate Church of the Holy and Undivided Trinity, Stratford-upon-Avon, is a Grade I listed[3] parish church of the Church of England in Stratford-upon-Avon, Warwickshire, England. It is often known simply as Holy Trinity Church or as Shakespeares Church, due to its fame as the place of baptism and burial of William Shakespeare. More than 200,000 tourists visit the church each year.[4] The past building dates from 1210 and is built on the site of a Saxon monastery. It is Stratford-upon-Avons oldest building, is situated on the banks of the River Avon, and is one of Englands most visited churches.[5] In the fourteenth century, John de Stratford founded a chantry, which was rebuilt between 1465 and 1497 by Dean Thomas Balshall, who is buried at the church.[6][7] The building is believed to have originally had a wooden spire, which was replaced by William Hiorne in 1763.[6] Holy Trinity contains many interesting features, including: The carved scenes of the life of Christ around Balshalls tomb were mutilated during the Reformation, as were most images of Christ. Notable survivors include a remarkable face of Christ or possibly God the Father within a sedilia canopy, and some beautiful medieval stained glass depicting the Resurrection and Ascension of Christ and the Day of Pentecost. The pre-Reformation stone altar slab or mensa was found hidden beneath the floor in Victorian times and has now been re-instated as the high altar.
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Rende. Rende is a comune (municipality) in the province of Cosenza, Calabria, Italy, home to the headquarters of the University of Calabria. It has a population of about 36,000. The city is divided into two parts: the old town, on a high hill, and the modern area, on level ground, which is fully connected to the city of Cosenza and central to the cultural and economic life of the urban area. Rende stretches from the left river of the Crati to the mountains called Serre Cosentine. The municipality counts the hamlets (frazioni) of Arcavacata, Commenda, Quattromiglia, Roges, Santo Stefano, Saporito and Surdo. The territory presents mountain areas from west that degrade slowly eastward forming hills, one of which is the historic centre, until the valley of the Crati. Thanks to large flat areas, it is covered by the modern city. The most important rivers crossing Rende are Crati, Campagnano, Surdo and Emoli.
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Cantastoria. Cantastoria (Italian: [ˌkantaˈstɔːrja]; also spelled cantastorie [ˌkantaˈstɔːrje], canta storia or canta historia) comes from Italian for story-singer and is known by many other names around the world. It is a theatrical form where a performer tells or sings a story while gesturing to a series of images. These images can be painted, printed or drawn on any sort of material. In 6th-century India, religious tales called saubhikas were performed by traveling storytellers who carried banners painted with images of gods from house to house. Another form called yamapapaka featured the storytellers carrying vertical cloth scrolls and sung stories of the afterlife. In recent times, this is still performed by Chitrakar women from West Bengal, India. In Tibet, this was known as ma-ni-pa and in other parts of China this was known as pien. In Indonesia, the scroll was made horizontally which is called the wayang beber and employed four performers: a man who sings the story, two men who operate the rolling of the scroll, and a woman who holds a lamp to illuminate particular pictures featured in the story. Other Indonesian theater forms, which are labelled as shadow play are the wayang kulit and wayang golek which uses rod puppetry, these are still performed today. In Japan, cantastoria appears as etoki (絵解) or emaki (絵巻) in the form of hanging scrolls divided into separate panels, foreshadowing the popular modern manga, or Japanese comics. Etoki sometimes took the shape of little booklets, or even displays of dolls posed on the roadside with backgrounds behind them. In the 20th century, Japanese candymen on bicycles would bring serial shows called kamishibai (紙芝居) where the story was told on a series of changing pictures that slid in and out of an open-framed box. Some kamishibai shows had a raree show element to them, where a viewer could pay extra to peer through a hole and see a supposed artifact from the story.
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Stratford-upon-Avon. Stratford-upon-Avon (/ ... ˈeɪvən/ ... AY-vən), also known simply as Stratford, is a market town and civil parish in the Stratford-on-Avon district, in the county of Warwickshire,[2] in the West Midlands region of England. It is situated on the River Avon, 91 miles (146 km) north-west of London, 22 miles (35 km) south-east of Birmingham and 8 miles (13 km) south-west of Warwick.[3] The town is the southernmost point of the Arden area at the northern extremity of the Cotswolds.[4] At the 2021 British census Stratford had a population of 30,495.[5] Stratford was inhabited originally by Britons before Anglo-Saxons and remained a village before the lord of the manor, John of Coutances, set out plans to develop it into a town in 1196. In that same year, Stratford was granted a charter from King Richard I to hold a weekly market in the town, giving it its status as a market town. As a result, Stratford experienced an increase in trade and commerce as well as urban expansion. Stratford is a popular tourist destination, owing to being the birthplace and burial place of the playwright and poet William Shakespeare, who is widely regarded as the national poet of England.[6] It receives approximately 2.7 million visitors a year.[7] The Royal Shakespeare Company resides in the Royal Shakespeare Theatre. The name is a combination of the Old English strǣt (from Latin stratum), meaning street, ford, indicating a shallow part of a river or stream, allowing it to be crossed by walking or driving, and avon which is a Celtic word for river (Welsh: afon).[8][9] The street was a Roman road which connected Icknield Street in Alcester to the Fosse Way. The ford, which has been used as a crossing since Roman times, later became the location of Clopton Bridge.[10][11][12]
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Kobe Bryant. Kobe Bean Bryant (/ˈkoʊbi/ KOH-bee; August 23, 1978 – January 26, 2020) was an American professional basketball player. A shooting guard, he spent his entire 20-year career with the Los Angeles Lakers in the National Basketball Association (NBA). Widely regarded as one of the greatest and most influential basketball players of all time, Bryant won five NBA championships and was an 18-time All-Star, four-time All-Star MVP, 15-time member of the All-NBA Team, 12-time member of the All-Defensive Team, the 2008 NBA Most Valuable Player (MVP), two-time NBA Finals MVP, and two-time scoring champion. He ranks fourth in league all-time regular season and postseason scoring. Bryant was posthumously named to the NBA 75th Anniversary Team in 2021 and was a two-time inductee to the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame, as a player in 2020 and as a member of the 2008 U.S. Olympic team in 2025.[3] The son of NBA player Joe Bryant, Bryant was born in Philadelphia and partly raised in Italy. Recognized as the top American high school basketball player while at Lower Merion High School in the Philadelphia suburb of Ardmore, Bryant declared for the 1996 NBA draft and was selected by the Charlotte Hornets with the 13th pick; he was then traded to the Lakers. As a rookie, Bryant earned a reputation as a high-flyer by winning the 1997 Slam Dunk Contest and was named an All-Star by his second season. Despite his contentious relationship with teammate Shaquille ONeal, the pair led the Lakers to three consecutive NBA championships from 2000 to 2002. In 2003, Bryant was charged with sexual assault. Charges were dropped after the accuser refused to testify, and a lawsuit was settled out of court, with Bryant issuing an apology and admitting to a sexual encounter he maintained was consensual. After the Lakers lost the 2004 NBA Finals, ONeal was traded and Bryant became the franchises cornerstone. He led the NBA in scoring in the 2005–06 and 2006–07 seasons. On January 22, 2006, Bryant scored a career-high 81 points, the second most scored in a single NBA game behind Wilt Chamberlains 100-point game. Bryant led the team to championships in 2009 and 2010, and was named NBA Finals MVP both times. He continued to be among the leagues premier players through the 2012–13 season when he suffered a torn achilles tendon. The last years of his playing career were hampered by injuries and limited playing time. Bryant retired after the 2015–16 season, capping off his illustrious career with a 60-point performance in his final NBA game, leading the Lakers to a comeback victory over the Utah Jazz. In 2017, the Lakers retired both his Nos. 8 and 24, making Bryant the only player in NBA history to have multiple numbers retired by the same franchise.
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FC Bayern Munich (basketball). FC Bayern München Basketball GmbH, commonly referred to as Bayern Munich, is a professional basketball club, a part of the FC Bayern Munich sports club, based in Munich, Germany. The club competes domestically in the Basketball Bundesliga (BBL) and internationally in the EuroLeague. The club has won six German Championships, and five German Cups in its history. Founded in 1946, Bayerns basketball section had early success in the 1950s and 1960s, before mostly disappearing from the national first level in the following three decades. The team had a resurgence in 2010s and has since been among Germanys best teams, as well as a EuroLeague regular. Bayern plays its domestic home games at BMW Park, which was opened in 1972, while international games are played at the SAP Garden, which opened in 2024. FC Bayern Munich Basketball also has a reserve team that plays in German third-tier level ProB.
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Reggio Calabria. Reggio di Calabria[a] (Southern Calabrian: Riggiu; Calabrian Greek: Ρήγι, romanized: Rìji), commonly and officially referred to as Reggio Calabria, or simply Reggio by its inhabitants, is the largest city in Calabria as well as the seat of the Metropolitan City of Reggio Calabria.[8] As of 2025, it has 168,572 inhabitants and is the twenty-first most populous city in Italy, after Modena and other Italian cities, and the 100th most populated city in Europe. Reggio Calabria is located near the center of the Mediterranean and is known for its climate, ethnic and cultural diversity. It is the third economic centre of mainland Southern Italy. About 511,935 people live in its metropolitan city.[3] Reggio is located on the toe of the Italian Peninsula and is separated from the island of Sicily by the Strait of Messina. It is situated on the slopes of the Aspromonte, a long, craggy mountain range that runs up through the centre of the region. As a major functional pole in the region, it has strong historical, cultural and economic ties with the city of Messina, which lies across the strait in Sicily, forming a metro city of less than 1 million people.[9] Reggio is the oldest city in the region, and during ancient times, it was an important and flourishing colony of Magna Graecia. Reggio has a modern urban system, set up after the catastrophic earthquake of 1908, which destroyed most of the city. Before that seismic event, the region has been subject to several other previous earthquakes.[10] The seismicity is caused by Reggio being on the Eurasian Plate near the faultline where it meets the African Plate that runs through the strait, dividing the two European regions of Calabria and Sicily into two different tectonic regions.[11][12] It is a major economic centre for regional services and transport on the southern shores of the Mediterranean. Reggio, with Naples and Taranto, is home to one of the most important archaeological museums, the National Archaeological Museum of Magna Græcia, dedicated to Ancient Greece (which houses the Bronzes of Riace, rare example of Greek bronze sculpture, which became one of the symbols of the city). Reggio is the seat, since 1907, of the Archeological Superintendence of Bruttium and Lucania. The city is home to football club Reggina, that previously played in the Italian top flight.
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Okinawan language. Okinawan (沖縄口, ウチナーグチ, Uchināguchi, [ʔut͡ɕinaːɡut͡ɕi]), or more precisely Central Okinawan, is a Northern Ryukyuan language spoken primarily in the southern half of the island of Okinawa, as well as in the surrounding islands of Kerama, Kumejima, Tonaki, Aguni and a number of smaller peripheral islands.[3] Central Okinawan distinguishes itself from the speech of Northern Okinawa, which is classified independently as the Kunigami language. Both languages are listed by UNESCO as endangered.[4] Though Okinawan encompasses a number of local dialects,[5] the Shuri–Naha variant is generally recognized as the de facto standard,[6] as it had been used as the official language of the Ryukyu Kingdom[7] since the reign of King Shō Shin (1477–1526). Moreover, as the former capital of Shuri was built around the royal palace, the language used by the royal court became the regional and literary standard,[7][6] which thus flourished in songs and poems written during that era. Today, most Okinawans speak Okinawan Japanese, although a number of people still speak the Okinawan language, most often the elderly. Within Japan, Okinawan is often not seen as a language unto itself but is referred to as the Okinawan dialect (沖縄方言, Okinawa hōgen), or more specifically the Central and Southern Okinawan dialects (沖縄中南部諸方言, Okinawa Chūnanbu Sho hōgen). Okinawan speakers are undergoing language shift as they switch to Japanese, since language use in Okinawa today is far from stable. Okinawans are assimilating and accenting standard Japanese due to the similarity of the two languages, the standardized and centralized education system, the media, business and social contact with mainlanders and previous attempts from Japan to suppress the native languages.[8] Okinawan is still kept alive in popular music, tourist shows and in theaters featuring a local drama called uchinā shibai, which depict local customs and manners.[9] Okinawan is a Japonic language, derived from Proto-Japonic and is therefore related to Japanese. The split between Old Japanese and the Ryukyuan languages has been estimated to have occurred as early as the 1st century AD to as late as the 12th century AD. Chinese and Japanese characters were first introduced by a Japanese missionary in 1265.[10]
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Richard J. Reynolds High School. Richard J. Reynolds High School now the Richard J. Reynolds Magnet School for the Visual and Performing Arts (often simply R. J. Reynolds High School or Reynolds) is a public high school in the Winston-Salem/Forsyth County Schools located in Winston-Salem, North Carolina. Named for R. J. Reynolds, the founder of the R. J. Reynolds Tobacco Company, the school opened in 1923. The school colors are Old Gold and Black, and the schools mascot is a demon. Katharine Smith Reynolds-Johnston (1880–1924), the widow of R. J. Reynolds (1850–1918), donated funds and land for the creation of the school in memory of her first husband. The site was known as Silver Hill.[3] Just weeks before Reynolds-Johnstons death, a souvenir program for the dedication of the Memorial Auditorium says: In 1919, the City of Winston-Salem, in the course of its ex-tended school building program, planned a model high school, and wished to honor the memory of Richard J. Reynolds, by naming it The Richard J. Reynolds High School. It seemed to his wife, now Mrs. J. Edward Johnston, that a memorial of this kind was very fitting, as Mr. Reynolds had had such a large part and was so interested in the development of this city. Mrs. Johnston had wanted to erect some really worth while memorial personally, and when notified of the action of the city authorities, it seemed that this plant, which would be so closely identified with the life of the people, young and old, presented the opportunity for which she was looking. She therefore notified the city that she would be glad to give a suitable site upon which to erect the high school, the selection to be left to the City, and to present as a personal memorial, a beautiful auditorium in connection with the high school plant.[4] The School and Auditorium sit on a piece of land known as Society Hill. The complex consists of five buildings, three of which are contributing buildings on the National Register of Historic Places. They are the High School Building (1922–1923), the Power House (1923), and the Auditorium (1923–1924). They were designed in the late 1910s by architect Charles Barton Keen of Philadelphia and built as part of a single project.[5]
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Sakhalin Island (book). Sakhalin Island (Russian: Остров Сахалин) is a book by Anton Chekhov written and serialized in 1891–1893, which then appeared as a separate book in 1895.[1] It consists of travel notes written after Chekhovs trip to the island of Sakhalin in summer and autumn of 1890. The book is based on the writers personal travel experience, as well as on extensive statistical data collected by him. The English translation came out in 1967 under the title The Island: A Journey to Sakhalin. In the opinion of some critics, the book was influenced by The House of the Dead by Fyodor Dostoyevsky and Siberia and Katorga by Sergei Maksimov (who is repeatedly mentioned in the text).[2] At the time Sakhalin was a frontier prison colony of the Russian Empire.[3] In 1890, Chekhov undertook an arduous journey by train, horse-drawn carriage, and river steamer to the Russian Far East and the katorga, or penal colony, on Sakhalin Island, north of Japan, where he spent three months interviewing thousands of convicts and settlers for a census. The letters Chekhov wrote during the two-and-a-half-month journey to Sakhalin are considered to be among his best.[4] His remarks to his sister about Tomsk were to become notorious.[5][6] Tomsk is a very dull town. To judge from the drunkards whose acquaintance I have made, and from the intellectual people who have come to the hotel to pay their respects to me, the inhabitants are very dull, too.[7] Chekhov witnessed much on Sakhalin that shocked and angered him, including floggings, embezzlement of supplies, and forced prostitution of women. He wrote, There were times I felt that I saw before me the extreme limits of mans degradation.[8][9] He was particularly moved by the plight of the children living in the penal colony with their parents. For example:
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Hillsborough Community College. Hillsborough Community College (HCC) is a public community college in Hillsborough County, Florida. It is part of the Florida College System. HCC was one of the last community colleges to be created in Florida, founded in 1968. Only Pasco–Hernando State College, out of the 28-school Florida community college system, was founded later. In January 2008 the school opened its first residence hall, Hawks Landing, named after the school mascot. This marks HCC as one of the few community colleges with its own residence hall.[2] On July 1, 2025, Hillsborough Community College announced that it will undergo a rebrand, dropping Community from its name in the process to become Hillsborough College.[3]
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Sacalin Island. Sacalin Island is a newly formed island in the Black Sea, right off the coast of the Romanian Danube Delta, off the Sfântu Gheorghe branch.[1] Initially Sacalin was made up of two smaller islands, Sacalinu Mare [Greater Sacalin] (1400 ha) and Sacalinu Mic [Lesser Sacalin] (90 ha). In time, however, the two merged into one continuous landmass. The Romanian government has declared the area an ecological reserve Sacalin-Zătoane (21410 ha) and no settlement is permitted on the island. Sakalin-Zătoane Island is surrounded on all sides by lakes, fishponds, rivers, canals and the Black Sea. 44°47′15″N 29°32′29″E / 44.78750°N 29.54139°E / 44.78750; 29.54139 This Romanian location article is a stub. You can help Wikipedia by expanding it.
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Haori. A haori (羽織) is a traditional Japanese jacket worn over a kimono. Resembling a shortened kimono with no overlapping front panels (okumi), the haori typically features a thinner collar than that of a kimono, and is sewn with the addition of two thin, triangular panels at either side seam. The haori is usually tied at the front with two short cords, known as haori himo, which attach to small loops sewn inside the garment. During the Edo period, economic growth within the wealthy but low-status merchant classes resulted in an excess of disposable income, much of which was spent on clothing. It was during this period that, due to various edicts on dress mandated by the ruling classes, merchant-class Japanese men began to wear haori with plain external designs and lavishly decorated linings, a trend still seen in mens haori today.[1] During the early 1800s, geisha in the hanamachi of Fukagawa, Tokyo began to wear haori over their kimono. Haori had until that point only been worn by men; the geisha of Fukagawa, well known for their stylish and unusual fashion choices, set a trend that saw women wearing haori become commonplace by the 1930s.[2][3] In modern-day Japan, haori are worn by both men and women.
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Kingdom of Italy. The Kingdom of Italy (Italian: Regno dItalia, pronounced [ˈreɲɲo diˈtaːlja]) was a unitary state that existed from 17 March 1861, when Victor Emmanuel II of Sardinia was proclaimed King of Italy, until 10 June 1946, when the monarchy was abolished, following civil discontent that led to an institutional referendum on 2 June 1946. This resulted in a modern Italian Republic. The kingdom was established through the unification of several states over a decades-long process, called the Risorgimento. That process was influenced by the Savoy-led Kingdom of Sardinia, which was one of Italys legal predecessor states. In 1866, Italy declared war on Austria in alliance with Prussia and, upon its victory, received the region of Veneto. Italian troops entered Rome in 1870, ending more than one thousand years of Papal temporal power. In the last two decades of the 19th century, Italy developed into a colonial power, and in 1882 it entered into a Triple Alliance with the German Empire and the Austro-Hungarian Empire, following strong disagreements with France about their respective colonial expansions. Although relations with Berlin became very friendly, the alliance with Vienna remained purely formal, due in part to Italys desire to acquire Trentino and Trieste from Austria-Hungary. As a result, Italy accepted the British invitation to join the Allied Powers during World War I, as the western powers promised territorial compensation (at the expense of Austria-Hungary) for participation that was more generous than Viennas offer in exchange for Italian neutrality. Victory in the war gave Italy a permanent seat in the Council of the League of Nations, but it did not receive all the territories it was promised. In 1922, Benito Mussolini became prime minister and the National Fascist Party took control of the Italian government, thus, ushering an era of the Fascist period in Italy known as Fascist Italy. Authoritarian rule was enforced, crushing all political opposition while promoting economic modernization, traditional values, and territorial expansion. In 1929, the Italian government reconciled with the Roman Catholic Church through the Lateran Treaties, which granted independence to the Vatican City. The following decade presided over an aggressive foreign policy, with Italy launching successful military operations against Ethiopia in 1935, Spain in 1937, and Albania in 1939. This led to economic sanctions, departure from the League of Nations, growing economic autarky, and the signing of military alliances with Germany and Japan. Italy entered World War II as a leading member of the Axis Powers in 1940 and despite initial success, was defeated in North Africa and the Soviet Union. Allied landings in Sicily led to the fall of the Fascist regime and the new government surrendered to the Allies in September 1943. German forces occupied northern and central Italy, established the Italian Social Republic, and reappointed Mussolini as dictator. Consequentially, Italy descended into civil war, with the Italian Co-belligerent Army and resistance movement contending with the Social Republics forces and its German allies. Shortly after the surrender of all Axis forces in Italy, civil discontent prompted an institutional referendum, which established a republic and abolished the monarchy in 1946.
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Sakhalin Oblast. Sakhalin Oblast (Russian: Сахали́нская о́бласть, romanized: Sakhalinskaya oblastʹ, IPA: [səxɐˈlʲinskəjə ˈobləsʲtʲ]) is a federal subject of Russia (an oblast) comprising the island of Sakhalin and the Kuril Islands in the Russian Far East. The oblast has an area of 87,100 square kilometers (33,600 sq mi). Its administrative center and largest city is Yuzhno-Sakhalinsk. As of the 2021 Census, the oblast has a population of 466,609.[10] The vast majority of the oblasts residents are ethnic Russians, with a small minority of Sakhalin Koreans. Sakhalin Oblast is rich in natural gas and oil, and is Russias second wealthiest federal subject after the Tyumen Oblast.[11] It borders by sea Khabarovsk Krai to the west and Kamchatka Krai to the north, along with Hokkaido, Japan to the south. The etymology of Sakhalin can be traced back to the Manchu hydronym Sahaliyan Ula (Manchu: ᠰᠠᡥᠠᠯᡳᠶᠠᠨᡠᠯᠠ) for Black River (i.e. the Amur River). Sakhalin shares this etymology with the Chinese province of Heilongjiang (Chinese: 黑龍江; pinyin: Hēilóngjiāng; lit. black dragon river). The indigenous people of Sakhalin are the Nivkh, Orok, and Ainu minorities.
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Rakugo. Rakugo (落語; literally story with a fall)[1] is a form of Japanese verbal comedy, traditionally performed in yose theatres.[2] The lone storyteller (落語家, rakugoka) sits on a raised platform, a kōza (高座). Using only a paper fan (扇子, sensu) and a small cloth (手拭, tenugui) as props, and without standing up from the seiza sitting position, the rakugo artist depicts a long and complicated comical (or sometimes sentimental) story. The story always involves the dialogue of two or more characters. The difference between the characters is depicted only through change in pitch, tone, and a slight turn of the head. The speaker is in the middle of the stage, and his purpose is to stimulate the general hilarity with tone and limited, yet specific body gestures. The monologue always ends with a narrative stunt (punch line) known as ochi (落ち; lit. fall) or sage (下げ; lit. lowering), consisting of a sudden interruption of the wordplay flow. Twelve kinds of ochi are codified and recognized, with more complex variations having evolved through time from the more basic forms.[3] Early rakugo has developed into various styles, including the shibaibanashi (芝居噺; theatre discourses), the ongyokubanashi (音曲噺; musical discourses), the kaidanbanashi (怪談噺; ghost discourses, see kaidan), and ninjōbanashi (人情噺; sentimental discourses). In many of these forms the ochi, which is essential to the original rakugo, is absent. Rakugo has been described as a sitcom with one person playing all the parts by Noriko Watanabe, assistant professor in the Department of Modern Languages and Comparative Literature at Baruch College.[4]
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Akihito Fujii. As coach Akihito Fujii (藤井 彰人, Fujii Akihito; born June 18, 1976) is a Japanese former professional baseball catcher and current coach for the Hanshin Tigers in Japans Nippon Professional Baseball. He previously played for the Osaka Kintetsu Buffaloes from 1999 to 2004 and the Tohoku Rakuten Golden Eagles from 2005 to 2010 and the Tigers from 2011 to 2015. This biographical article relating to a Japanese baseball catcher is a stub. You can help Wikipedia by expanding it.
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Heihe. Heihe (Chinese: 黑河; pinyin: Hēihé; lit. Black River; Russian: Хэйхэ) is a prefecture-level city of northern Heilongjiang province, China, located on the Russian border, on the south bank of the Amur (Heilong) River, across the river from Blagoveshchensk. At the 2020 census, 1,286,401 people lived in the prefecture-level city of whom 223,832 lived in the built-up area (or metro) made of Aihui District. Heihe marks the northeast terminus of the diagonal Heihe–Tengchong Line, which is sometimes used to divide China into east and west. Heihe, formerly Aihui or Aigun, is one of the five oldest cities in Heilongjiang, along with Qiqihar, Yilan, Acheng and Hulan. Human beings started to settle in Heihe region as early as the Paleolithic Age.[2] Later it became home to local tribes. During the Qing dynasty, Heihe was the first place troops sent to Heilongjiang were stationed. The predecessor of todays Heihe was the town established by the indigenous Ducher people of the Amur Valley in the mid-1650s.[2] It was established some 30 km (19 mi) south of the modern city site[3] (in todays Aihui District) and was known as Aigun, Heilongjiang, or Saghalien Ula. (The two last names both mean the Black Dragon River – the name for the Amur River in Chinese and Manchu, respectively). After the Ducher were evacuated by the Qing to the Sungari or Hurka in the 1650s, the Ducher town was probably vacated. However, in 1683–85 the Manchus re-used the site as a base for their campaign against the Russian fort of Albazin.[4] Aigun was the capital (the seat of the military governor) of Heilongjiang from 1683 to 1690, before the capital was moved to Nenjiang (Mergen).[5] After the capture of Albazin in 1685 or 1686, the Qing governor relocated the town to a new site on the right (southwestern) bank of the Amur, about 3 miles downstream from the original.[6][7] The new site occupied the location of the former village of the Daurian chief named Tolga.[6] The city became known primarily under its Manchu name Saghalien Ula hoton (Manchu: ᠰᠠᡥᠠᠯᡳᠶᠠᠨᡠᠯᠠᡥᠣᡨᠣᠨ sahaliyan ula hoton) and Chinese name Heilongjiang Cheng (黑龍江城), which both mean Black River City.[8] Later the governor office was transferred to Qiqihar. However, Aigun remained the seat of the Deputy Lieutenant-General (Fu dutong), responsible for a large district covering much of the Amur Valley within the province of Heilongjiang as it existed in those days.[5] Aigun was visited around 1709 as a part of a nationwide Sino-French cartographic program by the Jesuits Jean-Baptiste Régis, Pierre Jartoux, and Xavier Ehrenbert Fridelli,[9] who found it a stronghold, serving as the base of Manchus controlling the Amur River basin. The Aigun Treaty was concluded at Aigun in 1858. According to this treaty, the left bank of the Amur River was conceded to Czarist Russia.
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Kimono (disambiguation). A kimono is a Japanese traditional garment. Kimono may also refer to:
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Ohio State Buckeyes mens basketball. The Ohio State Buckeyes mens basketball team represents Ohio State University in NCAA Division I college basketball competition. The Buckeyes are a member of the Big Ten Conference. The Buckeyes play their home games at Value City Arena in the Jerome Schottenstein Center in Columbus, Ohio, which opened in 1998. The official capacity of the center is 19,200. Ohio State ranked 28th in the nation in average home attendance as of the 2016 season.[2] The Buckeyes have won one national championship (1960), been the national runner-up four times, appeared in 10 Final Fours (one additional appearance has been vacated by the NCAA), and appeared in 27 NCAA Tournaments (four other appearances have been vacated). Thad Matta was named the head coach of Ohio State in 2004 to replace coach Jim OBrien, who was fired due to NCAA violations which made Ohio State vacate 113 games between 1998 and 2002.[3][4] On June 5, 2017, after consecutive years of missing the NCAA Tournament, the school announced Matta would not return as head coach after 13 years and 337 wins at Ohio State. On June 9, 2017, the school hired Butler head coach Chris Holtmann as head coach.[5]
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Winston-Salem, North Carolina. Winston-Salem is a city in Forsyth County, North Carolina, United States, and its county seat.[9] It is the fifth-most populous city in North Carolina and 91st-most populous city in the United States, with a population of 249,545 at the 2020 census.[10] The Winston-Salem metropolitan area has an estimated 705,000 residents, the fourth-largest metropolitan area based in North Carolina.[7] It is the second-most-populous city in North Carolinas Piedmont Triad region, home to about 1.7 million residents. Winston-Salem is called the Twin City for its dual heritage, and the Camel City as a reference to the citys historic involvement in the tobacco industry related to locally based R. J. Reynolds Camel cigarettes. Many North Carolinians refer to the city as Winston in informal speech.[citation needed] Winston-Salem is also home to six colleges and institutions, most notably Wake Forest University, Winston-Salem State University, and the University of North Carolina School of the Arts. Siouan-speaking tribes such as the Cheraw and the Keyauwee Indians inhabited the area. Followers of the Moravian Church had interacted with Cherokees.[11][12] The city of Winston-Salem is a product of the merging of the two neighboring towns of Winston and Salem in 1913. The origin of the town of Salem dates to 1753, when Bishop August Gottlieb Spangenberg, on behalf of the Moravian Church, selected a settlement site in the three forks of Muddy Creek. He called this area die Wachau (Latin form Wachovia) after the ancestral estate of Count Nicolaus Ludwig von Zinzendorf. The land, just short of 99,000 acres (400 km2), was subsequently purchased from John Carteret, 2nd Earl Granville.
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Akihito Hirose. Akihito Hirose (広瀬 章人, Hirose Akihito; born January 18, 1987) is a Japanese professional shogi player, ranked 9-dan. He is a former Ryūō and Ōi title holder, and is also the first shogi professional to win a major title while attending university. Hirose was born in Kōtō, Tokyo on January 18, 1987.[1][2][3] He first started playing shogi around the age of four because his father and older brother played the game. His family moved to Sapporo, Hokkaido due to his fathers job and he lived there from elementary school grades three through six.[4] While living in Sapporo, Hirose began studying under some members of the Hokkaido Shogi Association and polishing his skills at local shogi clubs before officially entering the Japan Shogi Associations apprentice school at the rank of 6-kyū as protegee of shogi professional Osamu Katsuura [ja] in 1998 while he was a sixth-grade elementary student. For roughly his first year as a shogi apprentice, Hirose commuted by plane twice monthly from Sapporo to the Japan Shogi Associations headquarters in Tokyo to play games against other apprentices.[3] Hirose was promoted to the rank of 1-dan in 2000, and was officially awarded professional status in April 2005 for winning the 36th 3-dan League with a record of 15 wins and 3 losses.[4][5] Hirose graduated from Tokyo Seitoku University High School in March 2005 and decided to continue his education by enrolling in the School of Education of Waseda University and majoring in mathematics.[3][6] This was quite rare for a professional shogi player to do, but Hirose stated he wanted to experience many things in addition to shogi[6] and also wanted to be like his friends who were all moving on to university.[3] Hirose graduated from Waseda in 2011.[2]
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Akihito Motohashi. Akihito Motohashi (本橋 昭人, Motohashi Akihito) is a Japanese former paralympic athlete and cyclist. At the age of 21, Motohashi was diagnosed as having atrophy of the optic nerve.[1] He has subsequently competed at three paralympics in two different sports. He first competed in the 1992 Summer Paralympics, where he ran in the marathon, finishing in 6th place,[2] and won a bronze medal in the high jump. In the 1996 Summer Paralympics, Motohashi competed in the marathon only. In the 2000 Summer Paralympics, he moved over to cycling, but failed to win any medals despite competing in four different events.[3] From 1996, Motohashi worked as an assistant teacher at the Yamagata School for the Blind [ja].[4] From 2003, he became a psychotherapy instructor, teaching techniques such as acupuncture and massage.[1][4][5]
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Akihito Okano. Akihito Okano (岡野昭仁, Okano Akihito; born 15 October 1974) is a Japanese musician, vocalist of rock band Porno Graffitti.[1] Okano was born in Nakasho, Innoshima City (now Onomichi City), Hiroshima.[2] He is married with one child. Okano is the youngest of three siblings (he has two older sisters). His parents wanted to name him Satoru, but received the name of Akihito from his uncle, as part of a family tradition. As a child, he wanted to be an athlete. He played baseball in elementary school, and was in track and field and soccer in junior high.[3] His interest in music started in elementary school, when he started listening to Western music thanks to one of his sisters, and singing Japanese songs in family reunions.[4][5] In 1990, he entered Innoshima High School, where he met Haruichi Shindō. They became friends in the second year of high school, after attending a party where Shindō was in, to which Okano was invited by a friend. They began to go together to karaoke, and later on, Okano was invited by Shindō to form part of his band No Score as part of the chorus, to participate in the school festival. After the festival, Shindō decided to leave the vocals to Okano, and he made his vocalist debut at the entrance ceremony the following Spring.[6][7] After graduating from high school in 1993, No Score was disbanded.
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Promotion and relegation. Promotion and relegation is used by sports leagues as a process where teams can move up and down among divisions in a league system, based on their performance over a season. Leagues that use promotion and relegation systems are sometimes called open leagues. In a system of promotion and relegation, the best-ranked team(s) in a lower division are promoted to a higher division for the next season, and the worst-ranked team(s) in the higher division are relegated to the lower division for the next season. During the season, teams that are high enough in the league table that they would qualify for promotion are sometimes said to be in the promotion zone, and those at the bottom are in the relegation zone (colloquially the drop zone or facing the drop). These can also involve being in zones where promotion and relegation is not automatic, but subject to a playoff.[1] An alternate system of league organization, used primarily in Australia, Canada, the Philippines, Singapore, and the United States, is a closed model based on licensing or franchises. This maintains the same teams from year to year, with occasional admission of expansion teams and relocation of existing teams, and with no team movement between the major league and minor leagues. Some competitions, such as the Belgian Pro League in football or the Super League in rugby league, operate hybrid systems which allow for promotion and relegation between divisions but which allocate this based on a mix of financial and administrative scores with competition performance. The number of teams exchanged between the divisions is almost always identical. Exceptions occur when the higher division wishes to change the size of its membership, or has lost one or more of clubs (to financial insolvency or expulsion, for example) and wishes to restore its previous membership size, in which case fewer teams are relegated from that division, or (less often) more teams are accepted for promotion from the division below. Such variations usually cause a knock-on effect through the lower divisions. For example, in 1995 the Premier League voted to reduce its numbers by two and achieved the desired change by relegating four teams instead of the usual three, whilst allowing only two promotions from Football League Division One. Even in the absence of such extraordinary circumstances, the pyramid-like nature of most European sports league systems can still create knock-on effects at the regional level. For example, in a higher league with a large geographical footprint and multiple feeder leagues each representing smaller geographical regions, should most or all of the relegated teams in the higher division come from one particular region then the number of teams to be promoted or relegated from each of the feeder leagues may have to be adjusted, or one or more teams playing near the boundary between the feeder leagues may have to transfer from one feeder league to another to maintain numerical balance. The system is said to be the defining characteristic of the European form of professional sports league organization. Promotion and relegation have the effect of allowing the maintenance of a hierarchy of leagues and divisions, according to the relative strength of their teams. They also maintain the importance of games played by many low-ranked teams near the end of the season, which may be at risk of relegation. In contrast, the final games of a low-ranked US or Canadian team serve little purpose, and in fact losing may be beneficial to such teams because they offer a better position in the next years draft.
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Defensive back. In gridiron football, defensive backs (DBs), also called the secondary, are the players on the defensive side of the ball who play farthest back from the line of scrimmage. They are distinguished from the other two sets of defensive players, the defensive linemen who play directly on the line of scrimmage, and the linebackers, who play in the middle of the defense, and between the defensive line and the defensive backs.[1][2] Among all the defensive backs, there are two main types, cornerbacks, which play nearer the line of scrimmage and the sideline, whose main role is to cover the opposing teams wide receivers, and the safeties, who play further back near the center of the field, and who act as the last line of defense. American defensive formations usually includes two of each, a left and right cornerback, as well as a strong safety and a free safety, with the free safety tending to play further back than the strong safety. In Canadian football, which has twelve players on the field compared to the eleven of American football, there is an additional position called defensive halfback, which plays like a hybrid between a linebacker and cornerback. Canadian formations include two cornerbacks, two halfbacks and one safety, for a total of five defensive backs. Besides the standard set of defensive backs, teams may also remove a defensive lineman or a linebacker and replace them with an additional defensive back. The fifth defensive back is commonly called the nickelback (so named because a five-cent coin in the U.S. and Canada is called a nickel). By extension, a sixth defensive back is called a dimeback (because the next value coin in the U.S. and Canada is called a dime). Rarely, teams may employ seven or even eight defensive backs. Historic notable defensive backs include Hall-of-Famers Dick Night Train Lane, Mike Haynes, Ronnie Lott, Troy Polamalu, Deion Sanders, Darrelle Revis, and Ed Reed, among others. In 2019, the National Football League released its all-time team in honor of the leagues 100th anniversary, in which the top defensive backs in its history were noted and honored.[3] Longtime National Football League executive and renowned former general manager of the Dallas Cowboys, Gil Brandt released a list of the top cornerbacks of all time.[4]
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Gobiiformes. See text Gobiiformes /ˈɡoʊbi.ɪfɔːrmiːz/ (meaning goby-like) is an order of percomorph fish containing three suborders: Apogonoidei, Trichonotoidei, and Gobioidei.[1] The order was formerly defined as containing only the gobies (now placed within the Gobioidei).[2] However, more recent taxonomic treatments also place their close relatives (the cardinalfishes, nurseryfishes, and sand-divers) with them, based on phylogenetic studies that unexpectedly found a close relationship between these groups.[1][3] The Gobioidei are the most speciose clade of the family.[4] Despite the differing appearances of members of this group, all share the trait of adhesive eggs with elaborate structures. Many species within this group also display elaborate forms of parental care by the male.[5] Gobiiforms are a relatively basal clade of the percomorphs, with only the ophidiiforms and batrachoidiforms being more basal. They are estimated to have diverged from the rest of the group during the early-to-mid Cretaceous (about 120 million years ago), and the first presumed fossils of the family are of apogonid otoliths from the Maastrichtian. This suggests that all three suborders within the group had diverged during the Late Cretaceous.[3][5] However, much of the orders modern diversity, especially within the gobioids, appears to have evolved relatively recently.[6]
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Shaam (disambiguation). Shaam (Arabic: شَـام) often refers to the Greater Syria (region), seen from a Eurocentric perspective as the Levant. Shaam may also refer to:
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Zen. The way The goal Background Chinese texts
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Matsumoto Yamaga FC. Matsumoto Yamaga Football Club (松本山雅フットボールクラブ, Matsumoto Yamaga Futtobōru Kurabu) or simply Matsumoto Yamaga (松本山雅FC, Matsumoto Yamaga Efu Shī) is a Japanese football (soccer) club based in the city of Matsumoto, located in the Nagano Prefecture. The club currently plays in the J3 League, Japanese third tier of professional football. The club was founded in 1965 by the players who represented Nagano Prefecture. The players frequented a cafe called Yamaga in front of Matsumoto railway station and initially they were simply called Yamaga Club. In 2004, they were renamed as Matsumoto Yamaga when nonprofit organisation Alwin Sports Project were set up to support the club with the intention of promotion to J. League. The very coffee shop where they founded the club no longer exists, but the club opened a new one in 2017. In the 2007 and 2008 season they finished respectively 1st and 4th in the Hokushinetsu First Division, but failed to gain the promotion to the Japan Football League as they exited at the group stage of the Regional League promotion series against other regional champions. 2008 also brought a crucial Emperors Cup run, where they defeated former Japanese champions Shonan Bellmare in the third round by penalty kicks, only to be eliminated 8–0 by Vissel Kobe. The 2009 season brought inconsistency, as they took 4th place in the regional league but knocked Urawa Red Diamonds out of the Emperors Cup in the second round, their biggest giant-killing ever.
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Syria (disambiguation). Syria is a country in the West Asia, incorporating the northern Levant. Syria may also refer to: Syria (region) refers to a wider historical geographic region. In this sense it can refer to:
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Actinopterygii. Actinopterygii (/ˌæktɪnɒptəˈrɪdʒiaɪ/ ⓘ; from Ancient Greek ἀκτίς (aktis) having rays and πτέρυξ (ptérux) wing, fins), members of which are known as ray-finned fish or actinopterygians, is a class of bony fish[2] that comprise over 50% of living vertebrate species.[3] They are so called because of their lightly built fins made of webbings of skin supported by radially extended thin bony spines called lepidotrichia, as opposed to the bulkier, fleshy lobed fins of the sister clade Sarcopterygii (lobe-finned fish). Resembling folding fans, the actinopterygian fins can easily change shape and wetted area, providing superior thrust-to-weight ratios per movement compared to sarcopterygian and chondrichthyian fins. The fin rays attach directly to the proximal or basal skeletal elements, the radials, which represent the articulation between these fins and the internal skeleton (e.g., pelvic and pectoral girdles). The vast majority of actinopterygians are teleosts. By species count, they dominate the subphylum Vertebrata, and constitute nearly 99% of the over 30,000 extant species of fish.[4] They are the most abundant nektonic aquatic animals and are ubiquitous throughout freshwater and marine environments from the deep sea to subterranean waters to the highest mountain streams. Extant species can range in size from Paedocypris, at 8 mm (0.3 in), to the massive giant sunfish, at 2,700 kg (6,000 lb), and the giant oarfish, at 8 m (26 ft) (or possibly 11 m (36 ft)). The largest ever known ray-finned fish, the extinct Leedsichthys from the Jurassic, is estimated to have grown to 16.5 m (54 ft). Ray-finned fishes occur in many variant forms. The main features of typical ray-finned fish are shown in the adjacent diagram. The swim bladder is a more derived structure and used for buoyancy.[5] Except from the bichirs, which just like the lungs of lobe-finned fish have retained the ancestral condition of ventral budding from the foregut, the swim bladder in ray-finned fishes derives from a dorsal bud above the foregut.[6][5] In early forms the swim bladder could still be used for breathing, a trait still present in Holostei (bowfins and gars).[7] In some fish like the arapaima, the swim bladder has been modified for breathing air again,[8] and in other lineages it has been completely lost.[9] The teleosts have urinary and reproductive tracts that are fully separated, while the Chondrostei have common urogenital ducts, and partially connected ducts are found in Cladistia and Holostei.[10] Ray-finned fishes have many different types of scales; but all teleosts have leptoid scales. The outer part of these scales fan out with bony ridges, while the inner part is crossed with fibrous connective tissue. Leptoid scales are thinner and more transparent than other types of scales, and lack the hardened enamel- or dentine-like layers found in the scales of many other fish. Unlike ganoid scales, which are found in non-teleost actinopterygians, new scales are added in concentric layers as the fish grows.[11] Teleosts and chondrosteans (sturgeons and paddlefish) also differ from the bichirs and holosteans (bowfin and gars) in having gone through a whole-genome duplication (paleopolyploidy). The WGD is estimated to have happened about 320 million years ago in the teleosts, which on average has retained about 17% of the gene duplicates, and around 180 (124–225) million years ago in the chondrosteans. It has since happened again in some teleost lineages, like Salmonidae (80–100 million years ago) and several times independently within the Cyprinidae (in goldfish and common carp as recently as 14 million years ago).[12][13][14][15][16] Ray-finned fish vary in size and shape, in their feeding specializations, and in the number and arrangement of their ray-fins. In nearly all ray-finned fish, the sexes are separate, and in most species the females spawn eggs that are fertilized externally, typically with the male inseminating the eggs after they are laid. Development then proceeds with a free-swimming larval stage.[17] However other patterns of ontogeny exist, with one of the commonest being sequential hermaphroditism. In most cases this involves protogyny, fish starting life as females and converting to males at some stage, triggered by some internal or external factor. Protandry, where a fish converts from male to female, is much less common than protogyny.[18] Most families use external rather than internal fertilization.[19] Of the oviparous teleosts, most (79%) do not provide parental care.[20] Viviparity, ovoviviparity, or some form of parental care for eggs, whether by the male, the female, or both parents is seen in a significant fraction (21%) of the 422 teleost families; no care is likely the ancestral condition.[20] The oldest case of viviparity in ray-finned fish is found in Middle Triassic species of †Saurichthys.[21] Viviparity is relatively rare and is found in about 6% of living teleost species; male care is far more common than female care.[20][22] Male territoriality preadapts a species for evolving male parental care.[23][24] There are a few examples of fish that self-fertilise. The mangrove rivulus is an amphibious, simultaneous hermaphrodite, producing both eggs and spawn and having internal fertilisation. This mode of reproduction may be related to the fishs habit of spending long periods out of water in the mangrove forests it inhabits. Males are occasionally produced at temperatures below 19 °C (66 °F) and can fertilise eggs that are then spawned by the female. This maintains genetic variability in a species that is otherwise highly inbred.[25]
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Ottoman Syria. Ottoman Syria (Arabic: سوريا العثمانية) is a historiographical term used to describe the group of divisions of the Ottoman Empire within the region of the Levant, usually defined as being east of the Mediterranean Sea, west of the Euphrates River, north of the Arabian Desert and south of the Taurus Mountains.[1] Ottoman Syria was organized by the Ottomans upon conquest from the Mamluk Sultanate in the early 16th century as a single eyalet (province) of the Damascus Eyalet. In 1534, the Aleppo Eyalet was split into a separate administration. The Tripoli Eyalet was formed out of Damascus province in 1579 and later the Adana Eyalet was split from Aleppo. In 1660, the Eyalet of Safed was established and shortly afterwards renamed the Sidon Eyalet; in 1667, the Mount Lebanon Emirate was given special autonomous status within the Sidon province, but was abolished in 1841 and reconfigured in 1861 as the Mount Lebanon Mutasarrifate. The Syrian eyalets were later transformed into the Syria Vilayet, the Aleppo Vilayet and the Beirut Vilayet, following the 1864 Tanzimat reforms. Finally, in 1872, the Mutasarrifate of Jerusalem was split from the Syria Vilayet into an autonomous administration with a special status. Before 1516, Syria was part of the Mamluk Empire centered in Lower Egypt.[2] The Ottoman Sultan Selim I conquered Syria in 1516[3] after defeating the Mamlukes at the Battle of Marj Dabiq near Aleppo in northern Syria. Selim carried on his victorious campaign against the Mamlukes and conquered Egypt in 1517 following the Battle of Ridanieh, bringing an end to the Mamluk Sultanate. When he first seized Syria in 1516, Selim I kept the administrative subdivisions of the Mamluk period unchanged. After he came back from Egypt in July 1517, he reorganized Syria into one large province or eyalet named Şam (Arabic/Turkish for Syria). The eyalet was subdivided into several districts or sanjaks.
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Liga Leumit (basketball). Liga Leumit (Hebrew: ליגה לאומית, lit. National League) is the second tier level league of basketball competition in Israel. It is the league level that is below the first tier Israeli Premier League. On 30 July, 2024 the Israel Basketball Association announces new game system. The regular season be played in a home-and-away round-robin format. The top 6 finishers will advance to the Top-teams League Group, and the rest of the teams will advance to the Bottom-Teams League Group. The winner of the Top-teams League Group will be promoted to the Premier League, while the 2nd to 9th ranked teams will advance to the playoff to determine the second team that will be promoted. The two teams that finish at the bottom of the Bottom-Teams League Group will be relegated to the Liga Artzit.[1] Note:
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Israeli Womens Basketball Premier League. The Israeli Women Basketball Premier League or Ligat Athena Winner (Hebrew: ליגת העל בכדורסל נשים), is a womens professional basketball league in Israel. It is currently composed of 11 teams.[1] The league was founded in 1957. Initially the most predominant teams in the league were veteran womens basketball clubs such as Maccabi Tel Aviv and Hapoel Tel Aviv, who won almost yearly during the first two decades after the establishment of the womens league. This changed in 1976, when the team Elitzur Tel Aviv began winning all of the leagues championships for 19 years straight. During the 1990s the trend again changed, as the most prominent championship winners became A.S Ramat Hasharon and Elitzur Ramla. The champions of the 2010/2011 season were Elitzur Ramla.[2] Elitzur Tel Aviv and Elitzur Holon share the distinction of having won the most championship trophies, 20 between themselves.,[3] although the union that was established in 1990 between the two team was disbanded in 2008. In the 2011/12 season Maccabi Bnot Ashdod reached double winning, for the first time, the national league and national cup in one season.
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Chordate. Clockwise: lancelet, tunicate, tiger, shark And see text A chordate (/ˈkɔːrdeɪt/ KOR-dayt) is a bilaterian animal belonging to the phylum Chordata (/kɔːrˈdeɪtə/ kor-DAY-tə). All chordates possess, at some point during their larval or adult stages, five distinctive physical characteristics (synapomorphies) that distinguish them from other taxa. These five synapomorphies are a notochord, a hollow dorsal nerve cord, an endostyle or thyroid, pharyngeal slits, and a post-anal tail.[8] In addition to the morphological characteristics used to define chordates, analysis of genome sequences has identified two conserved signature indels (CSIs) in their proteins: cyclophilin-like protein and inner mitochondrial membrane protease ATP23, which are exclusively shared by all vertebrates, tunicates and cephalochordates.[9] These CSIs provide molecular means to reliably distinguish chordates from all other animals.
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Sakhalin Island (film). Sakhalin Island (Russian: Остров Сахалин) is a 1954 Soviet documentary film directed by Eldar Ryazanov and Vasiliy Katanyan.[1][2][3][4] The film tells the story and shows the nature and inhabitants of Sakhalin Island. The film, presented in the style of a cinematic essay, explores the history, nature, and people of Sakhalin Island. Beginning in Yuzhno-Sakhalinsk, the expedition moves through summer reindeer herding camps, geological survey teams, bird colonies, and seal rookeries. Aerial footage captures pilots tracking schools of fish and directing trawlers to abundant herring shoals. On the floating crab-processing ship Alma-Ata, crabs are shown being boiled in seawater on deck before being transported to the factory for canning. A pivotal sequence recounts the rescue of the ice-bound vessel Pozharsky. Supplies and explosives are airlifted to the stranded crew, and after locating the ship, relief operations commence. The crew clears a path through the ice using explosives, enabling the vessel to reach open water.
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Killeen, Texas. Killeen is a city in the U.S. state of Texas, located in Bell County. According to the 2020 census, its population was 153,095,[5] making it the 19th-most populous city in Texas and the largest of the three principal cities of Bell County. It is the principal city of the Killeen–Temple–Fort Hood Metropolitan Statistical Area. Killeen is 55 miles (89 km) north of Austin, 125 miles (201 km) southwest of Dallas, and 125 miles (201 km) northeast of San Antonio. Killeen is directly adjacent to the main cantonment of Fort Hood. Its economy depends on the activities of the post, and the soldiers and their families stationed there. It is known as a military boom town because of its rapid growth and high influx of soldiers. In 1881, the Gulf, Colorado and Santa Fe Railway extended its tracks through central Texas, buying 360 acres (1.5 km2) a few miles southwest of a small farming community known as Palo Alto, which had existed since about 1872. The railroad platted a 70-block town on its land and named it after Frank P. Killeen,[6] the assistant general manager of the railroad. By the next year, the town included a railroad depot, a saloon, several stores, and a school. Many of the residents of the surrounding smaller communities in the area moved to Killeen. By 1884, the town had grown to include about 350 people, served by five general stores, two gristmills, two cotton gins, two saloons, a lumberyard, a blacksmith shop, and a hotel. Killeen expanded as it became an important shipping point for cotton, wool, and grain in western Bell and eastern Coryell Counties. By 1900, its population was about 780.
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Ellison High School. C. E. Ellison High School is a public high school in the city of Killeen, Bell County, Texas. It is one of six high schools in the Killeen Independent School District, and during 2024–2026 is classified as a 5A school by the University Interscholastic League.[2] During 2022–2023, Ellison High School had an enrollment of 1,682 students and a student to teacher ratio of 14.68.[1] The school received an overall rating of B from the Texas Education Agency for the 2021–2022 school year.[3] Currently, the following Advanced Placement (AP) exams are available to the students:[4] Ellison High School opened in 1978 and the first graduation class was held in 1979. The Ellison High School football program received a donation of $25,000 from the American television channel NBC and automobile maker Toyota, for their participation in the Friday Night Lights Hometown Sweepstakes contest. The former University of Kentucky head basketball coach, Billy Gillispie, was the head coach at Ellison in the early 1990s, leading the school to the 5A state basketball tournament in 1993.
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FIBA Europe. FIBA Europe is the administrative body for basketball in Europe, within the International Basketball Federation (FIBA), which includes all 50 national European basketball federations. FIBA Europe is one of five Regions of FIBA and is responsible for controlling and developing the sport of basketball in Europe. Among many tasks, this includes promoting, supervising and directing international competition at the club and national team levels, as well as governing and appointing European international referees. FIBA Europe is an international federation consisting of the national basketball federations of Europe. Currently 50 national federations are members.[1] The highest decision-making body is the Board of FIBA Europe which consists of 25 persons elected by the National Federations. The Board of FIBA Europe meets twice a year and is the executive body which represents all 50 Federations that make up the membership of FIBA Europe. All 50 federations meet once a year at the General Assembly of FIBA Europe.[1] The current board members are:[2] Until 1 January 2015, the position was titled as a Secretary General.
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Jordan. Jordan,[a] officially the Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan,[b] is a country in the Southern Levant region of West Asia. Jordan is bordered by Syria to the north, Iraq to the east, Saudi Arabia to the south, and Israel and the occupied Palestinian territories of West Bank to the west. The Jordan River, flowing into the Dead Sea, is located along the countrys western border within the Jordan Rift Valley. Jordan has a small coastline along the Red Sea in its southwest, separated by the Gulf of Aqaba from Egypt. Amman is the countrys capital and largest city, as well as the most populous city in the Levant. Inhabited by humans since the Paleolithic period, three kingdoms developed in Transjordan during the Iron Age: Ammon, Moab and Edom. In the third century BC, the Arab Nabataeans established their kingdom centered in Petra. The Greco-Roman period saw the establishment of several cities in Transjordan that comprised the Decapolis. After the end of Byzantine rule, the region became part of the Islamic caliphates of the Rashidun, Umayyad, Abbasid, and the Ottoman. Following the 1916 Great Arab Revolt during World War I, former Ottoman Syria was partitioned, leading to the establishment of the Emirate of Transjordan in 1921, which became a British protectorate. In 1946, Jordan gained independence and became officially known as the Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan.[c] Jordan captured and annexed the West Bank during the 1948 Palestine war until it was occupied by Israel in 1967. Jordan renounced its claim to the territory to the Palestinians in 1988 and signed a peace treaty with Israel in 1994. Jordan is a semi-arid country, covering an area of 89,342 km2 (34,495 sq mi) with a population of 11.5 million, making it the eleventh-most populous Arab country. The dominant majority, or around 95% of the countrys population, is Sunni Muslim, with the rest being mostly Arab Christian. Jordan was mostly unscathed by the violence that swept the region following the Arab Spring in 2010. From as early as 1948, Jordan has accepted refugees from multiple neighbouring countries in conflict. An estimated 2.1 million Palestinian refugees, most of whom hold Jordanian citizenship, as well as 1.4 million Syrian refugees, were residing in Jordan in 2015.[4] The kingdom is also a refuge for thousands of Christian Iraqis fleeing persecution.[8][9] While Jordan continues to accept refugees, the large Syrian influx during the 2010s has placed substantial strain on national resources and infrastructure.[10] The sovereign state is a constitutional monarchy, but the king holds wide executive and legislative powers. Jordan is a founding member of the Arab League and the Organisation of Islamic Cooperation. Jordan has a high Human Development Index, ranking 100th, and is considered a lower middle income economy. The Jordanian economy, one of the smallest economies in the region, is attractive to foreign investors based upon a skilled workforce.[11] Jordan is a major tourist destination, also attracting medical tourism with its well-developed health sector.[12] Nonetheless, a lack of natural resources, large flow of refugees, and regional turmoil have hampered economic growth.[13]
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1993 NFL draft. The 1993 NFL draft was the procedure by which National Football League teams selected amateur college football players. It is officially known as the NFL Annual Player Selection Meeting. The draft was held April 25–26, 1993, at the Marriot Marquis in New York City, New York.[1][2] No teams chose to claim any players in the supplemental draft that year, but the New York Giants and Kansas City Chiefs forfeited their first and second round picks, respectively, due to selecting quarterback Dave Brown and defensive end Darren Mickell in the 1992 supplemental draft. With the first overall pick of the draft, the New England Patriots selected quarterback Drew Bledsoe.
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Schloss Frohsdorf. Schloss Frohsdorf is a castle-like complex in Lanzenkirchen in Niederösterreich and was built 1547–50 out of the ruins of the so-called Krotenhof. After similar devastation in the year 1683 it was largely altered and renovated in the style of Baroque architecture. Greatly damaged by the Second World War, the palace was restored between 1968 and 1971 by the Austrian postal service. 47°44′43″N 16°15′16″E / 47.74528°N 16.25444°E / 47.74528; 16.25444 This Lower Austria location article is a stub. You can help Wikipedia by expanding it. This article about a castle in Austria is a stub. You can help Wikipedia by expanding it.
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al-Hadi. Abū Muḥammad Mūsā ibn al-Mahdī al-Hādī (Arabic: أبو محمد موسى بن المهدي الهادي; 26 April 764 CE – 14 September 786 CE)[1] better known by his laqab al-Hādī (الهادي) was the fourth Arab Abbasid caliph who succeeded his father al-Mahdi and ruled from 169 AH (785 CE) until his death in 170 AH (786 CE). His short reign ended with internal chaos and power struggles with his mother.[2] Al-Hadi was born in 764. His father was al-Mahdi and al-Khayzuran bint Atta was the mother of both caliphs Musa al-Hadi and Harun al-Rashid.[3] She had another son named Isa ibn al-Mahdi,[4] and a daughter named Banuqah or Banujah.[5] His mother, al-Khayzuran was born in Mecca and brought up in Jurash.[6] She had two sisters, Salsal bint Atta[7] and Asma bint Atta,[4] and a brother Ghitrif ibn Atta.[7] She was al-Mahdis favourite wife. Al-Mahdi consulted her on important matters of defense and administration, and officers and clerics went to her door day and night to get what they wanted from the caliph through her, and the petitioners lined up outside her door and it was crowded like a market. Khayzurans influence in public and political life increased gradually from interferer and decisive incursions during the reign of her husband to more powerful and wider ones during the reigns of her two sons.[8] Al-Hadi also had several half-brothers; Ubaydallah, Ibrahim, Mansur, Ali, Abdallah. He also had half-sisters; Abbasa was his elder half-sister, others were Ulayya and Aliyah. Al-Hadi was the eldest son of al-Mahdi and al-Khayzuran and the older brother of Harun al-Rashid. He was very dear to his father and was appointed as the first crown prince by his father at the age of 16 and was chosen as the leader of the army.[9] Prior to his death, al-Mahdi supposedly favored his second son, Harun al-Rashid, as his successor, taking him on multiple military expeditions in 779 and 781 to train him to be the next caliph, as his own father prepared him, but died before the formal transfer of the crown prince title could occur. Not to mention, their mother, Khayzuran played a driver in these thoughts of al-Mahdi and was a partner. Alternatively, al-Rashid was a general and may have accompanied his father to war to train for and carry out his profession. Regardless of the intent, in 785, Al-Mahdi died during an expedition with his son Harun, who rushed back to Baghdad to inform his mother. At al-Mahdis untimely death, Khayzuran took control of the situation. She ensured a smooth transition of power and to secure the succession for her son, she called upon the viziers and ordered them to pay the wages of the army to secure order, and then had them swear allegiance to her son as their new caliph in his absence, and held everything together until al-Hadi returned to Baghdad. Al-Hadi became the caliph at the age of 25, the youngest caliph to yet rule the Abbasids. His brother Harun al-Rashid became his crown prince at 22. This was a point of insecurity for al-Hadi as he spent the majority of his rule attempting to wrest the title of crown prince from al-Rashid - whether he was granted it before or after his fathers death - and install his 7-year-old son Jafar in his place. As Jafar was very young and it went against law and wisdom to install him as crown prince, al-Hadi tried to put pressure on Harun and convince him to resign himself. So, Harun escaped from the capital and did not return there until the end of his brothers life. However, al-Hadis attempt to depose his brother caused further conflict between him and his mother Khayzuran, as they each strove for their respective sons to become the next caliph: al-Hadi for Jafar and Khayzuran for Harun.[10] Al-Hadi was considered an enlightened ruler by his constituents and continued the progressive moves of his Abbasids predecessor. Like his father he was very open to the people of his empire and allowed citizens to visit him in the palace at Baghdad to address him. He was physically strong and famous for his bravery and talent in government and generosity. However, he was cruel, daring and zealous. Al-Hadi was especially malevolent to non-Muslim citizens, as he continued his fathers persecutions and quashed multiple internal uprisings. He crushed a Kharijite rebellion, repelled a Byzantine invasion and seized some territory in the process.[11]
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François Gérard. François Pascal Simon Gérard (French pronunciation: [fʁɑ̃swa paskal simɔ̃ ʒeʁaʁ], 4 May 1770 – 11 January 1837),[a] titled as Baron Gérard in 1809, was a French painter. He was born in Rome, where his father occupied a post in the house of the French ambassador, and his mother was Italian. After he was made a baron of the Empire in 1809 by Emperor Napoleon, he was known formally as Baron Gérard. François Gérard was born in Rome to J. S. Gérard and Cleria Matteï.[1] At the age of twelve, Gérard obtained admission into the Pension du Roi in Paris. From the Pension, he passed to the studio of the sculptor Augustin Pajou, which he left at the end of two years for the studio of the history painter Nicolas-Guy Brenet,[2] whom he quit almost immediately to place himself under Jacques-Louis David.[3] In 1789, he competed for the Prix de Rome, which was carried off by his comrade Girodet. The following year (1790), he once more showed up, but the passing of his father prevented him from finishing his work and forced him to travel to Rome with his mother. He eventually made it back to Paris in 1791, but due to his extreme poverty, he was forced to abandon his studies in favor of a job that would pay him money right away. David at once availed himself of his help, and one of that masters most celebrated portraits, of Louis-Michel Le Pelletier de Saint-Fargeau, may owe much to the hand of Gérard. This painting was executed early in 1793, the year in which Gérard, at the request of David, was named a member of the revolutionary tribunal, from the fatal decisions of which he, however, invariably absented himself.[4] In 1794, he obtained the first prize in a competition, the subject of which was The Tenth of August, that is, the storming of the Tuileries Palace on that date in 1792. Further stimulated by the successes of his rival and friend Girodet in the Salons of 1793 and 1794, Gérard (aided by Jean-Baptiste Isabey, the miniaturist) produced in 1795 his famous Bélisaire. In 1796, a portrait of his generous friend (conserved today in the Louvre) obtained undisputed success, and the money received from Isabey for these two works enabled Gérard to execute in 1797 his Psyche et lAmour (illustration).[b] At last, in 1799, his portrait of Madame Mère established his position as one of the foremost portrait-painters of the day.[4]
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Balbec, Indiana. Balbec is an unincorporated community in Penn Township, Jay County, Indiana. A post office was established at Balbec in 1865, and remained in operation until it was discontinued in 1919.[3] The community was likely named after Baalbek, in Lebanon.[4] This Jay County, Indiana location article is a stub. You can help Wikipedia by expanding it.
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Baalbek-Hermel Governorate. Baalbek-Hermel (Arabic: بعلبك - الهرمل) is a governorate of Lebanon and is the largest by area in the country. It comprises the districts of Baalbek and Hermel,[3] which in turn are subdivided into a total of 74 municipalities.[2] The capital is at Baalbek.[3] The governorate covers an area of 3,009 km2 (1,162 sq mi)[1] and is bounded by Akkar Governorate to the northwest, North Governorate to the west, Keserwan-Jbeil Governorate and Mount Lebanon Governorate to the southwest, Beqaa Governorate to the south, and the Syrian governorates of Homs and Rif Dimashq to the northeast and southeast. The governorate occupies the northern portion of the Beqaa Valley, Lebanons most important agricultural area.[4] The UNHCR estimated the population of the governorate at 416,427 in 2015, including 137,788 registered refugees of the Syrian Civil War and 8,117 Palestinian refugees.[2] The Lebanese citizen population is predominantly Shiite with pockets of Christians and Sunnis, while the refugee population is predominantly Sunni Muslims.[2] Baalbek-Hermel Governorate was created by the enactment of Law 522 on 16 July 2003, in which the districts of Baalbek and Hermel were separated from Beqaa Governorate.[5] Implementation of the new region only began in 2014 with the appointment of the first and current governor, Bashir Khodr.[6] Already one of Lebanons poorest regions, the recent influx of Syrian refugees has placed additional strain on the governorates fragile infrastructure and services.[4] Violence in Syria has spilled over into the governorate, especially in the area around Arsal and Ras Baalbek.[4] The northern Beqaa valley and Baalbek has had Hezbollah or the Amal Movement electoral victories but 46% of the electorate voted for the opposition Baalbek Madinati party in recent elections.[7][8] According to registered voters in 2014:
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Austrian Empire. Timeline The Austrian Empire,[a] officially known as the Empire of Austria, was a multinational European great power from 1804 to 1867, created by proclamation out of the realms of the Habsburgs. During its existence, it was the third most populous monarchy in Europe after the Russian Empire and the United Kingdom, while geographically, it was the third-largest empire in Europe after the Russian Empire and the First French Empire. The empire was proclaimed by Francis II in 1804 in response to Napoleons declaration of the First French Empire, unifying all Habsburg possessions under one central government. It remained part of the Holy Roman Empire until the latters dissolution in 1806. It continued fighting against Napoleon throughout the Napoleonic Wars, except for a period between 1809 and 1813, when Austria was first allied with Napoleon during the invasion of Russia and later neutral during the first few weeks of the Sixth Coalition War. Austria and its allies emerged victorious in the war, leading to the Congress of Vienna, which reaffirmed the empire as one of the great powers of the 19th century. The Kingdom of Hungary—as Regnum Independens—was administered by its own institutions separately from the rest of the empire. After Austria was defeated in the Austro-Prussian War of 1866, the Austro-Hungarian Compromise of 1867 was adopted, joining the Kingdom of Hungary and the Empire of Austria to form Austria-Hungary. Changes shaping the nature of the Holy Roman Empire took place during conferences in Rastatt (1797–1799) and Regensburg (1801–1803). On 24 March 1803, the Imperial Recess (German: Reichsdeputationshauptschluss) was declared, which reduced the number of ecclesiastical states from 81 to only 3 and the free imperial cities from 51 to 6. This measure was aimed at replacing the old constitution of the Holy Roman Empire, but the actual consequence of the Imperial Recess, along with the French occupying the Electorate of Hanover in the same month and various Holy Roman states becoming allied with or against France, was the end of the empire.[2] Taking this significant change into consideration, Holy Roman Emperor Francis II created the title Emperor of Austria for himself and his successors, thereby becoming Francis I of Austria. This new title and state were created to safeguard his dynastys imperial status as he foresaw either the end of the Holy Roman Empire, or the eventual accession of Napoleon as Holy Roman Emperor, who had earlier that year adopted the title Emperor of the French and established the First French Empire. Initially Francis II/I continued to hold both titles but abdicated the throne of the Holy Roman Empire in 1806.
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Governorates of Lebanon. Member State of the Arab League Lebanon portal Lebanon is divided into nine governorates (Arabic: muhafazah). Each governorate is headed by a governor (Arabic: muhafiz). (per km2)
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Biuret. Biuret (/ˈbjurɛt/ BYUR-ret) is a chemical compound with the chemical formula HN(CONH2)2. It is a white solid that is soluble in hot water. A variety of organic derivatives are known. The term biuret also describes a family of organic compounds with the chemical formula R1R2N−C(=O)−N(R3)−C(=O)−NR4R5, where R1, R2, R3, R4 and R5 are hydrogen, organyl or other groups. Also known as carbamylurea, it results from the condensation of two equivalents of urea. It is a common undesirable impurity in urea-based fertilizers, as biuret is toxic to plants. The parent compound can be prepared by heating urea at 150 °C for ~6 hours until it gets slightly cloudy, then recrystallizing from water. After that, it can be recrystallized repeatedly from 2% sodium hydroxide solution and water to finally get base-free crystalline needles of the monohydrate which are free of cyanuric acid. While heating, a lot of ammonia is expelled:[3] Under related conditions, pyrolysis of urea affords triuret O=C(−N(H)−C(=O)−NH2)2.[3] In general, organic biurets (those with alkyl or aryl groups in place of one or more H atoms) are prepared by trimerization of isocyanates. For example, the trimer of 1,6-hexamethylene diisocyanate is also known as HDI-biuret. In the anhydrous form, the molecule is planar and unsymmetrical in the solid state owing to intramolecular hydrogen bonding. The terminal C–N distances of 1.327 and 1.334 Å are shorter than the internal C–N distances of 1.379 and 1.391 Å. The C=O bond distances 1.247 and 1.237 Å. It crystallizes from water as the monohydrate.[4] Biuret is used as a non-protein nitrogen source in ruminant feed,[5] where it is converted into protein by gut microorganisms.[6] It is less favored than urea, due to its higher cost and lower digestibility[7] but the latter characteristic also slows down its digestion and so decreases the risk of ammonia toxicity.[7][8]
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UCLA Bruins football. The UCLA Bruins football program represents the University of California, Los Angeles, in college football as members of the Big Ten Conference at the NCAA Division I Football Bowl Subdivision (FBS) level. The Bruins play their home games off campus at the Rose Bowl in Pasadena, California. The Bruins have enjoyed several periods of success in their history, having been ranked in the top ten of the AP Poll at least once in every decade since the poll began in the 1930s. Their first major period of success came in the 1950s, under head coach Red Sanders. Sanders led the Bruins to the Coaches Poll national championship in 1954, three conference championships, and an overall record of 66–19–1 in nine years. In the 1980s and 1990s, during the tenure of Terry Donahue, the Bruins compiled a 151–74–8 record, including 13 bowl games and an NCAA record eight straight bowl wins. Recent success has evaded them, though, landing them with a 16–19 overall bowl game record. The program has produced 28 first round picks in the NFL Draft, 30 consensus All-Americans, and multiple major award winners, including Heisman Trophy winner Gary Beban. The UCLA Bruins main rival is the USC Trojans. The Bruins were twice the Pac-12 Conference South Division champions, earning the right to play in Pac-12 Football Championship Games in both 2011 and 2012. UCLA and fellow Pac-12 members USC, Oregon, and Washington left for the Big Ten Conference in 2024.
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Siege of Baghdad. The siege of Baghdad took place in early 1258. A large army commanded by Hulegu, a prince of the Mongol Empire, attacked the historic capital of the Abbasid Caliphate after a series of provocations from its ruler, caliph al-Mustasim. Within a few weeks, Baghdad fell and was sacked by the Mongol army—al-Mustasim was killed alongside hundreds of thousands of his subjects. The citys fall has traditionally been seen as marking the end of the Islamic Golden Age; in reality, its ramifications are uncertain. After the accession of his brother Möngke Khan to the Mongol throne in 1251, Hulegu, a grandson of Genghis Khan, was dispatched westwards to Persia to secure the region. His massive army of over 138,000 men took years to reach the region but then quickly attacked and overpowered the Nizari Ismaili Assassins in 1256. The Mongols had expected al-Mustasim to provide reinforcements for their army—the Caliphs failure to do so, combined with his arrogance in negotiations, convinced Hulegu to overthrow him in late 1257. Invading Mesopotamia from all sides, the Mongol army soon approached Baghdad, routing a sortie on 17 January 1258 by flooding their opponents camp. They then invested Baghdad, which was left with around 30,000 troops. The assault began at the end of January. Mongol siege engines breached Baghdads fortifications within a couple of days, and Hulegus highly-trained troops controlled the eastern wall by 4 February. The increasingly desperate al-Mustasim frantically tried to negotiate, but Hulegu was intent on total victory, even killing soldiers who attempted to surrender. The Caliph eventually surrendered the city on 10 February, and the Mongols began looting three days later. The total number of people who died is unknown, as it was likely increased by subsequent epidemics; Hulegu later estimated the total at around 200,000. After calling an amnesty for the pillaging on 20 February, Hulegu executed the caliph. In contrast to the exaggerations of later Muslim historians, Baghdad prospered under Hulegus Ilkhanate, although it did decline in comparison to the new capital, Tabriz. Baghdad was founded in 762 by al-Mansur, the second caliph of the Abbasid dynasty, which had recently overthrown the empire of the Umayyads. Al-Mansur believed that the new Abbasid Caliphate needed a new capital city, located away from potential threats and near the dynastys power base in Persia. Incredibly wealthy due to the trade routes and taxes it controlled, Baghdad quickly became a world city and the epicentre of the Islamic Golden Age: poets, writers, scientists, philosophers, musicians, and scholars of every type thrived in the city. Containing centres of learning like the House of Wisdom and astronomical observatories, which used the newly-arrived technology of paper and the gathering of the teachings of antiquity from all Eurasia, Baghdad was the intellectual capital of the planet, in the words of the historian Justin Marozzi.[1]
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Syria. Syria,[e] officially the Syrian Arab Republic,[f][17] is a country in West Asia located in the Eastern Mediterranean and the Levant. It borders the Mediterranean Sea to the west, Turkey to the north, Iraq to the east and southeast, Jordan to the south, and Israel and Lebanon to the southwest. It is a republic under a transitional government and comprises 14 governorates. Damascus is the capital and largest city. With a population of 25 million across an area of 185,180 square kilometres (71,500 sq mi), it is the 57th-most populous and 87th-largest country. The name Syria historically referred to a wider region. The modern state encompasses the sites of several ancient kingdoms and empires, including the Eblan civilization. Damascus was the seat of the Umayyad Caliphate and a provincial capital under the Mamluk Sultanate. The modern Syrian state was established in the mid-20th century after centuries of Ottoman rule, as a French Mandate. The state represented the largest Arab state to emerge from the formerly Ottoman-ruled Syrian provinces. It gained de jure independence as a parliamentary republic in 1945 when the First Syrian Republic became a founding member of the United Nations, an act which legally ended the French Mandate. French troops withdrew in April 1946, granting the nation de facto independence. The post-independence period was tumultuous, with multiple coups and coup attempts between 1949 and 1971. In 1958, Syria entered a brief pan-Arab union with Egypt, which was terminated following a 1961 coup détat. The 1963 coup détat carried out by the military committee of the Baath Party established a one-party state, which ran Syria under martial law from 1963 to 2011. Internal power-struggles within Baathist factions caused further coups in 1966 and 1970, the latter of which saw Hafez al-Assad come to power. Under Assad, Syria became a hereditary dictatorship. Assad died in 2000, and he was succeeded by his son, Bashar. Since the Arab Spring in 2011, Syria has been embroiled in a multi-sided civil war with the involvement of several countries, leading to a refugee crisis in which more than 6 million refugees were displaced from the country. In response to rapid territorial gains made by the Islamic State during the civil war in 2014 and 2015, several countries intervened on behalf of various factions opposing it, leading to its territorial defeat in 2017 in both central and eastern Syria. Thereafter, three political entities—the Syrian Interim Government, Syrian Salvation Government, and the Democratic Autonomous Administration of North and East Syria—emerged in Syrian territory to challenge Assads rule. In late 2024, a series of offensives from a coalition of opposition forces led to the capture of Damascus and the fall of Assads regime. By 2025, the war had left Syrias economy in a poor state, following years of international sanctions that were later eased. A country of fertile plains, high mountains, and deserts, Syria is home to diverse ethnic and religious groups. Arabs are the largest ethnic group, and Sunni Muslims are the largest religious group.
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List of cities and towns in Lebanon. This is a list of cities and towns in Lebanon[1] distributed according to the 26 districts which are split into 9 governorates. There are over 1000 municipalities (cities and towns). 56.21% of the population lives in 19 cities and towns, which gives the average 2,158 people per town. NB: These numbers are sourced from World Population Review which source their data from Geonames.org This list includes the 12 Quarters (also known as neighborhoods with the number of registered voters in 2014[3] 1 The Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus is not officially recognized by the United Nations, recognized only by Turkey; see Cyprus dispute.
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Israel. Israel,[a] officially the State of Israel,[b] is a country in the Southern Levant region of West Asia. It shares borders with Lebanon to the north, Syria to the north-east, Jordan to the east, Egypt to the south-west and the Mediterranean Sea to the west. It occupies the Palestinian territories of the West Bank in the east and the Gaza Strip in the south-west, as well as the Syrian Golan Heights in the northeast. Israel also has a small coastline on the Red Sea at its southernmost point, and part of the Dead Sea lies along its eastern border. Its proclaimed capital is Jerusalem,[22] while Tel Aviv is its largest urban area and economic centre. Israel is located in a region known as the Land of Israel, synonymous with Canaan, the Holy Land, the Palestine region, and Judea. In antiquity it was home to the Canaanite civilisation, followed by the kingdoms of Israel and Judah. Situated at a continental crossroad, the region experienced demographic changes under the rule of empires from the Romans to the Ottomans. European antisemitism in the late 19th century galvanised Zionism, a movement which sought to colonise Palestine to establish a homeland for the Jewish people. Zionists gained British support with the Balfour Declaration. After World War I, Britain occupied the region and established Mandatory Palestine in 1920. Increased Jewish immigration in the lead-up to the Holocaust and British foreign policy in the Middle East led to intercommunal conflict between Jews and Arabs,[23][24] which escalated into a civil war in 1947 after the United Nations (UN) proposed partitioning the land between them. Israel declared independence at the end of the British Mandate on 14 May 1948, and neighboring Arab states invaded the next day. A 1949 armistice left Israel with territory beyond the UN plan;[25] no Arab state was created, as the Gaza Strip and the West Bank came under Egyptian and Jordanian control.[25][26][27] Most Palestinian Arabs fled or were expelled by Zionist militias in an ethnic cleansing known as the Nakba, with those who remained became the states main minority.[28][29][30] Israels population increased greatly through the Jewish exodus from the Muslim world in the following decades.[31][32] In the 1967 Six-Day War, Israel occupied the West Bank, Gaza Strip, Egyptian Sinai Peninsula and Syrian Golan Heights. Peace was made with Egypt in 1979 (returning Sinai in 1982) and with Jordan in 1994. The 1993 Oslo Accords with the Palestinians established mutual recognition and limited self-rule, and the 2020 Abraham Accords normalised ties with more Arab states. The Israeli–Palestinian conflict remains unresolved, with periodic wars and clashes with Palestinian militant groups. Settlement expansion in the occupied territories, and the annexations of East Jerusalem and the Golan Heights, are regarded as violations of international law. Israels practices in its occupation of the Palestinian territories have drawn sustained international criticism—along with accusations that it has committed war crimes, crimes against humanity, and genocide against the Palestinians—from experts, human rights organisations and UN officials.
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Islamic world. The terms Islamic world and Muslim world commonly refer to the Islamic community, which is also known as the Ummah. This consists of all those who adhere to the religious beliefs, politics, and laws of Islam[1] or to societies in which Islam is practiced.[2][3] In a modern geopolitical sense, these terms refer to countries in which Islam is widespread, although there are no agreed criteria for inclusion.[4][3] The term Muslim-majority countries is an alternative often used for the latter sense.[5] The history of the Muslim world spans about 1,400 years and includes a variety of socio-political developments, as well as advances in the arts, science, medicine, philosophy, law, economics and technology during the Islamic Golden Age. Muslims look for guidance to the Quran and believe in the prophetic mission of the Islamic prophet Muhammad, but disagreements on other matters have led to the appearance of different religious schools of thought and sects within Islam.[6] The Islamic conquests, which culminated in the Caliphate being established across three continents (Asia, Africa, and Europe), enriched the Muslim world, achieving the economic preconditions for the emergence of this institution owing to the emphasis attached to Islamic teachings.[7] In the modern era, most of the Muslim world came under European colonial domination. The nation states that emerged in the post-colonial era have adopted a variety of political and economic models, and they have been affected by secular as well as religious trends.[8] As of 2013[update], the combined GDP (nominal) of 50 Muslim majority countries was US$5.7 trillion.[9] As of 2016[update], they contributed 8% of the worlds total.[10] In 2020, the Economy of the Organisation of Islamic Cooperation which consists of 57 member states had a combined GDP(PPP) of US$ 24 trillion which is equal to about 18% of worlds GDP or US$ 30 trillion with 5 OIC observer states which is equal to about 22% of the worlds GDP. Some OIC member countries - Ivory Coast, Guyana, Gabon, Mozambique, Nigeria, Suriname, Togo and Uganda are not Muslim-majority.[11] As of 2020, 1.8 billion or more than 25% of the world population are Muslims.[12][13] By the percentage of the total population in a region considering themselves Muslim, 91% in the Middle East-North Africa (MENA),[14] 89% in Central Asia,[15] 40% in Southeast Asia,[16] 31% in South Asia,[17][18] 30% in Sub-Saharan Africa,[19] 25% in Asia, 1.4% in Oceania,[20][21] 6% in Europe,[22] and 1% in the Americas.[23][24][25][26]
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Beirut (disambiguation). Beirut is the capital city of Lebanon. Beirut, Beyrut or Bayrut may also refer to:
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Bierut. Bierut is a surname. Notable people with the surname include:
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Abbasid Caliphate. The Abbasid Caliphate or Abbasid Empire[a] was the third caliphate to succeed the Islamic prophet Muhammad. It was founded by a dynasty descended from Muhammads uncle, Abbas ibn Abd al-Muttalib (566–653 CE), from whom the dynasty takes its name.[8] After overthrowing the Umayyad Caliphate in the Abbasid Revolution of 750 CE (132 AH), they ruled as caliphs based in Iraq, with Baghdad being their capital for most of their history. The Abbasid Revolution had its origins and first successes in the easterly region of Khurasan, far from the Levantine center of Umayyad influence.[9] The Abbasid Caliphate first centered its government in Kufa, Iraq, but in 762 the caliph al-Mansur founded the city of Baghdad as the new capital. Baghdad became the center of science, culture, arts, and invention in what became known as the Golden Age of Islam. By housing several key academic institutions, including the House of Wisdom, as well as a multiethnic and multi-religious environment, the city garnered an international reputation as a centre of learning. The Abbasid period was marked by the use of bureaucrats in governance, including the vizier, as well as an increasing inclusion of non-Arab Muslims in the ummah (Muslim community) and among the political elites.[10][11] The apogee of the caliphates power and prestige is traditionally associated with Harun al-Rashid (r. 786–809).[12][13] After his death, civil war brought new divisions and was followed by significant changes to the character of the state, including the creation of a new professional army recruited mainly from Turkic slaves and the construction of a new capital, Samarra, in 836. The 9th century also saw a growing trend of provincial autonomy spawning local dynasties who controlled different regions of the empire, such as the Aghlabids, Tahirids, Samanids, Saffarids, and Tulunids. Following a period of turmoil in the 860s, the caliphate regained some stability and its seat returned to Baghdad in 892. During the 10th century, the authority of the caliphs was progressively reduced to a ceremonial function in the Islamic world. Political and military power was transferred instead to the Iranian Buyids and the Seljuq Turks, who took control of Baghdad in 945 and 1055, respectively. The Abbasids eventually regained control of Mesopotamia during the rule of Caliph al-Muqtafi (r. 1136–1160) and extended it into Iran during the reign of Caliph al-Nasir (r. 1180–1225).[14] This revival ended in 1258 with the sack of Baghdad by the Mongols under Hulagu Khan and the execution of Caliph al-Mustasim. A surviving line of Abbasids was re-installed in the Mamluk capital of Cairo in 1261. Though lacking in political power, with the brief exception of Caliph al-Mustain, the dynasty continued to claim symbolic authority until a few years after the Ottoman conquest of Egypt in 1517,[15] with the last Abbasid caliph being al-Mutawakkil III.[16]
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Beyrut, Iran. Beyrut (Persian: بيروت, also Romanized as Beyrūt)[1] is a village in Rob-e Shamat Rural District, Sheshtomad District, Sabzevar County, Razavi Khorasan Province, Iran. At the 2006 census, its population was 592, in 150 families.[2] This Sabzevar County location article is a stub. You can help Wikipedia by expanding it.
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Bayreuth. Bayreuth (German pronunciation: [ˈbaɪʁɔʏt] ⓘ or [baɪˈʁɔʏt] ⓘ; Upper Franconian: Bareid, pronounced [ba(ː)ˈɾaɪ̯t]) is a town in northern Bavaria, Germany, on the Red Main river in a valley between the Franconian Jura and the Fichtel Mountains. The towns roots date back to 1194. In the 21st century, it is the capital of Upper Franconia and has a population of 72,148 (2015). It hosts the annual Bayreuth Festival, at which performances of operas by the 19th-century German composer Richard Wagner are presented. The town is believed to have been founded by the counts of Andechs probably around the mid-12th century,[3] but was first mentioned in 1194 as Baierrute in a document by Bishop Otto II of Bamberg. The syllable -rute may mean Rodung or clearing, whilst Baier- indicates immigrants from the Bavarian region. Already documented earlier, were villages later merged into Bayreuth: Seulbitz (in 1035 as the royal Salian estate of Silewize in a document by Emperor Conrad II) and St. Johannis (possibly 1149 as Altentrebgast). Even the district of Altstadt (formerly Altenstadt) west of the town centre must be older than the town of Bayreuth itself. Even older traces of human presence were found in the hamlets of Meyernberg: pieces of pottery and wooden crockery were dated to the 9th century based on their decoration.[4] While Bayreuth was previously (1199) referred to as a villa (village), the term civitas (town) appeared for the first time in a document published in 1231. One can therefore assume that Bayreuth was awarded its town charter between 1200 and 1230. The town was ruled until 1248 by the counts of Andechs-Merania. After they died out in 1260 the burgraves of Nuremberg from the House of Hohenzollern took over the inheritance.
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Entry into force. In law, coming into force or entry into force (also called commencement) is the process by which legislation, regulations, treaties and other legal instruments come to have legal force and effect. The term is closely related to the date of this transition. The point at which such instrument comes into effect may be set out in the instrument itself, or after the lapse of a certain period, or upon the happening of a certain event, such as a proclamation or an objective event, such as the birth, marriage, reaching a particular age or death of a certain person. On rare occasions,[which?] the effective date of a law may be backdated to a date before the enactment.[citation needed] To come into force, a treaty or Act first needs to receive the required number of votes or ratifications. Although it is common practice to stipulate this number as a requirement in the body of the treaty itself, it can also be set out in a superior law or legal framework, such as a constitution or the standing orders of the legislature in which it originated. Coming into force generally includes publication in an official gazette so that people know the law or treaty exists. After their adoption, treaties as well as their amendments may have to follow the official legal procedures of the organisation, such as the United Nations, that sponsored it, including signature, ratification, and entry into force. The process of enactment, by which a bill becomes an Act, is separate from commencement. Even if a bill passes through all necessary stages to become an Act, it may not automatically come into force. Moreover, an Act may be repealed having never come into force.[1]
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Baghdad. Baghdad[a] is the capital and largest city of Iraq. Located on the banks of the Tigris in central Iraq, it is the capital of the Baghdad Governorate. The city has an estimated population of 8 million and spread across an area of 673 square kilometres (260 sq mi). It ranks among the most populous and largest cities in the Middle East and the Arab world and constitute 22% of the countrys population. Baghdad is one of the primary financial and commercial center in the region. Founded in 762 AD by Al-Mansur, Baghdad was the capital of the Abbasid Caliphate and became its most notable development project. The city evolved into an intellectual and cultural center. This, in addition to housing several key academic institutions, including the House of Wisdom, as well as a multi-ethnic and multi-religious environment, garnered it a worldwide reputation as the Center of Learning. For much of the Abbasid era, during the Islamic Golden Age, Baghdad was one of the largest cities in the world and rivaled Changan, as the population peaked at more than one million. It was largely destroyed at the hands of the Mongol Empire in 1258, resulting in a decline that would linger through many centuries due to frequent plagues, shift in power and multiple successive empires. Later, Baghdad served as the administrative center of Ottoman Iraq,[3] exercising authority over the provinces of Basra, Mosul, and Shahrizor.[4] During First World War, Baghdad was made the capital of Mandatory Iraq. With the recognition of Iraq as an independent monarchy in 1932, it gradually regained some of its former prominence as a significant center of Arab culture. During the Baath Party rule, the city experienced a period of relative prosperity and growth. However, it faced severe infrastructural damage due to the Iraq War, which began with the invasion of Iraq in 2003, resulting in a substantial loss of cultural heritage and historical artifacts. During the insurgency and renewed war from 2013 to 2017, it had one of the highest rates of terrorist attacks in the world. However, these attacks have gradually declined since the territorial defeat of the Islamic State militant group in Iraq in 2017, and are now rare. Since the end of the war, numerous reconstruction projects have been underway to induce stability. Iraqs largest city, Baghdad is the seat of government. It generates 40% of the economy of Iraq. A major center of Islamic history, Baghdad is home to numerous historic mosques, as well as churches, mandis and synagogues, highlighting the citys historical diversity. Religious sites such as Masjid al-Kadhimayn, Buratha Mosque, the Shrine of Abdul-Qadir Gilani and Abu Hanifa Mosque are visited by millions of people anually. It was once home to a large Jewish community and was regularly visited by Sikh pilgrims from India.[5] Baghdad is a regional cultural hub. The city is well-known for its coffeehouses.
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Ministry of Justice (Japan). The Ministry of Justice (法務省, Hōmu-shō)[1] is one of the cabinet level ministries of the Japanese government. It is responsible for the judicial system, correctional services, and household, property and corporate registrations, and immigration control. It also serves as the governments legal representatives. The MOJ represents the Japanese government in litigation, and is also responsible for maintaining the official registers of households, resident aliens, real estate and corporations. At the top of the ministry is the Minister of Justice, a member of the Cabinet, who is chosen by the Prime Minister from among members of the National Diet. The Ministry of Justice was established in 1871 as the Ministry of Justice (司法省, Shihōshō).[2] On February 15, 1948, the Attorney Generals Office Establishment Law led to the creation of the Attorney Generals Office.[2] The ministry acquired its present name under the post-war Constitution of Japan in 1952.[2] Under the Central Government Reorganization Plan, the Litigation Bureau was disbanded on January 6, 2001.[2] The LB was reestablished on April 10, 2015 from the Litigation Department.[3] The Ministry of Justice is organized in seven bureaus:[4]
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Royal assent. Royal assent is the method by which a monarch formally approves an act of the legislature, either directly or through an official acting on the monarchs behalf. In some jurisdictions, royal assent is equivalent to promulgation, while in others that is a separate step. Under a modern constitutional monarchy, royal assent is considered little more than a formality. Even in nations such as the United Kingdom, Norway, the Netherlands, Liechtenstein and Monaco which still, in theory, permit their monarch to withhold assent to laws, the monarch almost never does so, except in a dire political emergency or on advice of government. While the power to veto by withholding royal assent was once exercised often by European monarchs, such an occurrence has been very rare since the eighteenth century. Royal assent is typically associated with elaborate ceremony. In the United Kingdom the Sovereign may appear personally in the House of Lords or may appoint Lords Commissioners, who announce that royal assent has been granted at a ceremony held at the Palace of Westminster for this purpose. However, royal assent is usually granted less ceremonially by letters patent. In other nations, such as Australia, the governor-general (as the Monarchs representative) has the right to dissolve the parliament[1] and to sign a bill.[citation needed] In Canada, the governor general may give assent either in person at a ceremony in the Senate or by a written declaration notifying Parliament of their agreement to the bill. The monarch would today not veto a bill, except on ministerial advice. Professor of constitutional law at Kings College London Robert Blackburn suggested the monarchs granting of royal assent is now limited to due process and is a certification that a bill has passed all established parliamentary procedures,[2] whereas Manchester University professor emeritus Rodney Brazier argued that a monarch can still refuse royal assent to a bill that sought to subvert the democratic basis of the constitution. However, Brazier went on to admit doing such a thing would lead to grave difficulties of definition and it would be better if the monarch sought a different method of expressing their concern.[3] The only situation in which royal assent could be denied would be if a bill had been passed by the legislative houses or house against the wishes of the cabinet and the royal assent stage offered the latter with a last-ditch opportunity to prevent the bill from becoming law.[4] Before the Royal Assent by Commission Act 1541 (33 Hen. 8. c. 21) allowed for delegation of the power to Lords Commissioners, assent was always required to be given by the sovereign in person before Parliament.[5] The last time it was given by the sovereign in person in Parliament was during the reign of Queen Victoria at a prorogation on 12 August 1854.[6][a] The act was repealed and replaced by the Royal Assent Act 1967. However section 1(2) of that act does not prevent the sovereign from declaring assent in person if he or she so desires.
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National Diet. Opposition (119) Unaffiliated (8) Opposition (240) Unaffiliated (5)
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Japanese Canadians. Japanese Canadians (日系カナダ人, Nikkei Kanadajin; French: Canadiens japonais) are Canadian citizens of Japanese ancestry. Japanese Canadians are mostly concentrated in Western Canada, especially in the province of British Columbia, which hosts the largest Japanese community in the country with the majority of them living in and around Vancouver. In 2016, there were 121,485 Japanese Canadians throughout Canada.[2] The term Nikkei (日系) was coined by sociologists and encompasses all of the worlds Japanese immigrants across generations. Japanese descendants living overseas have special names for each of their generations. These are formed by combining one of the Japanese numerals with the Japanese word for generation (sei, 世): The first Japanese settler in Canada was Manzo Nagano, who lived in Victoria, British Columbia in 1877 (a mountain in the province was named after him in 1977). The first generation or Issei, mostly came to Vancouver Island, the Fraser Valley and Rivers Inlet from fishing villages on the islands of Kyūshū and Honshū between 1877 and 1928. A Japanese community newspaper for Vancouver residents was first launched in 1897. Around the same time, the Fraser River Japanese Fishermens Association Hospital in Steveston was established after the local hospital refused to admit and treat Japanese immigrants.[4] In 1907, the Asiatic Exclusion League was established in Vancouver and, by September of that year, led a mob of rioters who vandalized both Chinese and Japanese neighbourhoods.[5] In 1908, Canada and Japan signed a Gentlemens Agreement intended to curb further Japanese immigration to Canada.[6] Influenced by the American Immigration Act of 1924, members of the British Columbia parliament pushed for a total federal ban on immigration in the 1920s. After several years of negotiations, Japan eventually agreed to reduce its immigration quota under the Gentlemans Agreement to only 150 persons per year.[7]
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Lebanon. Lebanon,[c] officially the Republic of Lebanon,[d] is a country in the Levant region of West Asia. Situated at the crossroads of the Mediterranean Basin and the Arabian Peninsula,[14] it is bordered by Syria to the north and east, Israel to the south, and the Mediterranean Sea to the west; Cyprus lies a short distance from the coastline. Lebanon has a population of more than five million and an area of 10,452 square kilometres (4,036 sq mi). Beirut is the countrys capital and largest city. Human habitation in Lebanon dates to 5000 BC.[15] From 3200 to 539 BC, it was part of Phoenicia, a maritime civilization that spanned the Mediterranean Basin.[16] In 64 BC, the region became part of the Roman Empire and the subsequent Byzantine Empire. After the seventh century, it came under the rule of different Arabic Islamic caliphates, including the Rashidun, Umayyad and Abbasid. The 11th century saw the establishment of Christian Crusader states, which fell to the Ayyubids and the Mamluks. Lebanon came under Ottoman rule in the early 16th century. Under Ottoman sultan Abdulmejid I, the first Lebanese proto state, the Mount Lebanon Mutasarrifate, was established as a home for Maronite Christians, as part of the Tanzimat reforms. After the dissolution of the Ottoman Empire following World War I, Lebanon came under the Mandate for Syria and the Lebanon, administered by France, which established Greater Lebanon. By 1943, Lebanon had gained independence from Free France and established a distinct form of confessional government, with the states major religious groups being apportioned specific political powers. The new Lebanese state was relatively stable,[17] but this was ultimately shattered by the outbreak of the Lebanese Civil War (1975–1990). Lebanon was also subjugated by two military occupations: Syria from 1976 to 2005 and Israel from 1985 to 2000. It has been the scene of several conflicts with Israel, of which the ongoing war marks the fourth Israeli invasion since 1978. Lebanon is a developing country, ranked 112th on the Human Development Index.[18] It has been classified as a lower-middle-income country.[19] The Lebanese liquidity crisis, coupled with nationwide corruption and disasters such as the 2020 Beirut explosion, precipitated the collapse of Lebanons currency and fomented political instability, widespread resource shortages, and high unemployment and poverty. The World Bank has defined Lebanons economic crisis as one of the worlds worst since the 19th century.[20][21] Despite the countrys small size,[22] Lebanese culture is renowned both in the Arab world and globally, powered primarily by the large and influential Lebanese diaspora.[23] Lebanon is a founding member of the United Nations and the Arab League,[24] and a member of the Non-Aligned Movement, the Organization of Islamic Cooperation, the Organisation internationale de la Francophonie, and the Group of 77.
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Slang. A slang is a vocabulary (words, phrases, and linguistic usages) of an informal register, common in everyday conversation but avoided in formal writing and speech.[1] It also often refers to the language exclusively used by the members of particular in-groups in order to establish group identity, exclude outsiders, or both. The word itself came about in the 18th century and has been defined in multiple ways since its conception, with no single technical usage in linguistics. In its earliest attested use (1756), the word slang referred to the vocabulary of low or disreputable people. By the early nineteenth century, it was no longer exclusively associated with disreputable people, but continued to be applied to usages below the level of standard educated speech.[2] In Scots dialect it meant talk, chat, gossip,[3] as used by Aberdeen poet William Scott in 1832: The slang gaed on aboot their warly care. [4] In northern English dialect it meant impertinence, abusive language.[5] The origin of the word slang is unclear. It was first used in print around 1800 to refer to the language of the disreputable and criminal classes in London, though its usage likely dates back further.[6] A Scandinavian origin has been proposed (compare, for example, Norwegian slengenavn, which means nickname), but based on date and early associations is discounted by the Oxford English Dictionary.[2] Jonathon Green, however, agrees with the possibility of a Scandinavian origin, suggesting the same root as that of sling, which means to throw, and noting that slang is thrown language – a quick and honest way to make your point.[7][8] Linguists have no simple and clear definition of slang but agree that it is a constantly changing linguistic phenomenon present in every subculture worldwide. Some argue that slang exists because we must come up with ways to define new experiences that have surfaced with time and modernity.[9] Attempting to remedy the lack of a clear definition, however, Bethany K. Dumas and Jonathan Lighter argue that an expression should be considered true slang if it meets at least two of the following criteria:[9]
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Syllable. A syllable is a basic unit of organization within a sequence of speech sounds, such as within a word, typically defined by linguists as a nucleus (most often a vowel) with optional sounds before or after that nucleus (margins, which are most often consonants). In phonology and studies of languages, syllables are often considered the building blocks of words.[1] They can influence the rhythm of a language: its prosody or poetic metre. Properties such as stress, tone and reduplication operate on syllables and their parts.[2] Speech can usually be divided up into a whole number of syllables: for example, the word ignite is made of two syllables: ig and nite. Most languages of the world use relatively simple syllable structures that often alternate between vowels and consonants.[3] Despite being present in virtually all human languages, syllables still have no precise definition that is valid for all known languages.[2] A common criterion for finding syllable boundaries is native-speaker intuition, but individuals sometimes disagree on them.[4] Syllabic writing began several hundred years before the first instances of alphabetic writing. The earliest recorded syllables are on tablets written around 2800 BC in the Sumerian city of Ur. This shift from pictograms to syllables has been called the most important advance in the history of writing.[5] A word that consists of a single syllable (like English dog) is called a monosyllable (and is said to be monosyllabic). Similar terms include disyllable (and disyllabic; also bisyllable and bisyllabic) for a word of two syllables; trisyllable (and trisyllabic) for a word of three syllables; and polysyllable (and polysyllabic), which may refer either to a word of more than three syllables or to any word of more than one syllable. Syllable is an Anglo-Norman variation of Old French sillabe, from Latin syllaba, from Koine Greek συλλαβή syllabḗ (Ancient Greek pronunciation: [sylːabɛ̌ː]). συλλαβή means the taken together, referring to letters that are taken together to make a single sound.[6]
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Japanese Peruvians. Japanese Peruvians (Spanish: peruano-japonés or nipo-peruano; Japanese: 日系ペルー人, Nikkei Perūjin) are Peruvian citizens of Japanese origin or ancestry. Peru has the second largest ethnic Japanese population in South America after Brazil. This community has made a significant cultural impact on the country,[4] and as of the 2017 Census in Peru, 22,534 people or 0.2% of the Peruvian population self reported themselves as having Nikkei or Japanese ancestry,[5] though the Japanese government estimates that at least 200,000 Peruvians have some degree of Japanese ancestry.[2] Peru was the first Latin American country to establish diplomatic relations with Japan,[6] in June 1873.[7] Peru was also the first Latin American country to accept Japanese immigration.[6] The Sakura Maru carried Japanese families from Yokohama to Peru and arrived on April 3, 1899, at the Peruvian port city of Callao.[8] This group of 790 Japanese became the first of several waves of emigrants who made new lives for themselves in Peru, some nine years before emigration to Brazil began.[7] Most immigrants arrived from Okinawa, Gifu, Hiroshima, Kanagawa and Osaka prefectures. Many arrived as farmers or to work in the fields but, after their contracts were completed, settled in the cities.[9] In the period before World War II, the Japanese community in Peru was largely run by issei immigrants born in Japan. Those of the second generation [the nisei] were almost inevitably excluded from community decision-making.[10] Perus current Japanese international school is Asociación Academia de Cultura Japonesa in Surco, Lima.[11]
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Nationality. Nationality is the legal status of belonging to a particular nation, defined as a group of people organized in one country, under one legal jurisdiction, or as a group of people who are united on the basis of citizenship.[1][2][3] In international law, nationality is a legal identification establishing the person as a subject, a national, of a sovereign state. It affords the state jurisdiction over the person and affords the person the protection of the state against other states.[4] The rights and duties of nationals vary from state to state,[5] and are often complemented by citizenship law, in some contexts to the point where citizenship is synonymous with nationality.[6] However, nationality differs technically and legally from citizenship, which is a different legal relationship between a person and a country. The noun national can include both citizens and non-citizens. The most common distinguishing feature of citizenship is that citizens have the right to participate in the political life of the state, such as by voting or standing for election. However, in most modern countries all nationals are citizens of the state, and full citizens are always nationals of the state.[7] In international law, a stateless person is someone who is not considered as a national by any state under the operation of its law.[8] To address this, Article 15 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights states that Everyone has the right to a nationality, and No one shall be arbitrarily deprived of his nationality nor denied the right to change his nationality, even though, by international custom and conventions, it is the right of each state to determine who its nationals are.[9] Such determinations are part of nationality law. In some cases, determinations of nationality are also governed by public international law—for example, by treaties on statelessness or the European Convention on Nationality.[10] For when a person lacks nationality, globally only 23 countries have established dedicated statelessness determination procedures. Even where such procedures exist, they still have shortcomings in accessibility and functionality, preventing stateless people from accessing rights connected to being determined stateless.[11] The general process of acquiring nationality is called naturalization. Each state determines in its nationality law the conditions (statute) under which it will recognize persons as its nationals, and the conditions under which that status will be withdrawn. Some countries permit their nationals to have multiple nationalities, while others insist on exclusive allegiance. Due to the etymology of nationality, in older texts or other languages the word nationality, rather than ethnicity, is often used to refer to an ethnic group (a group of people who share a common ethnic identity, language, culture, lineage, history, and so forth). Individuals may also be considered nationals of groups with autonomous status that have ceded some power to a larger sovereign state.
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Japanese Americans. Other places with notable populations include: Japanese Americans (Japanese: 日系アメリカ人) are Americans of Japanese ancestry. Japanese Americans were among the three largest Asian American ethnic communities during the 20th century; but, according to the 2000 census, they have declined in ranking to constitute the sixth largest Asian American group at around 1,469,637, including those of partial ancestry.[5] The United States has the second largest Japanese population outside of Japan, second to only Brazil. However, in terms of Japanese citizens, The United States has the most Japanese-born citizens outside Japan, due to Brazils Japanese population being multigenerational. According to the 2010 census, the largest Japanese American communities were found in California with 272,528, Hawaii with 185,502, New York with 37,780, Washington with 35,008, Illinois with 17,542 and Ohio with 16,995.[6] Southern California has the largest Japanese American population in North America and the city of Gardena holds the densest Japanese American population in the 48 contiguous states.[7] People from Japan began migrating to the US in significant numbers following the political, cultural, and social changes stemming from the Meiji Restoration in 1868. These early Issei immigrants came primarily from small towns and rural areas in the southern Japanese prefectures of Hiroshima, Yamaguchi, Kumamoto, and Fukuoka[8] and most of them settled in either Hawaii or along the West Coast. The Japanese population in the United States grew from 148 in 1880 (mostly students) to 2,039 in 1890 and 24,326 by 1900.[9]
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Japanese in the Philippines. Japanese in the Philippines, or Japanese Filipino, refers to one of the largest branches of Japanese diaspora having historical contact with and having established themselves in what is now the Philippines. This also refers to Filipino citizens of either pure or mixed Japanese descent residing in the country, the latter a result of intermarriages between the Japanese and local populations.[7] After the establishment of a single state within Japan, official trade records began between Japan and the Philippine islands in the Heian and Muromachi period (8th to 12th centuries CE). In the case of the proto-Okinawan chiefdoms, this was much earlier, and ties in with shared migration patterns of Okinawans and Austronesian areas like the Philippines stretching back to the Neolithic period. Notable settlements of the period include Bolinao and Agoo along Lingayen Gulf.[8][9] The Japanese were trading with Philippine kingdoms well before the Spanish period, mainly in pottery and gold.[citation needed] Historical records show that Japanese traders, especially those from Nagasaki, frequently visited the Philippine shores and bartered Japanese goods for such Filipino products as gold and pearls. In the course of time, shipwrecked Japanese sailors, pirate traders, and immigrants settled in the Philippines and intermarried with the early Filipinos. The Wokous who were East Asian pirates mostly consisting of Japanese, even made it into the Philippines before their extermination in the 1600s. Aparri in the Philippines, which is located in Northern Luzon, was established as pirate city-state under the patronage of the Wokou. The area around Aparri was the site of the 1582 Cagayan battles between Japanese pirates and Spanish soldiers.[10][11][12][13][14] When the Spaniards reached the island of Luzon in 1571, they found Japanese colonies and settlements in Manila and in some parts of the Cagayan Valley, the Cordillera region, Lingayen, Bataan, and Catanduanes Island. The relatively light complexion of the natives of Bontoc and Banaue is probably a result of the early contacts between the Japanese and other islanders from south of Japan and the natives of the Cordillera.[15] Precolonial Philippines had a rich pottery tradition as verified by the finds at Ayub Cave in South Cotabato and other parts of the archipelago. Japanese texts mention trading expeditions to the island of Rusun (Luzon) for the highly prized Martaban jars. Martaban jars (Japanese: 呂宋壺, Hepburn: Rusun tsubo), also known as Luzon jars, were dark-brown to purple-black tapayan from the island of Luzon that had originally been made in Southern China and had been exported to the Philippines. These were highly sought after by Japanese traders in the 16th century Nanban trade and remain as valuable antique heirlooms in modern Japan. They are primarily used for the Japanese tea ceremony (chanoyu). They were prized for their simplicity and rough, often uneven design, epitomizing the traditional Japanese aesthetics of wabi-sabi (perfection in imperfection).[16] The Tokiko calls the Rusun and Namban jars, Ru-sun tsukuru or Lu-sung chi (in Chinese), which simply means made in Luzon. These Rusun jars, which had rokuru (wheel mark), were said to be more precious than gold because of its ability to act as tea canisters and enhance the fermentation. In the 15th century AD, tea-jars were brought by the shōguns to Uji in Kyoto from the Philippines which was used in the Japanese tea ceremony.[17][18][19][20]
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