synth_record_id stringlengths 15 19 | outcome_type stringclasses 3
values | category stringclasses 39
values | type stringclasses 17
values | function_structure stringclasses 2
values | seed_url stringlengths 31 120 | seed_section_id int32 1 120 | seed_text stringlengths 13 28k |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
synth_fc_3678_rep20 | Positive | Video game | Database update | Multi | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mahjong | 8 | In popular culture
In the Korean drama series My Love from the Star, main character Do Min Joon (played by Kim Soo-Hyun) regularly plays Mah-jong. He is the best player in Seoul. In Wong Kar-Wai's film In the Mood for Love, which takes place in 1962 in Hong Kong, the families and owners who live in the boarding house play there for entire nights.
The manga and anime Saki revolves around a high school Mahjong club. Miyanaga Saki is forced to join the club as she hates Mahjong. Akagi also deals with Mah-jong. This is the story of a college student who quickly becomes a prodigy of the game, evolving within the Yakuza. Many other manga are dedicated to it, like Ten, which is a prequel to Akagi, Furiten-kun, The Legend of the Gambler: Tetsuya and The Legend of Koizumi.
In Thomas Harris's novel Red Dragon, a serial killer, who calls himself the "Red Dragon", carves the Mahjong symbol corresponding to his nickname on a tree (chap. 10), which is identified as such later (at the end of chap. 12). The two film adaptations of this novel also take up this key element of the screenplay.
Mahjong serves as a minor plot point in the 2016 film Arrival where General Shang uses the game to interact with the aliens.
In the video game series Like a Dragon, the player can take part in Mah-jong games in the form of mini-games. In Final Fantasy XIV, it is possible to play Doman Mahjong, a version strongly inspired by Mah-jong Riichi, at the Gold Saucer (a casino inspired by Final Fantasy VII). The player can choose to compete against the computer or play against other people. The MMORPG offers two game rules: with or without kuitan. The option with kuitan authorizes the formation of the yaku Tanyao after the announcement of chi, pon or kan.
In the 2008 American animated comedy film Kung Fu Panda it is revealed that Mr Ping, Po 's father, won his noodle shop in a Mahjong game. We can also see him play Mahjong at different points of the film, and Mahjong is subtly present throughout the whole franchise of film, TV series and games. |
synth_fc_11_rep21 | Positive | Acoustics | Calculation | Single | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dispersion_(optics) | 1 | In optics and in wave propagation in general, dispersion is the phenomenon in which the phase velocity of a wave depends on its frequency; sometimes the term chromatic dispersion is used for specificity to optics in particular.
A medium having this common property may be termed a dispersive medium. Although the term is used in the field of optics to describe light and other electromagnetic waves, dispersion in the same sense can apply to any sort of wave motion such as acoustic dispersion in the case of sound and seismic waves, and in gravity waves. Within optics, dispersion is a property of telecommunication signals along transmission lines or the pulses of light in optical fiber. In optics, one important and familiar consequence of dispersion is the change in the angle of refraction of different colors of light, as seen in the spectrum produced by a dispersive prism and in chromatic aberration of lenses. Design of compound achromatic lenses, in which chromatic aberration is largely cancelled, uses a quantification of a glass's dispersion given by its Abbe number V, where lower Abbe numbers correspond to greater dispersion over the visible spectrum. In some applications such as telecommunications, the absolute phase of a wave is often not important but only the propagation of wave packets or "pulses"; in that case one is interested only in variations of group velocity with frequency, so-called group-velocity dispersion. All common transmission media also vary in attenuation as a function of frequency, leading to attenuation distortion; this is not dispersion, although sometimes reflections at closely spaced impedance boundaries can produce signal distortion which further aggravates inconsistent transit time as observed across signal bandwidth. |
synth_fc_2247_rep21 | No function call | Law | Entity search | Single | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lawyer | 22 | Negotiating and drafting contracts
In some countries, the negotiating and drafting of contracts is considered to be similar to the provision of legal advice, so that it is subject to the licensing requirement explained above. In others, jurists or notaries may negotiate or draft contracts. |
synth_fc_386_rep10 | Positive | Carbon footprint | Calculation | Single | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Land | 26 | Life science
Land provides many ecosystem services, such as mitigating climate change, regulating water supply through drainage basins and river systems, and supporting food production. Land resources are finite, which has led to regulations intended to safeguard these ecosystem services, and a set of practices called sustainable land management. |
synth_fc_1180_rep1 | Positive | Finance | Feature search | Multi | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Henry_VIII | 20 | Second invasion of France and the "Rough Wooing" of Scotland
The 1539 alliance between Francis and Charles had soured, eventually degenerating into renewed war. With Catherine of Aragon and Anne Boleyn dead, relations between Charles and Henry improved considerably, and Henry concluded a secret alliance with the Emperor and decided to enter the Italian War in favour of his new ally. An invasion of France was planned for 1543. In preparation for it, Henry moved to eliminate the potential threat of Scotland under his young nephew, James V. The Scots were defeated at Battle of Solway Moss on 24 November 1542, and James died on 15 December. Henry now hoped to unite the crowns of England and Scotland by marrying his son Edward to James's successor, Mary. The Scottish regent Lord Arran agreed to the marriage in the Treaty of Greenwich on 1 July 1543, but it was rejected by the Parliament of Scotland on 11 December. The result was eight years of war between England and Scotland, a campaign later dubbed "the Rough Wooing ". Despite several peace treaties, unrest continued in Scotland until Henry's death.
Despite the early success with Scotland, Henry hesitated to invade France, annoying Charles. Henry finally went to France in June 1544 with a two-pronged attack. One force under Norfolk ineffectively besieged Montreuil. The other, under Suffolk, laid siege to Boulogne. Henry later took personal command, and Boulogne fell on 18 September 1544. However, Henry had refused Charles's request to march against Paris. Charles's own campaign fizzled, and he made peace with France that same day. Henry was left alone against France, unable to make peace. Francis attempted to invade England in the summer of 1545 but his forces reached only the Isle of Wight before being repulsed in the Battle of the Solent. Financially exhausted, France and England signed the Treaty of Camp on 7 June 1546. Henry secured Boulogne for eight years. The city was then to be returned to France for 2 million crowns (£750,000). Henry needed the money; the 1544 campaign had cost £650,000, and England was once again facing bankruptcy. |
synth_fc_3804_rep23 | Positive | Weather & Air quality | Feature search | Single | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ranchi | 9 | Geography
Ranchi lies at 23°22′N 85°20′E / 23.36°N 85.33°E near the Tropic of Cancer. The city covers an area of 175 km (68 sq mi) and its average elevation is 651 m above sea level. Ranchi is located in the southern part of the Chota Nagpur plateau, which is the eastern section of the Deccan plateau.
Ranchi has a hilly topography and its dense tropical forests a combination that produces a relatively moderate climate compared to the rest of the state. However, due to the uncontrolled deforestation and development of the city, the average temperature has increased. |
synth_fc_3834_rep30 | Positive | Weather & Air quality | Calculation | Single | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fog | 4 | Definition
The term fog is typically distinguished from the more generic term cloud in that fog is low-lying, and the moisture in the fog is often generated locally (such as from a nearby body of water, like a lake or the ocean, or from nearby moist ground or marshes).
By definition, fog reduces visibility to less than 1 km (0.62 mi), whereas mist causes lesser impairment of visibility.
For aviation purposes in the United Kingdom, a visibility of less than 5 km (3.1 mi) but greater than 999 m (3,278 ft) is considered to be mist if the relative humidity is 95% or greater; below 95%, haze is reported. |
synth_fc_1899_rep13 | Positive | History | Feature search | Single | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/El_Salvador | 4 | Culture
Pulling from indigenous, colonial Spanish and African influences, a composite population was formed as a result of intermarrying between the natives, European settlers, and enslaved Africans. The Catholic Church plays an important role in the Salvadoran culture. Archbishop Óscar Romero is a national hero for his role in resisting human rights violations that were occurring in the lead-up to the Salvadoran Civil War. Significant foreign personalities in El Salvador were the Jesuit priests and professors Ignacio Ellacuría, Ignacio Martín-Baró, and Segundo Montes, who were murdered in 1989 by the Salvadoran Army during the height of the civil war.
Painting, ceramics and textiles are the principal manual artistic mediums. Writers Francisco Gavidia, Salarrué (Salvador Salazar Arrué), Claudia Lars, Alfredo Espino, Pedro Geoffroy Rivas, Manlio Argueta, José Roberto Cea, and poet Roque Dalton are important writers from El Salvador. Notable 20th-century personages include the late filmmaker Baltasar Polio, female film director Patricia Chica, artist Fernando Llort, and caricaturist Toño Salazar.
Among the more renowned representatives of the graphic arts are the painters Studio Lenca, Augusto Crespin, Noe Canjura, Carlos Cañas, Giovanni Gil, Julia Díaz, Mauricio Mejia, Maria Elena Palomo de Mejia, Camilo Minero, Ricardo Carbonell, Roberto Huezo, Miguel Angel Cerna, (the painter and writer better known as MACLo), Esael Araujo, and many others. |
synth_fc_2685_rep9 | Positive | Music | Entity search | Multi | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Recorder_(musical_instrument) | 22 | Players
Carl Dolmetsch, the son of Arnold Dolmetsch, became one of the first virtuoso recorder players in the 1920s; but more importantly he began to commission recorder works from leading composers of his day, especially for performance at the Haslemere festival which his father ran. Initially as a result of this, and later as a result of the development of a Dutch school of recorder playing led by Kees Otten, the recorder was introduced to serious musicians as a virtuoso solo instrument both in Britain and in northern Europe.
Among the influential virtuosos who figure in the revival of the recorder as a serious concert instrument in the latter part of the twentieth century are Ferdinand Conrad, Kees Otten, Frans Brüggen, Roger Cotte, Hans-Martin Linde, Bernard Krainis, and David Munrow. Brüggen recorded most of the landmarks of the historical repertoire and commissioned a substantial number of new works for the recorder. Munrow's 1975 double album The Art of the Recorder remains as an important anthology of recorder music through the ages.
Among late twentieth-century and early 21st-century recorder ensembles, the trio Sour Cream (led by Frans Brüggen), Flautando Köln, the Flanders Recorder Quartet, Amsterdam Loeki Stardust Quartet and Quartet New Generation have programmed remarkable mixtures of historical and contemporary repertoire. Soloists such as Piers Adams, Dan Laurin and Dorothee Oberlinger, Michala Petri, Maurice Steger.
In the 2012 Charlotte Barbour-Condini became the first recorder player to reach the final of the biennial BBC Young Musician of the Year competition. Recorder player Sophie Westbrooke was a finalist in the 2014 competition. |
synth_fc_1233_rep24 | Positive | Finance | Database search | Single | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Illegal_drug_trade | 2 | Colombia's economy
Colombia has had a significant role in the illegal drug trade in Latin America. While active in the drug trade since the 1930s, Colombia's role in the drug trade did not truly become dominant until the 1970s. When Mexico eradicated marijuana plantations, demand stayed the same. Colombia met much of the demand by growing more marijuana. Grown in the strategic northeast region of Colombia, marijuana soon became the leading cash crop in Colombia. This success was short-lived due to anti-marijuana campaigns that were enforced by the US military throughout the Caribbean. Instead, drug traffickers in Colombia continued their focus on exporting cocaine.
Having been an export of Colombia since the early 1950s, cocaine remained popular for a host of reasons. Colombia's location facilitated its transportation from South America into Central America, and then to its destination of North America. This continued into the 1990s, when Colombia remained the chief exporter of cocaine. The business of drug trafficking can be seen in several stages in Colombia towards the latter half of the 20th century. Colombia served as the dominant force in the distribution and sale of cocaine by the 1980s. As drug producers gained more power, they became more centralized and organized into what became drug cartels.
Cartels controlled the major aspects of each stage in the traffic of their product. Their organization allowed cocaine to be distributed in great amounts throughout the United States. By the late 1980s, intra-industry strife arose within the cartels. This stage was marked by increased violence as different cartels fought for control of export markets. Despite this strife, this power struggle led to then having multiple producers of coca leaf farms. This in turn caused an improvement in quality control and reduction of police interdiction in the distribution of cocaine. This also led to cartels attempting to repatriate their earnings which would eventually make up 5.5% of Colombia's GDP. This drive to repatriate earnings led to the pressure of legitimizing their wealth, causing an increase in violence throughout Colombia.
Throughout the 1980s, estimates of illegal drug value in Colombia ranged from $2bn to $4bn. This made up about 7–10% of the $36bn estimated GNP of Colombia during this decade. In the 1990s, the estimates of the illegal drug value remained roughly within the same range (~$2.5bn). As the Colombian GNP rose throughout the 1990s ($68.5bn in 1994 and $96.3bn in 1997), illegal drug values began to comprise a decreasing fraction of the national economy. By the early 1990s, although Colombia led in the exportation of cocaine, it found increasing confrontations within its state. These confrontations were primarily between cartels and government institutions. This led to a decrease in the drug trade's contribution to the GDP of Colombia; dropping from 5.5% to 2.6%. Though a contributor of wealth, the distribution of cocaine has had negative effects on the socio-political situation of Colombia and has weakened its economy as well. |
synth_fc_3704_rep17 | Positive | Visual Art | Feature search | Single | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Equestrianism | 40 | Western riding
Western riding evolved from the cattle-working and warfare traditions brought to the Americas by the Spanish settlers, and both equipment and riding style evolved to meet the working needs of the cowboy on ranches in the American West.
The most noticeable feature of western style riding is the western saddle, which has a substantial saddle tree that provides support to horse and rider when working long hours in the saddle. The western saddle features a prominent pommel topped by a horn (a knob used for dallying a lariat after roping an animal), wide stirrups, and in some cases, both front and back cinches. The depth of the seat may depend on the activity, a deeper seat used for barrel racing or cutting cows or a more shallow seat for general ranch riding or Steer wrestling.
Finished western horses are asked to perform with a loose rein controlled by one hand. The headstall of a western bridle may utilize either a Snaffle bit or curb bit. Bitless headstalls are also seen, such as a bosal -style hackamore on younger horses, or various styles of mechanical hackamore. In Vaquero style training, a combination of a bosal and bit, called a "two-rein", is used at some stages of training. The standard western bridle lacks a noseband and usually consists of a single set of reins attached to a curb bit that has somewhat longer shanks than the curb of an English Weymouth bridle or a pelham bit. Western bridles have either a browband or else a "one ear" loop (sometimes two) that crosses in front of the horse's ear. Two styles of Western reins developed: The long split reins of the Texas tradition, which are completely separated, or the " Romal " reins of the California tradition, which are closed reins with a long single attachment (the romal) that can be used as a quirt. Modern rodeo competitors in timed events sometimes use a closed rein without a romal.
Western riders wear a long-sleeved shirt, long pants or jeans, cowboy boots, and a wide-brimmed cowboy hat. A rider may wear protective leather leggings called chaps. Riders may wear brighter colors or finer fabrics in competition than for work. In particular, horse show events such as Western pleasure may much flashier equipment. Saddles, bits and bridles are ornamented with substantial amounts of silver, rider clothing may have vivid colors and even rhinestones or sequins. |
synth_fc_1892_rep24 | Negative | History | Feature search | Single | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hua_Mulan | 15 | Name
The heroine of the poem is given different family names in different versions of her story. The Musical Records of Old and New states Mulan's given name is not known and therefore implies Mulan is her surname. As the Ballad of Mulan is set in the Northern Wei dynasty when northern China was ruled by ethnic Xianbei, a proto-Mongolic people, there is some evidence that Mulan was not ethnic Han Chinese but Xianbei, who had exclusively compound surnames. Mulan may have been the sinified version of the Xianbei word "umran" which means prosperous.
According to later books such as Female Mulan, her family name is Zhu (朱), while the Romance of Sui and Tang says it is Wei (魏). The family name Hua (花; Huā; ' flower '), which was introduced by Xu Wei, has become the most popular in recent years, in part because of its more poetic meaning and association with the given name "Mulan" (木蘭), which literally means " magnolia ". |
synth_fc_1304_rep18 | No function call | Finance | Calculation | Single | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Broadway_theatre | 10 | Runs
Most Broadway shows are commercial productions intended to make a profit for the producers and investors ("backers" or "angels"), and therefore have open-ended runs (duration that the production plays), meaning that the length of their presentation is not set beforehand, but depends on critical response, word of mouth, and the effectiveness of the show's advertising, all of which determine ticket sales. Investing in a commercial production carries a varied degree of financial risk. Shows need not make a profit immediately; should they make their "nut" (weekly operating expenses), or lose money at a rate acceptable to the producers, they may continue to run in the expectation that, eventually, they will pay back their initial costs and become profitable. In some borderline situations, producers may ask that royalties be temporarily reduced or waived, or even that performers—with the permission of their unions—take reduced salaries, to prevent a show from closing. Theatre owners, who are not generally profit participants in most productions, may waive or reduce rents, or even lend money to a show to keep it running.
Some Broadway shows are produced by non-commercial organizations as part of a regular subscription season— Lincoln Center Theatre, Roundabout Theatre Company, Manhattan Theatre Club, and Second Stage Theater are the four non-profit theatre companies that currently have permanent Broadway venues. Some other productions are produced on Broadway with "limited engagement runs" for several reasons, including financial issues, prior engagements of the performers, or temporary availability of a theatre between the end of one production and the beginning of another. However, some shows with planned limited engagement runs may, after critical acclaim or box office success, extend their engagements or convert to open-ended runs. This was the case with 2007's August: Osage County, 2009's God of Carnage, 2012's Newsies, and 2022's Take Me Out.
Historically, musicals on Broadway tend to have longer runs than "straight" (i.e., non-musical) plays. On January 9, 2006, The Phantom of the Opera at the Majestic Theatre became the longest-running Broadway musical, with 7,486 performances, overtaking Cats. The Phantom of the Opera closed on Broadway on April 16, 2023, soon after celebrating its 35th anniversary, after a total of 13,981 performances. |
synth_fc_2406_rep28 | Positive | Movie | Generation | Single | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Arthur_C._Clarke | 21 | 2010: Odyssey Two
In 1982, Clarke continued the 2001 epic with a sequel, 2010: Odyssey Two. This novel was also made into a film, 2010, directed by Peter Hyams for release in 1984. Because of the political environment in America in the 1980s, the film presents a Cold War theme, with the looming tensions of nuclear warfare not featured in the novel. The film was not considered to be as revolutionary or artistic as 2001, but the reviews were still positive.
Clarke's email correspondence with Hyams was published in 1984. Titled The Odyssey File: The Making of 2010, and co-authored with Hyams, it illustrates his fascination with the then-pioneering medium of email and its use for them to communicate on an almost daily basis at the time of planning and production of the film while living on opposite sides of the world. The book also included Clarke's personal list of the best science fiction films ever made.
Clarke appeared in the film, first as the man feeding the pigeons while Dr. Heywood Floyd is engaged in a conversation in front of the White House. Later, in the hospital scene with David Bowman 's mother, an image of the cover of Time portrays Clarke as the American President and Kubrick as the Soviet Premier. |
synth_fc_2883_rep1 | Negative | Restaurant | Entity search | Single | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Indian_cuisine | 32 | Fiji
Indo-Fijians have a similar cuisine, often with Fijian influence. |
synth_fc_816_rep9 | Positive | Finance | Calculation | Single | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Trust_(law) | 39 | Significance
The trust is widely considered to be the most innovative contribution of the English legal system. Today, trusts play a significant role in most common law systems, and their success has led some civil law jurisdictions to incorporate trusts into their civil codes. In Curaçao, for example, the trust was enacted into law on 1 January 2012; however, the Curaçao Civil Code only allows express trusts constituted by notarial instrument. France has recently added a similar, Roman-law-based device to its own law with the fiducie, amended in 2009; the fiducie, unlike a trust, is a contractual relationship. Trusts are widely used internationally, especially in countries within the English law sphere of influence, and whilst most civil law jurisdictions do not generally contain the concept of a trust within their legal systems, they do recognise the concept under the Hague Convention on the Law Applicable to Trusts and on their Recognition (partly only the extent that they are parties thereto). The Hague Convention also regulates conflict of trusts.
Although trusts are often associated with intrafamily wealth transfers, they have become very important in American capital markets, particularly through pension funds (in certain countries essentially always trusts) and mutual funds (often trusts). |
synth_fc_3875_rep8 | Negative | Writing, Editing & Translation | Generation | Single | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Robert_A._Heinlein | 32 | 1959–1960
Heinlein decisively ended his juvenile novels with Starship Troopers (1959), a controversial work and his personal riposte to leftists calling for President Dwight D. Eisenhower to stop nuclear testing in 1958. "The 'Patrick Henry' ad shocked 'em", he wrote many years later of the campaign. " Starship Troopers outraged 'em." Starship Troopers is a coming-of-age story about duty, citizenship, and the role of the military in society. The book portrays a society in which suffrage is earned by demonstrated willingness to place society's interests before one's own, at least for a short time and often under onerous circumstances, in government service; in the case of the protagonist, this was military service.
Later, in Expanded Universe, Heinlein said that it was his intention in the novel that service could include positions outside strictly military functions such as teachers, police officers, and other government positions. This is presented in the novel as an outgrowth of the failure of unearned suffrage government and as a very successful arrangement. In addition, the franchise was only awarded after leaving the assigned service; thus those serving their terms—in the military, or any other service—were excluded from exercising any franchise. Career military were completely disenfranchised until retirement. |
synth_fc_3398_rep1 | Negative | Store & Facility | Recommendation | Single | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rajasthan | 23 | Tourism
Rajasthan attracted a total of 45.9 million domestic and 1.6 million foreign tourists in 2017, which is the tenth highest in terms of domestic visitors and fifth highest in foreign tourists. The tourism industry in Rajasthan is growing effectively each year and is becoming one of the major income sources for the state government. Rajasthan is home to many attractions for domestic and foreign travellers, including the forts and palaces of Jaipur, the lakes of Udaipur, the temples of Rajsamand and Pali, sand dunes of Jaisalmer and Bikaner, Havelis of Mandawa and Fatehpur, the wildlife of Sawai Madhopur, the scenery of Mount Abu, the tribes of Dungarpur and Banswara, and the cattle fair of Pushkar.
Rajasthan is known for its customs, culture, colours, majestic forts, and palaces, folk dances and music, local festivals, local food, sand dunes, carved temples and Havelis. Rajasthan's Jaipur Jantar Mantar, Mehrangarh Fort and Stepwell of Jodhpur, Dilwara Temples, Chittor Fort, Lake Palace, miniature paintings in Bundi, and numerous city palaces and Havelis are part of the architectural heritage of India. Jaipur, the Pink City, is noted for the ancient houses made of a type of sandstone dominated by a pink hue. In Jodhpur, most houses are painted blue. At Ajmer, there is white marble Bara-dari on the Anasagar lake and Soniji Ki Nasiyan. Jain Temples dot Rajasthan from north to south and east to west. Dilwara Temples of Mount Abu, Shrinathji Temple of Nathdwara, Ranakpur Jain temple dedicated to Lord Adinath in Pali District, Jain temples in the fort complexes of Chittor, Jaisalmer and Kumbhalgarh, Lodurva Jain temples, Mirpur Jain Temple of Sirohi, Sarun Mata Temple at Kotputli, Bhandasar and Karni Mata Temple of Bikaner and Mandore of Jodhpur are some of the best examples. Keoladeo National Park, Ranthambore National Park, Sariska Tiger Reserve, Tal Chhapar Sanctuary, are wildlife attractions of Rajasthan. Mewar festival of Udaipur, Teej festival and Gangaur festival in Jaipur, Desert festival of Jodhpur, Brij Holi of Bharatpur, Matsya festival of Alwar, Kite festival of Jodhpur, Kolayat fair in Bikaner are some of the most popular fairs and festivals of Rajasthan. |
synth_fc_1984_rep23 | Positive | History | Calculation | Single | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Factory | 4 | History
Max Weber considered production during ancient and medieval times as never warranting classification as factories, with methods of production and the contemporary economic situation incomparable to modern or even pre-modern developments of industry. In ancient times, the earliest production limited to the household, developed into a separate endeavor independent to the place of inhabitation with production at that time only beginning to be characteristic of industry, termed as "unfree shop industry", a situation caused especially under the reign of the Egyptian pharaoh, with slave employment and no differentiation of skills within the slave group comparable to modern definitions as division of labour.
According to translations of Demosthenes and Herodotus, Naucratis was a, or the only, factory in the entirety of ancient Egypt. A source of 1983 (Hopkins), states the largest factory production in ancient times was of 120 slaves within fourth century BC Athens. An article within the New York Times article dated 13 October 2011 states:
"In African Cave, Signs of an Ancient Paint Factory" – (John Noble Wilford)
... discovered at Blombos Cave, a cave on the south coast of South Africa where 100,000-year-old tools and ingredients were found with which early modern humans mixed an ochre -based paint.
Although The Cambridge Online Dictionary definition of factory states:
a building or set of buildings where large amounts of goods are made using machines
elsewhere:
... the utilization of machines presupposes social cooperation and the division of labour
The first machine is stated by one source to have been traps used to assist with the capturing of animals, corresponding to the machine as a mechanism operating independently or with very little force by interaction from a human, with a capacity for use repeatedly with operation exactly the same on every occasion of functioning. The wheel was invented c. 3000 BC, the spoked wheel c. 2000 BC. The Iron Age began approximately 1200–1000 BC. However, other sources define machinery as a means of production.
Archaeology provides a date for the earliest city as 5000 BC as Tell Brak (Ur et al. 2006), therefore a date for cooperation and factors of demand, by an increased community size and population to make something like factory level production a conceivable necessity.
Archaeologist Bonnet, unearthed the foundations of numerous workshops in the city of Kerma proving that as early as 2000 BC Kerma was a large urban capital.
The watermill was first made in the Persian Empire some time before 350 BC. In the third century BC, Philo of Byzantium describes a water-driven wheel in his technical treatises. Factories producing garum were common in the Roman Empire. The Barbegal aqueduct and mills are an industrial complex from the second century AD found in southern France. By the time of the fourth century AD, there was a water-milling installation with a capacity to grind 28 tons of grain per day, a rate sufficient to meet the needs of 80,000 persons, in the Roman Empire.
The large population increase in medieval Islamic cities, such as Baghdad 's 1.5 million population, led to the development of large-scale factory milling installations with higher productivity to feed and support the large growing population. A tenth-century grain-processing factory in the Egyptian town of Bilbays, for example, milled an estimated 300 tons of grain and flour per day. Both watermills and windmills were widely used in the Islamic world at the time.
The Venice Arsenal also provides one of the first examples of a factory in the modern sense of the word. Founded in 1104 in Venice, Republic of Venice, several hundred years before the Industrial Revolution, it mass-produced ships on assembly lines using manufactured parts. The Venice Arsenal apparently produced nearly one ship every day and, at its height, employed 16,000 people. |
synth_fc_2776_rep14 | Positive | Physics & Chemistry | Calculation | Single | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Electromagnet | 1 | An electromagnet is a type of magnet in which the magnetic field is produced by an electric current. Electromagnets usually consist of wire wound into a coil. A current through the wire creates a magnetic field which is concentrated in the hole in the center of the coil. The magnetic field disappears when the current is turned off. The wire turns are often wound around a magnetic core made from a ferromagnetic or ferrimagnetic material such as iron; the magnetic core concentrates the magnetic flux and makes a more powerful magnet.
The main advantage of an electromagnet over a permanent magnet is that the magnetic field can be quickly changed by controlling the amount of electric current in the winding. However, unlike a permanent magnet that needs no power, an electromagnet requires a continuous supply of current to maintain the magnetic field.
Electromagnets are widely used as components of other electrical devices, such as motors, generators, electromechanical solenoids, relays, loudspeakers, hard disks, MRI machines, scientific instruments, and magnetic separation equipment. Electromagnets are also employed in industry for picking up and moving heavy iron objects such as scrap iron and steel. |
synth_fc_1591_rep8 | Positive | Geography | Calculation | Single | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Marc_Chagall | 20 | Early life
Marc Chagall was born Moishe Shagal in 1887, into a Jewish family in Liozna, near the city of Vitebsk, Belarus, then part of the Russian Empire. At the time of his birth, Vitebsk's population was about 66,000. Half of the population was Jewish. A picturesque city of churches and synagogues, it was called "Russian Toledo " by artist Ilya Repin, after the cosmopolitan city of the former Spanish Empire. Because the city was built mostly of wood, little of it survived years of occupation and destruction during World War II.
Chagall was the eldest of nine children. The family name, Shagal, is a variant of the name Segal, which in a Jewish community was usually borne by a Levitic family. His father, Khatskl (Zachar) Shagal, was employed by a herring merchant, and his mother, Feige-Ite, sold groceries from their home. His father worked hard, carrying heavy barrels, earning 20 roubles each month (the average wages across the Russian Empire was 13 roubles a month). Chagall wrote of those early years:
Day after day, winter and summer, at six o'clock in the morning, my father got up and went off to the synagogue. There he said his usual prayer for some dead man or other. On his return he made ready the samovar, drank some tea and went to work. Hellish work, the work of a galley-slave. Why try to hide it? How tell about it? No word will ever ease my father's lot... There was always plenty of butter and cheese on our table. Buttered bread, like an eternal symbol, was never out of my childish hands.
One of the main sources of income for the Jewish population of the town was from the manufacture of clothing that was sold throughout the Russian Empire. They also made furniture and various agricultural tools. From the late 18th century to the First World War, the Imperial Russian government confined Jews to living within the Pale of Settlement, which included modern Ukraine, Belarus, Poland, Lithuania, and Latvia, almost exactly corresponding to the territory of the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth which was taken over by Imperial Russia in the late 18th century. That led to the creation of Jewish market-villages (shtetls) throughout today's Eastern Europe, with their own markets, schools, hospitals, and other community institutions.
Chagall wrote as a boy; "I felt at every step that I was a Jew—people made me feel it". During a pogrom, Chagall wrote that: "The street lamps are out. I feel panicky, especially in front of butchers' windows. There you can see calves that are still alive lying beside the butchers' hatchets and knives". When asked by some pogromniks "Jew or not?", Chagall remembered thinking: "My pockets are empty, my fingers sensitive, my legs weak and they are out for blood. My death would be futile. I so wanted to live". Chagall denied being a Jew, leading the pogromniks to shout "All right! Get along!"
Most of what is known about Chagall's early life has come from his autobiography, My Life. In it, he described the major influence that the culture of Hasidic Judaism had on his life as an artist. Chagall related how he realised that the Jewish traditions in which he had grown up were fast disappearing and that he needed to document them. From the 1730s, Vitebsk itself had been a centre of that culture, with its teachings derived from the Kabbalah. Chagall scholar, Susan Tumarkin Goodman, describes the links and sources of his art to his early home:
Chagall's art can be understood as the response to a situation that has long marked the history of Russian Jews. Though they were cultural innovators who made important contributions to the broader society, Jews were considered outsiders in a frequently hostile society... Chagall himself was born of a family steeped in religious life; his parents were observant Hasidic Jews who found spiritual satisfaction in a life defined by their faith and organized by prayer. |
synth_fc_2672_rep25 | Positive | Music | Order | Multi | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jive_(dance) | 1 | The jive is a dance style that originated in the United States from African Americans in the early 1930s. The name of the dance comes from the name of a form of African-American vernacular slang, popularized in the 1930s by the publication of a dictionary by Cab Calloway, the famous jazz bandleader and singer. In competition ballroom dancing, the jive is often grouped with the Latin-inspired ballroom dances, though its roots are based on swing dancing and not Latin dancing. |
synth_fc_1981_rep6 | Negative | History | Entity search | Single | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jos%C3%A9_Napole%C3%B3n_Duarte | 1 | José Napoleón Duarte Fuentes was a Salvadoran politician who served as President of El Salvador from 1 June 1984 to 1 June 1989. He was mayor of San Salvador before running for president in 1972. He lost, but the election is widely viewed as fraudulent. Following a coup d'état in 1979, Duarte led the subsequent civil-military Junta from 1980 to 1982. He was then elected president in 1984, defeating ARENA party leader Roberto D'Aubuisson. Supported by the Reagan Administration and the Central Intelligence Agency, his time in office occurred during the worst years of the Salvadoran Civil War which saw numerous abuses and massacres of the civilian population by the Salvadoran security forces and the death squads linked to them. |
synth_fc_1613_rep9 | Positive | Geography | Database search | Single | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hyderabad | 5 | Pollution control
Hyderabad produces around 4,500 tonnes of solid waste daily, which is transported from collection units in Imlibun, Yousufguda and Lower Tank Bund to the dumpsite in Jawaharnagar. Disposal is managed by the Integrated Solid Waste Management project which was started by the GHMC in 2010. Rapid urbanisation and increased economic activity has led to increased industrial waste, air, noise and water pollution, which is regulated by the Telangana Pollution Control Board (TPCB). The contribution of different sources to air pollution in 2006 was: 20–50% from vehicles, 40–70% from a combination of vehicle discharge and road dust, 10–30% from industrial discharges and 3–10% from the burning of household rubbish. Deaths resulting from atmospheric particulate matter are estimated at 1,700–3,000 each year. The city's "VIP areas", the Assembly building, Secretariat, and Telangana chief minister's office, have particularly low air quality index ratings, suffering from high levels of PM2.5 's. Ground water around Hyderabad, which has a hardness of up to 1000 ppm, around three times higher than is desirable, is the main source of drinking water but the increasing population and consequent increase in demand has led to a decline in not only ground water but also river and lake levels. This shortage is further exacerbated by inadequately treated effluent discharged from industrial treatment plants polluting the water sources of the city. |
synth_fc_3434_rep24 | Positive | Time | Calculation | Multi | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Solstice | 8 | Definitions and frames of reference
For an observer at the North Pole, the Sun reaches the highest position in the sky once a year in June. The day this occurs is called the June solstice day. Similarly, for an observer on the South Pole, the Sun reaches the highest position on the December solstice day. When it is the summer solstice at one Pole, it is the winter solstice on the other. The Sun's westerly motion never ceases as Earth is continually in rotation. However, the Sun's motion in declination (i.e. vertically) comes to a stop, before reversing, at the moment of solstice. In that sense, solstice means "sun-standing".
This modern scientific word descends from a Latin scientific word in use in the late Roman Republic of the 1st century BC: solstitium. Pliny uses it a number of times in his Natural History with a similar meaning that it has today. It contains two Latin-language morphemes, sol, "sun", and -stitium, "stoppage". The Romans used "standing" to refer to a component of the relative velocity of the Sun as it is observed in the sky. Relative velocity is the motion of an object from the point of view of an observer in a frame of reference. From a fixed position on the ground, the Sun appears to orbit around Earth.
To an observer in an inertial frame of reference, planet Earth is seen to rotate about an axis and orbit around the Sun in an elliptical path with the Sun at one focus. Earth's axis is tilted with respect to the plane of Earth's orbit and this axis maintains a position that changes little with respect to the background of stars. An observer on Earth therefore sees a solar path that is the result of both rotation and revolution.
The component of the Sun's motion seen by an earthbound observer caused by the revolution of the tilted axis – which, keeping the same angle in space, is oriented toward or away from the Sun – is an observed daily increment (and lateral offset) of the elevation of the Sun at noon for approximately six months and observed daily decrement for the remaining six months. At maximum or minimum elevation, the relative yearly motion of the Sun perpendicular to the horizon stops and reverses direction.
Outside of the tropics, the maximum elevation occurs at the summer solstice and the minimum at the winter solstice. The path of the Sun, or ecliptic, sweeps north and south between the northern and southern hemispheres. The lengths time when the sun is up are longer around the summer solstice and shorter around the winter solstice, except near the equator. When the Sun's path crosses the equator, the length of the nights at latitudes +L° and −L° are of equal length. This is known as an equinox. There are two solstices and two equinoxes in a tropical year.
Because of the variation in the rate at which the sun's right ascension changes, the days of longest and shortest daylight do not coincide with the solstices for locations very close to the equator. At the equator, the longest day is around December 23 and the shortest around September 16 (see graph). Inside the Arctic or Antarctic Circles the sun is up all the time for days or even months. |
synth_fc_688_rep23 | Positive | Currency | API setting | Single | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Piracy | 15 | Rewards
Pirates had a system of hierarchy on board their ships determining how captured money was distributed. However, pirates were more egalitarian than any other area of employment at the time. In fact, pirate quartermasters were a counterbalance to the captain and had the power to veto his orders. The majority of plunder was in the form of cargo and ship's equipment, with medicines the most highly prized. A vessel's doctor's chest would be worth anywhere from £300 to £400, or around $470,000 in today's values. Jewels were common plunder but not popular, as they were hard to sell, and pirates, unlike the public of today, had little concept of their value. There is one case recorded where a pirate was given a large diamond worth a great deal more than the value of the handful of small diamonds given to his crewmates as a share. He felt cheated and had it broken up to match what they received.
Spanish pieces of eight minted in Mexico or Seville were the standard trade currency in the American colonies. However, every colony still used the monetary units of pounds, shillings, and pence for bookkeeping while Spanish, German, French, and Portuguese money were all standard mediums of exchange as British law prohibited the export of British silver coinage. Until the exchange rates were standardised in the late 18th century each colony legislated its own different exchange rates. In England, 1 piece of eight was worth 4s 3d while it was worth 8s in New York, 7s 6d in Pennsylvania and 6s 8d in Virginia. One 18th-century English shilling was worth around $58 in modern currency, so a piece of eight could be worth anywhere from $246 to $465. As such, the value of pirate plunder could vary considerably, depending on who recorded it and where.
Ordinary seamen received a part of the plunder at the captain's discretion but usually a single share. On average, a pirate could expect the equivalent of a year's wages as his share from each ship captured while the crew of the most successful pirates would often each receive a share valued at around £1,000 ($1.17 million) at least once in their career. One of the larger amounts taken from a single ship was that by captain Thomas Tew from an Indian merchantman in 1692. Each ordinary seaman on his ship received a share worth £3,000 ($3.5 million), with officers receiving proportionally larger amounts as per the agreed shares, with Tew himself receiving 2½ shares. It is known there were actions with multiple ships captured where a single share was worth almost double this.
By contrast, an ordinary seamen in the Royal Navy received 19s per month to be paid in a lump sum at the end of a tour of duty, which was around half the rate paid in the Merchant Navy. However, corrupt officers would often "tax" their crews' wage to supplement their own, and the Royal Navy of the day was infamous for its reluctance to pay. From this wage, 6d per month was deducted for the maintenance of Greenwich Hospital, with similar amounts deducted for the Chatham Chest, the chaplain and surgeon. Six months' pay was withheld to discourage desertion. That this was insufficient incentive is revealed in a report on proposed changes to the RN Admiral Nelson wrote in 1803; he noted that since 1793 more than 42,000 sailors had deserted. Roughly half of all RN crews were pressganged and these not only received lower wages than volunteers but were shackled while the vessel was docked and were never permitted to go ashore until released from service.
Although the Royal Navy suffered from many morale issues, it answered the question of prize money via the 'Cruizers and Convoys' Act of 1708 which handed over the share previously gained by the Crown to the captors of the ship. Technically it was still possible for the Crown to get the money or a portion of it but this rarely happened. The process of condemnation of a captured vessel and its cargo and men was given to the High Court of the Admiralty and this was the process which remained in force with minor changes throughout the Revolutionary and Napoleonic Wars.
Even the flag officer's share was not quite straightforward; he would only get the full one-eighth if he had no junior flag officer beneath him. If this was the case then he would get a third share. If he had more than one then he would take one-half while the rest was shared out equally.
There was a great deal of money to be made in this way. The record breaker was the capture of the Spanish frigate Hermione, which was carrying treasure in 1762. The value of this was so great that each individual seaman netted £485 ($1.4 million in 2008 dollars). The two captains responsible, Evans and Pownall, received £65,000 each ($188.4 million). In January 1807 the frigate Caroline took the Spanish San Rafael, which brought in £52,000 for her captain, Peter Rainier (who had been only a midshipman some thirteen months before). All through the wars there are examples of this kind of luck falling on captains. Another famous 'capture' was that of the Spanish frigates Thetis and Santa Brigada, which were loaded with gold specie. They were taken by four British frigates who shared the money, each captain receiving £40,730. Each lieutenant got £5,091, the Warrant Officer group, £2,468, the midshipmen £791 and the individual seamen £182.
It should also be noted that it was usually only the frigates which took prizes; the ships of the line were far too ponderous to be able to chase and capture the smaller ships which generally carried treasure. Nelson always bemoaned that he had done badly out of prize money and even as a flag officer received little. This was not that he had a bad command of captains but rather that British mastery of the seas was so complete that few enemy ships dared to sail. |
synth_fc_1601_rep1 | Positive | Geography | Feature search | Multi | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jeddah | 36 | Kingdom of Saudi Arabia
A few months later, Ibn Saud, whose clan originated in the central Nejd province, conquered Medina and Jeddah via an agreement with Jeddans following the Second Battle of Jeddah. He deposed Ali bin Hussein, who fled to Baghdad, eventually settling in Amman, Jordan, where his descendants became part of its Hashemite royalty.
As a result, Jeddah came under the sway of the Al-Saud dynasty in December 1925. In 1926, Ibn Saud added the title King of Hejaz to his position of Sultan of Nejd. Today, Jeddah has lost its historical role in peninsular politics after it fell within the new province of Makkah, whose provincial capital is the city of Mecca.
From 1928 to 1932, the new Khuzam Palace was built as the new residence of King Abdul Aziz in Jeddah. The palace lies south of the old walled city and was constructed under the supervision of the engineer Mohammed bin Awad bin Laden. After 1963, the palace was used as a royal guest house; since 1995, it has housed the Regional Museum of Archaeology and Ethnography.
The remaining walls and gates of the old city were demolished in 1947. A fire in 1982 destroyed some ancient buildings in the old town center, called Al-Balad, but much is still preserved. A house-by-house survey of the old districts was made in 1979, showing that some 1000 traditional buildings still existed, though the number of structures with great historic value was far less. In 1990, a Jeddah Historical Area Preservation Department was founded.
The modern city has expanded wildly beyond its old boundaries. The built-up area expanded mainly to the north along the Red Sea coastline, reaching the new airport during the 1990s and since edging its way around it toward the Ob'hur Creek, some 27 km (17 mi) from the old city center.
In October 2021, Saudi authorities, led by Mohammad bin Salman, initiated a large-scale demolition and eviction plan in neighborhoods in the southern part of Jeddah to make way for the Jeddah Central Project, a revitalization project under Saudi Vision 2030. The demolitions affected 558,000 people in more than 60 neighborhoods. Amnesty International confirmed through official documents that some of the residents were notified about evictions only 24 hours before, while others were between 1–6 weeks. In some cases "evacuate" was written on the buildings, while the state media and billboards informed others about the demolitions to others. Saudi state media claimed the majority of affected neighborhoods were "rife with diseases, crime, drugs and theft" and home to predominantly undocumented immigrants. In January 2022, Saudi authorities announced a compensation scheme that accounted for 47% of those evicted. |
synth_fc_2555_rep6 | Positive | Museum | Entity search | Single | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wolfgang_Amadeus_Mozart | 17 | Instruments
Although some of Mozart's early pieces were written for harpsichord, he also became acquainted in his early years with fortepianos made by Regensburg builder Franz Jakob Späth. Later when Mozart was visiting Augsburg, he was impressed by Stein fortepianos and shared this in a letter to his father. On 22 October 1777, Mozart had premiered his triple-piano concerto, K. 242, on instruments provided by Stein. The Augsburg Cathedral organist Demmler was playing the first, Mozart the second and Stein the third part. In 1783 when living in Vienna he purchased an instrument by Walter. Leopold Mozart confirmed the attachment which Mozart had with his Walter fortepiano: "It is impossible to describe the hustle and bustle. Your brother's pianoforte has been moved at least twelve times from his house to the theatre or to someone else's house." |
synth_fc_2058_rep27 | Positive | Hotel | Order | Single | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lavandula | 19 | Taxonomic table
This is based on the classification of Upson and Andrews, 2004. |
synth_fc_785_rep10 | Positive | Evolution modeling | Calculation | Single | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bird | 37 | Early evolution
Over 40% of key traits found in modern birds evolved during the 60 million year transition from the earliest bird-line archosaurs to the first maniraptoromorphs, i.e. the first dinosaurs closer to living birds than to Tyrannosaurus rex. The loss of osteoderms otherwise common in archosaurs and acquisition of primitive feathers might have occurred early during this phase. After the appearance of Maniraptoromorpha, the next 40 million years marked a continuous reduction of body size and the accumulation of neotenic (juvenile-like) characteristics. Hypercarnivory became increasingly less common while braincases enlarged and forelimbs became longer. The integument evolved into complex, pennaceous feathers.
The oldest known paravian (and probably the earliest avialan) fossils come from the Tiaojishan Formation of China, which has been dated to the late Jurassic period (Oxfordian stage), about 160 million years ago. The avialan species from this time period include Anchiornis huxleyi, Xiaotingia zhengi, and Aurornis xui.
The well-known probable early avialan, Archaeopteryx, dates from slightly later Jurassic rocks (about 155 million years old) from Germany. Many of these early avialans shared unusual anatomical features that may be ancestral to modern birds but were later lost during bird evolution. These features include enlarged claws on the second toe which may have been held clear of the ground in life, and long feathers or "hind wings" covering the hind limbs and feet, which may have been used in aerial maneuvering.
Avialans diversified into a wide variety of forms during the Cretaceous period. Many groups retained primitive characteristics, such as clawed wings and teeth, though the latter were lost independently in a number of avialan groups, including modern birds (Aves). Increasingly stiff tails (especially the outermost half) can be seen in the evolution of maniraptoromorphs, and this process culminated in the appearance of the pygostyle, an ossification of fused tail vertebrae. In the late Cretaceous, about 100 million years ago, the ancestors of all modern birds evolved a more open pelvis, allowing them to lay larger eggs compared to body size. Around 95 million years ago, they evolved a better sense of smell.
A third stage of bird evolution starting with Ornithothoraces (the "bird-chested" avialans) can be associated with the refining of aerodynamics and flight capabilities, and the loss or co-ossification of several skeletal features. Particularly significant are the development of an enlarged, keeled sternum and the alula, and the loss of grasping hands. |
synth_fc_3733_rep10 | Positive | Weather & Air quality | Feature search | Multi | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Red_Sea | 18 | Salinity
The Red Sea is one of the saltiest bodies of water in the world, owing to high evaporation and low precipitation; no significant rivers or streams drain into the sea, and its southern connection to the Gulf of Aden, an arm of the Indian Ocean, is narrow. Its salinity ranges from between ~36 ‰ in the southern part and 41 ‰ in the northern part around the Gulf of Suez, with an average of 40 ‰. (Average salinity for the world's seawater is ~35 ‰ on the Practical Salinity Scale, or PSU; that translates to 3.5% of actual dissolved salts). |
synth_fc_1752_rep3 | Positive | Health | Calculation | Multi | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Medical_ultrasound | 50 | Musculoskeletal
Musculoskeletal ultrasound is used to examine tendons, muscles, nerves, ligaments, soft tissue masses, and bone surfaces. It is helpful in diagnosing ligament sprains, muscles strains and joint pathology. It is an alternative or supplement to x-ray imaging in detecting fractures of the wrist, elbow and shoulder for patients up to 12 years (Fracture sonography).
Quantitative ultrasound is an adjunct musculoskeletal test for myopathic disease in children; estimates of lean body mass in adults; proxy measures of muscle quality (i.e., tissue composition) in older adults with sarcopenia
Ultrasound can also be used for needle guidance in muscle or joint injections, as in ultrasound-guided hip joint injection. |
synth_fc_167_rep3 | No function call | Biology | Calculation | Single | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Astronomical_object | 1 | An astronomical object, celestial object, stellar object or heavenly body is a naturally occurring physical entity, association, or structure that exists within the observable universe. In astronomy, the terms object and body are often used interchangeably. However, an astronomical body or celestial body is a single, tightly bound, contiguous entity, while an astronomical or celestial object is a complex, less cohesively bound structure, which may consist of multiple bodies or even other objects with substructures.
Examples of astronomical objects include planetary systems, star clusters, nebulae, and galaxies, while asteroids, moons, planets, meteoroids, and stars are astronomical bodies. A comet may be identified as both a body and an object: It is a body when referring to the frozen nucleus of ice and dust, and an object when describing the entire comet with its diffuse coma and tail. |
synth_fc_608_rep20 | Positive | Corporate Management | Database update | Multi | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rights | 10 | Individual versus group
There can be tension between individual and group rights. A classic instance in which group and individual rights clash is conflicts between unions and their members. For example, individual members of a union may wish a wage higher than the union-negotiated wage, but are prevented from making further requests; in a so-called closed shop which has a union security agreement, only the union has a right to decide matters for the individual union members such as wage rates. So, do the supposed "individual rights" of the workers prevail about the proper wage? Or do the "group rights" of the union regarding the proper wage prevail?
The Austrian School of Economics holds that only individuals think, feel, and act whether or not members of any abstract group. The society should thus according to economists of the school be analyzed starting from the individual. This methodology is called methodological individualism and is used by the economists to justify individual rights. Similarly, the author Ayn Rand argued that only individuals have rights, according to her philosophy known as Objectivism. However, others have argued that there are situations in which a group of persons is thought to have rights, or group rights. |
synth_fc_159_rep18 | Negative | Biology | Entity search | Single | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rye | 10 | Origins
The rye genus Secale is in the grass tribe Triticeae, which contains other cereals such as barley (Hordeum) and wheat (Triticum).
The generic name Secale, related to Italian segale and French seigle meaning "rye", is of unknown origin but may derive from a Balkan language. The English name rye derives from Old English ryge, related to Dutch rogge, German Roggen, and Russian рожь rožʹ, again all with the same meaning.
Rye is one of several cereals that grow wild in the Levant, central and eastern Turkey and adjacent areas. Evidence uncovered at the Epipalaeolithic site of Tell Abu Hureyra in the Euphrates valley of northern Syria suggests that rye was among the first cereal crops to be systematically cultivated, around 13,000 years ago. However, that claim remains controversial; critics point to inconsistencies in the radiocarbon dates, and identifications based solely on grain, rather than on chaff.
Domesticated rye occurs in small quantities at a number of Neolithic sites in Asia Minor (Anatolia, now Turkey), such as the Pre-Pottery Neolithic B Can Hasan III near Çatalhöyük, but is otherwise absent from the archaeological record until the Bronze Age of central Europe, c. 1800–1500 BCE.
It is likely that rye was brought westwards from Asia Minor as a secondary crop, meaning that it was a minor admixture in wheat as a result of Vavilovian mimicry, and was only later cultivated in its own right. Archeological evidence of this grain has been found in Roman contexts along the Rhine and the Danube and in Ireland and Britain. The Roman naturalist Pliny the Elder was dismissive of a grain that may have been rye, writing that it "is a very poor food and only serves to avert starvation". He said it was mixed with spelt "to mitigate its bitter taste, and even then is most unpleasant to the stomach". |
synth_fc_3416_rep3 | Positive | Time | Calculation | Multi | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bede | 17 | Hagiography
His other historical works included lives of the abbots of Wearmouth and Jarrow, as well as verse and prose lives of St Cuthbert, an adaptation of Paulinus of Nola 's Life of St Felix, and a translation of the Greek Passion of St Anastasius. He also created a listing of saints, the Martyrology. |
synth_fc_3790_rep4 | Positive | Weather & Air quality | Feature search | Single | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Carbon_dioxide | 32 | Ocean acidification
Carbon dioxide dissolves in the ocean to form carbonic acid (H CO), bicarbonate (HCO − 3), and carbonate (CO 2− 3). There is about fifty times as much carbon dioxide dissolved in the oceans as exists in the atmosphere. The oceans act as an enormous carbon sink, and have taken up about a third of CO emitted by human activity.
Ocean acidification is the ongoing decrease in the pH of the Earth's ocean. Ocean acidification is a process that occurs when carbon dioxide (CO2) from the atmosphere is absorbed by seawater, leading to a decrease in pH levels. This results in an increase in acidity and a reduction in carbonate ions, which are crucial for marine organisms like corals, shellfish, and plankton to build their shells and skeletons. Over the past 200 years, the rapid increase in anthropogenic CO (carbon dioxide) production has led to an increase in the acidity of the Earth's oceans. Between 1950 and 2020, the average pH of the ocean surface fell from approximately 8.15 to 8.05. Carbon dioxide emissions from human activities are the primary cause of ocean acidification, with atmospheric carbon dioxide (CO) levels exceeding 410 ppm (in 2020). CO from the atmosphere is absorbed by the oceans. This chemical reaction produces carbonic acid (H CO) which dissociates into a bicarbonate ion (HCO − 3) and a hydrogen ion (H). The presence of free hydrogen ions (H) lowers the pH of the ocean, increasing acidity (this does not mean that seawater is acidic yet; it is still alkaline, with a pH higher than 8). Marine calcifying organisms, such as mollusks and corals, are especially vulnerable because they rely on calcium carbonate to build shells and skeletons.
Changes in ocean chemistry can have extensive direct and indirect effects on organisms and their habitats. One of the most important repercussions of increasing ocean acidity relates to the production of shells out of calcium carbonate (CaCO). This process is called calcification and is important to the biology and survival of a wide range of marine organisms. Calcification involves the precipitation of dissolved ions into solid CaCO structures, structures for many marine organisms, such as coccolithophores, foraminifera, crustaceans, mollusks, etc. After they are formed, these CaCO structures are vulnerable to dissolution unless the surrounding seawater contains saturating concentrations of carbonate ions (CO 2− 3).
Very little of the extra carbon dioxide that is added into the ocean remains as dissolved carbon dioxide. The majority dissociates into additional bicarbonate and free hydrogen ions. The increase in hydrogen is larger than the increase in bicarbonate, creating an imbalance in the reaction:
To maintain chemical equilibrium, some of the carbonate ions already in the ocean combine with some of the hydrogen ions to make further bicarbonate. Thus the ocean's concentration of carbonate ions is reduced, removing an essential building block for marine organisms to build shells, or calcify: |
synth_fc_660_rep27 | Positive | Currency | Feature search | Single | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/System_of_units_of_measurement | 1 | A system of units of measurement, also known as a system of units or system of measurement, is a collection of units of measurement and rules relating them to each other. Systems of measurement have historically been important, regulated and defined for the purposes of science and commerce. Instances in use include the International System of Units or SI, the British imperial system, and the United States customary system. |
synth_fc_327_rep18 | Positive | Board game | Order | Multi | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Monopoly_(game) | 44 | Gameplay differences from regular Monopoly
During the initial roll to determine turn order, the player with the lowest total goes first.
The main difference from standard Monopoly is the introduction of the sore loser mechanic. Each player is given 2 sore loser coins upon the start of the game, and the remainder are placed in the centre of the board. A player collects a sore loser coin from the Bank if they have to do any of the following: pay rent to another player, pay taxes and bills to the Bank, go to jail, land on a property that they own, or draw a Chance or Community Chest card that instructs them to collect a coin. If a player lands on Free Parking, they are allowed to steal a sore loser coin from another player, which could be traded.
A player may not collect a sore loser coin if they have four. At the beginning of their turn, a player with four sore loser coins, may place them in the centre of the board. That player then takes the Mr. Monopoly token and replaces their token with the Mr. Monopoly token—their normal token being placed in the centre of the board. Whilst a player is Mr. Monopoly, they cannot collect sore loser coins, and the actions they take when landing on spaces are altered, including collecting money when landing on the properties of other players, collecting money from the bank when landing on a tax or bill space, not go to jail, and requiring other players to lose sore loser coins.
Whenever any player, including Mr. Monopoly's owner, rolls doubles, Mr. Monopoly's owner is allowed to place one free house on any street on the board. The property selected for this free house does not need to be owned by Mr. Monopoly, nor does it need to be part of a complete set, and placing doubles houses unevenly is also allowed. However, Mr. Monopoly's owner may not place this free house on a street that already has four houses, nor may they upgrade to a hotel.
Buildings are permanent and could not be sold. If a property with buildings on it is traded away, the buildings remain and start providing rent to the new owner.
If Mr. Monopoly's dice roll makes him land on the same space as another player, the Mr. Monopoly token is placed over that other player's token, and Mr. Monopoly's owner is allowed to steal one property from the player he landed on—said property must not be part of a complete set. If a property with buildings on it is stolen, the buildings remain on the property and start providing rent to Mr. Monopoly's owner. In addition, whilst a player is under Mr. Monopoly, they are trapped—their turn will be skipped until Mr. Monopoly moves, but said players can still take part in auctions and trade. If Mr. Monopoly lands on the Jail space, he traps other players on both spaces. However, these actions could not be taken if a player becomes Mr. Monopoly whilst on the same space as another player.
Once Mr. Monopoly is in play, if another player cashes in their sore loser coins to become him, the old owner restores their normal token to the space they are on, and Mr. Monopoly is transferred to the space of the new owner, whose token is placed in the centre of the board.
If a player goes bankrupt, their sore loser coins are returned to the centre of the board.
The game is ended through one of two means- bankruptcy or all of the properties have been purchased. If the latter happens, players must return to Go, with Mr. Monopoly's owner not allowed to steal a property when they land on Go for the final time. Players subsequently collect rent from all of their properties, according to full colour sets and development, and after that the player with the most capital is the winner. |
synth_fc_1426_rep28 | Positive | Food | Entity search | Single | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vodka | 1 | Vodka (Polish: wódka; Russian: водка; Swedish: vodka) is a clear distilled alcoholic beverage. Different varieties originated in Poland, Russia, and Sweden. Vodka is composed mainly of water and ethanol but sometimes with traces of impurities and flavourings. Traditionally, it is made by distilling liquid from fermented cereal grains and potatoes since the latter was introduced in Europe in the 18th century. Some modern brands use corn, sugar cane, fruits, honey, and maple sap as the base.
Since the 1890s, standard vodkas have been 40% alcohol by volume (ABV) (80 U.S. proof). The European Union has established a minimum alcohol content of 37.5% for vodka. Vodka in the United States must have a minimum alcohol content of 40%.
Vodka is traditionally drunk " neat " (not mixed with water, ice, or other mixers), and it is often served freezer chilled in the vodka belt of Belarus, Estonia, Finland, Iceland, Latvia, Lithuania, Norway, Poland, Russia, Sweden, and Ukraine. It is also used in cocktails and mixed drinks, such as the vodka martini, Cosmopolitan, vodka tonic, screwdriver, greyhound, Black or White Russian, Moscow mule, Bloody Mary, and Caesar. |
synth_fc_2277_rep7 | Positive | Law | Entity search | Single | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Expulsion_of_the_Chagossians | 1 | The United Kingdom, at the request of the United States, began expelling the inhabitants of the Chagos Archipelago in 1968, concluding its forced deportations on 27 April 1973 with the expulsion of the remaining Chagossians on the Peros Banhos atoll. The inhabitants, known at the time as the Ilois, are today known as Chagos Islanders or Chagossians. Chagossians and human rights advocates have said that the Chagossian right of occupation was violated by the British Foreign Office as a result of the 1966 agreement between the British and American governments to provide an unpopulated island for a U.S. military base, and that additional compensation and a right of return be provided. Legal action to claim compensation and the right of abode in the Chagos began in April 1973 when 280 islanders, represented by a Mauritian attorney, petitioned the government of Mauritius to distribute the £650,000 compensation provided in 1972 by the British government. It was not distributed until 1977. Various petitions and lawsuits have been ongoing since then, but have not had much effect due to the repeated refusal of the USA and UK to provide reparations and repatriation beyond limited monetary compensation. In 2019, the International Court of Justice issued an advisory opinion stating that the United Kingdom did not have sovereignty over the Chagos Islands and that the administration of the archipelago should be handed over "as rapidly as possible" to Mauritius. The United Nations General Assembly then voted to give Britain a six-month deadline to begin the process of handing over the islands. |
synth_fc_655_rep21 | Positive | Currency | Calculation | Multi | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Burundi | 10 | Currency
Burundi's currency is the Burundian franc. It is nominally subdivided into 100 centimes, though coins have never been issued in centimes in independent Burundi; centime coins were circulated only when Burundi used the Belgian Congo franc.
Monetary policy is controlled by the central bank, Bank of the Republic of Burundi. |
synth_fc_1430_rep14 | Negative | Food | Guide | Single | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Coconut | 33 | Uses
The coconut palm is grown throughout the tropics for decoration, as well as for its many culinary and nonculinary uses; virtually every part of the coconut palm can be used by humans in some manner and has significant economic value. Coconuts' versatility is sometimes noted in its naming. In Sanskrit, it is kalpa vriksha ("the tree which provides all the necessities of life"). In the Malay language, it is pokok seribu guna ("the tree of a thousand uses"). In the Philippines, the coconut is commonly called the " tree of life ".
It is one of the most useful trees in the world. |
synth_fc_3840_rep9 | Positive | Weather & Air quality | Feature search | Single | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cyclone | 13 | Structure
There are a number of structural characteristics common to all cyclones. A cyclone is a low-pressure area. A cyclone's center (often known in a mature tropical cyclone as the eye), is the area of lowest atmospheric pressure in the region. Near the center, the pressure gradient force (from the pressure in the center of the cyclone compared to the pressure outside the cyclone) and the force from the Coriolis effect must be in an approximate balance, or the cyclone would collapse on itself as a result of the difference in pressure.
Because of the Coriolis effect, the wind flow around a large cyclone is counterclockwise in the Northern Hemisphere and clockwise in the Southern Hemisphere. In the Northern Hemisphere, the fastest winds relative to the surface of the Earth therefore occur on the eastern side of a northward-moving cyclone and on the northern side of a westward-moving one; the opposite occurs in the Southern Hemisphere. In contrast to low-pressure systems, the wind flow around high-pressure systems are clockwise (anticyclonic) in the northern hemisphere, and counterclockwise in the southern hemisphere. |
synth_fc_1932_rep29 | Positive | History | Feature search | Multi | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Software_bug | 1 | A software bug is a bug in computer software. A computer program with many or serious bugs may be described as buggy. The effects of a software bug range from minor to severe. Software bugs have been linked to disasters. Software bugs in the Therac-25 radiation therapy machine were directly responsible for patient deaths in the 1980s. In 1996, the European Space Agency's US$1 billion prototype Ariane 5 rocket was destroyed less than a minute after launch due to a bug in the on-board guidance computer program.
In 1994, an RAF Chinook helicopter crashed, killing 29; was initially blamed on pilot error, but was later thought to have been caused by a software bug in the engine-control computer.
Buggy software caused the early 21st century British Post Office scandal. In 2002, a study commissioned by the US Department of Commerce's National Institute of Standards and Technology concluded that "software bugs, or errors, are so prevalent and so detrimental that they cost the US economy an estimated $59 billion annually, or about 0.6 percent of the gross domestic product". Since the 1950s, some computer systems have been designed to detect or auto-correct various software errors during operations. |
synth_fc_1269_rep12 | No function call | Finance | Calculation | Single | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kingdom_of_Sicily | 2 | Coinage
The Norman kings in the 12th century used the tari, which had been used in Sicily from 913 as the basic coin. One tari weighed about one gram and was 16 + 1 ⁄ 3 carats of gold. The Arab dinar was worth four tari, and the Byzantine solidus six tari. In the kingdom, one onza was equivalent to thirty tari or five florins. One tari was worth twenty grani. One grana was equivalent to six denari. After 1140, the circulation of the copper coin romesina stopped and it was replaced by the follaris. Twenty-four follari were equivalent to one Byzantine miliaresion.
After defeating the Tunisians in 1231, King Frederick I minted the augustalis. It was minted in 21 + 1 ⁄ 2 carats and weighed 5.28 grams. In 1490, the triumphi were minted in Sicily. They were equivalent to the Venetian ducat. One triumpho was worth 11 + 1 ⁄ 2 aquilae. One aquila was worth twenty grani. In transactions tari and pichuli were mainly used. |
synth_fc_1437_rep10 | Positive | Food | Calculation | Single | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Refrigeration | 11 | Impact on agriculture and food production
Agriculture's role in developed countries has drastically changed in the last century due to many factors, including refrigeration. Statistics from the 2007 census gives information on the large concentration of agricultural sales coming from a small portion of the existing farms in the United States today. This is a partial result of the market created for the frozen meat trade by the first successful shipment of frozen sheep carcasses coming from New Zealand in the 1880s. As the market continued to grow, regulations on food processing and quality began to be enforced. Eventually, electricity was introduced into rural homes in the United States, which allowed refrigeration technology to continue to expand on the farm, increasing output per person. Today, refrigeration's use on the farm reduces humidity levels, avoids spoiling due to bacterial growth, and assists in preservation. |
synth_fc_3585_rep14 | Positive | Travel itinerary | Calculation | Single | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cardiff | 12 | Language schools
Due to its diversity and large student population, more people now come to the city to learn English. Foreign students from Arab states and other European countries are a common sight on the streets of Cardiff. The British Council has an office in the city centre and there are six accredited schools in the area. |
synth_fc_3639_rep25 | Negative | Video game | Guide | Single | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Judo | 31 | Katame-waza (grappling techniques)
Katame-waza is further categorised into osaekomi-waza (抑込技, holding techniques), in which tori traps and pins uke on their back on the floor; shime-waza (絞技, strangulation techniques), in which tori attempts to force a submission by choking or strangling uke; and kansetsu-waza (関節技, joint techniques), in which tori attempts to submit uke by painful manipulation of their joints.
A related concept is that of ne-waza (寝技, prone techniques), in which waza are applied from a non-standing position.
In competitive judo, Kansetsu-waza is currently limited to elbow joint manipulation. Manipulation and locking of other joints can be found in various kata, such as Katame-no-kata and Kodokan goshin jutsu. |
synth_fc_676_rep29 | Positive | Currency | API setting | Single | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Swastika | 42 | Russia
The left-handed swastika was a favourite sign of the last Russian Empress Alexandra Feodorovna. She wore a talisman in the form of a swastika, put it everywhere for happiness, including on her suicide letters from Tobolsk, later drew with a pencil on the wall and in the window opening of the room in the Ipatiev House, which served as the place of the last imprisonment of the royal family and on the wallpaper above the bed.
The Russian Provisional Government of 1917 printed a number of new bank notes with right-facing, diagonally rotated swastikas in their centres. The banknote design was initially intended for the Mongolian national bank but was re-purposed for Russian rubles after the February revolution. Swastikas were depicted and on some Soviet credit cards (sovznaks) printed with clichés that were in circulation in 1918–1922.
During the Russian Civil War, the swastika was present in the symbolism of the uniform of some units of the White Army Asiatic Cavalry Division of Baron Ungern in Siberia and Bogd Khanate of Mongolia, which is explained by the significant number of Buddhists within it. The Red Army 's ethnic Kalmyk units wore distinct armbands featuring the swastika with "РСФСР" (Roman: "RSFSR") inscriptions on them. |
synth_fc_1712_rep10 | Positive | Health | Calculation | Multi | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sense | 12 | Sensory adaptation
When a stimulus is constant and unchanging, perceptual sensory adaptation occurs. During that process, the subject becomes less sensitive to the stimulus. |
synth_fc_3342_rep26 | Positive | Store & Facility | Proximal search | Single | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tap_water | 1 | Tap water is water supplied through a tap, a water dispenser valve. In many countries, tap water usually has the quality of drinking water. Tap water is commonly used for drinking, cooking, washing, and toilet flushing. Indoor tap water is distributed through indoor plumbing, which has existed since antiquity but was available to very few people until the second half of the 19th century when it began to spread in popularity in what are now developed countries. Tap water became common in many regions during the 20th century, and is now lacking mainly among people in poverty, especially in developing countries. Governmental agencies commonly regulate tap water quality. Calling a water supply "tap water" distinguishes it from the other main types of fresh water which may be available; these include water from rainwater-collecting cisterns, water from village pumps or town pumps, water from wells, or water carried from streams, rivers, or lakes. |
synth_fc_3702_rep13 | Positive | Visual Art | Entity search | Single | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hilary_Hahn | 1 | Hilary Hahn is an American violinist. A three-time Grammy Award winner, she has performed throughout the world as a soloist with leading orchestras and conductors, and as a recitalist. She is an avid supporter of contemporary classical music, and several composers have written works for her, including concerti by Edgar Meyer and Jennifer Higdon, partitas by Antón García Abril, two serenades for violin and orchestra by Einojuhani Rautavaara, and a violin and piano sonata by Lera Auerbach. |
synth_fc_289_rep11 | No function call | Biomass | Calculation | Single | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Micronesia | 25 | Fauna
The Yap Islands host a number of endemic bird species, including the Yap monarch and the Olive white-eye, in addition to four other restricted-range bird species. The endangered Yap flying-fox, though often considered a subspecies of the Pelew flying fox or the Mariana fruit bat, is also endemic to Yap. |
synth_fc_1633_rep23 | Positive | Geography | Ranking | Single | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Quito | 10 | Colonial period
Incan uprising against the Spanish continued during 1534. The conquistador Diego de Almagro founded Santiago de Quito (in present-day Colta, near Riobamba) on 15 August 1534, renamed as San Francisco de Quito on 28 August 1534. The city was later refounded at its present location on 6 December 1534 by 204 settlers led by Sebastián de Benalcázar, who captured leader Rumiñahui, effectively ending all organized resistance. Rumiñahui was executed on 10 January 1535.
On 28 March 1541 Quito was declared a city, and on 23 February 1556 it was given the title Muy Noble y Muy Leal Ciudad de San Francisco de Quito ("Very Noble and Loyal City of San Francisco of Quito"), marking the start of its next phase of urban development. In 1563 Quito became the seat of a Real Audiencia (administrative district) of Spain. It was classified as part of the Viceroyalty of Peru until 1717, after which the Audiencia was part of the new Viceroyalty of New Granada. Under both Viceroyalties, the district was administered from Quito, (see Real Audiencia de Quito).
The Spanish established Roman Catholicism in Quito. The first church (El Belén) was built before the city was officially founded. In January 1535 the San Francisco Convent was constructed, the first of about 20 churches and convents built during the colonial period. The Spanish converted the indigenous population to Christianity and used them as labor for construction.
In 1743, after nearly 210 years of Spanish colonization, Quito was a city of about 10,000 inhabitants. Quito briefly proclaimed its de facto independence from Spain between 1765 and 1766 during the Quito Revolt. On 10 August 1809, a movement was again started in Quito to win independence from Spain. On that date a plan for government was unveiled, which appointed Juan Pío Montúfar as president and prominent pro-independence figures in other government positions.
This initial movement was defeated on 2 August 1810, when colonial troops arrived from Lima, Peru, and killed the leaders of the uprising and about 200 other settlers. A chain of conflicts climaxed on 24 May 1822, when Antonio José de Sucre, under the command of Simón Bolívar, led troops into the Battle of Pichincha, on the slopes of the volcano. Their victory established the independence of Quito and the surrounding areas. |
synth_fc_2884_rep13 | Negative | Restaurant | Ranking | Single | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nanjing | 16 | Night life
Traditionally Nanjing's nightlife was mostly centered around Nanjing Fuzimiao (Confucius Temple) area along the Qinhuai River, where night markets, restaurants and pubs thrived. Boating at night in the river was a main attraction of the city. Thus, one can see the statues of the famous teachers and educators of the past not too far from those of the courtesans who educated the young men in the other arts.
In the past 20 years, several commercial streets have been developed, hence the nightlife has become more diverse: there are shopping malls opening late in the Xinjiekou CBD, as well as in and around major residential areas throughout the city. The well-established " Nanjing 1912 " district hosts a wide variety of recreational facilities ranging from traditional restaurants and western pubs to dance clubs, in both its downtown location and beside Baijia Lake in Jiangning District. In recent years, many night-life options have opened up in Catherine Park as well as in shopping malls such as IST in Xinjiekou and Kingmo near Baijai Lake metro station. Other, more student-oriented places are to be found near to Nanjing University and Nanjing Normal University. |
synth_fc_1010_rep25 | Positive | Finance | Database search | Single | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Edgar_Degas | 2 | Artistic career
Upon his return to France in 1859, Degas moved into a Paris studio large enough to permit him to begin painting The Bellelli Family —an imposing canvas he intended for exhibition in the Salon, although it remained unfinished until 1867. He also began work on several history paintings: Alexander and Bucephalus and The Daughter of Jephthah in 1859–60; Sémiramis Building Babylon in 1860; and Young Spartans Exercising around 1860. In 1861, Degas visited his childhood friend Paul Valpinçon in Ménil-Hubert-en-Exmes, and made the earliest of his many studies of horses. He exhibited at the Salon for the first time in 1865, when the jury accepted his painting Scene of War in the Middle Ages, which attracted little attention.
Although he exhibited annually in the Salon during the next five years, he submitted no more history paintings, and his Scene from the Steeplechase: The Fallen Jockey (Salon of 1866) signaled his growing commitment to contemporary subject matter. The change in his art was influenced primarily by the example of Édouard Manet, whom Degas had met in 1864 (while both were copying the same Diego Velázquez portrait in the Louvre, according to a story that may be apocryphal).
Upon the outbreak of the Franco-Prussian War in 1870, Degas enlisted in the National Guard, where his partaking in the defense of Paris left him little time for painting. During rifle training his eyesight was found to be defective, and for the rest of his life his eye problems were a constant worry to him.
After the war, Degas began in 1872 an extended stay in New Orleans, where his brother René and a number of other relatives lived. Staying at the home of his Creole uncle, Michel Musson, on Esplanade Avenue, Degas produced a number of works, many depicting family members. One of Degas's New Orleans works, A Cotton Office in New Orleans, garnered favorable attention back in France, and was his only work purchased by a museum (the Pau) during his lifetime.
Degas returned to Paris in 1873 and his father died the following year, whereupon Degas learned that his brother René had amassed enormous business debts. To preserve his family's reputation, Degas sold his house and an art collection he had inherited, and used the money to pay off his brother's debts. Dependent for the first time in his life on sales of his artwork for income, he produced much of his greatest work during the decade beginning in 1874. Disenchanted by now with the Salon, he instead joined a group of young artists who were organizing an independent exhibiting society. The group soon became known as the Impressionists.
Between 1874 and 1886, they mounted eight art shows, known as the Impressionist Exhibitions. Degas took a leading role in organizing the exhibitions, and showed his work in all but one of them, despite his persistent conflicts with others in the group. He had little in common with Monet and the other landscape painters in the group, whom he mocked for painting outdoors. Conservative in his social attitudes, he abhorred the scandal created by the exhibitions, as well as the publicity and advertising that his colleagues sought. He also deeply disliked being associated with the term "Impressionist", which the press had coined and popularized, and insisted on including non-Impressionist artists such as Jean-Louis Forain and Jean-François Raffaëlli in the group's exhibitions. The resulting rancor within the group contributed to its disbanding in 1886.
As his financial situation improved through sales of his own work, he was able to indulge his passion for collecting works by artists he admired: old masters such as El Greco and such contemporaries as Manet, Cassatt, Pissarro, Cézanne, Gauguin, Van Gogh, and Édouard Brandon. Three artists he idolized, Ingres, Delacroix, and Daumier, were especially well represented in his collection.
In the late 1880s, Degas also developed a passion for photography. He photographed many of his friends, often by lamplight, as in his double portrait of Renoir and Mallarmé. Other photographs, depicting dancers and nudes, were used for reference in some of Degas's drawings, and paintings.
As the years passed, Degas became isolated, due in part to his belief that a painter could have no personal life. The Dreyfus Affair controversy brought his anti-Semitic leanings to the fore and he broke with all his Jewish friends. His argumentative nature was deplored by Renoir, who said of him: "What a creature he was, that Degas! All his friends had to leave him; I was one of the last to go, but even I couldn't stay till the end."
After 1890, Degas's eyesight, which had long troubled him, deteriorated further. Although he is known to have been working in pastel as late as the end of 1907, and is believed to have continued making sculptures as late as 1910, he apparently ceased working in 1912, when the impending demolition of his longtime residence on the rue Victor Massé forced him to move to quarters on the Boulevard de Clichy. He never married, and spent the last years of his life, nearly blind, restlessly wandering the streets of Paris before dying in September 1917. |
synth_fc_472_rep10 | Positive | Corporate Management | Database search | Single | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tequila | 5 | Process
If silver or white (Blanco) tequila is the desired final product, distillation is the final process it undergoes. Rested (Reposado) or aged (Añejo) tequila must be matured in 200-liter (or larger) white oak barrels for at least two months for the former and 12 months for the latter. There are, however, more than 50 different companies producing tequila in the Mexican province of Jalisco, with different maturation times according to the variety of tequila and desired quality of the final product.
All companies producing tequila have their aging processes regulated and fiscalized by the Mexican government. |
synth_fc_207_rep11 | No function call | Biology | Feature search | Single | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Halibut | 5 | Halibut fishery
The North Pacific commercial halibut fishery dates to the late 19th century and today is one of the region's largest and most lucrative. In Canadian and US waters, long-line fishing predominates, using chunks of octopus ("devilfish") or other bait on circle hooks attached at regular intervals to a weighted line that can extend for several miles across the bottom. The fishing vessel retrieves the line after several hours to a day. The effects of long-line gear on habitats are poorly understood, but could include disturbance of sediments, benthic structures, and other structures.
International management is thought to be necessary, because the species occupies waters of the United States, Canada, Russia, and possibly Japan (where the species is known to the Japanese as ohyo), and matures slowly. Halibut do not reproduce until age eight, when about 80 cm (30 in) long, so commercial capture below this length prevents breeding and is against US and Canadian regulations supporting sustainability. Pacific halibut fishing is managed by the International Pacific Halibut Commission.
For most of the modern era, halibut fishery operated as a derby. Regulators declared time slots when fishing was open (typically 24–48 hours at a time) and fishermen raced to catch as many pounds as they could within that interval. This approach accommodated unlimited participation in the fishery while allowing regulators to control the quantity of fish caught annually by controlling the number and timing of openings. The approach led to unsafe fishing, as openings were necessarily set before the weather was known, forcing fishermen to leave port regardless of the weather. The approach limited fresh halibut to the markets to several weeks per year when the gluts would push down the price received by fishermen. |
synth_fc_1497_rep25 | Positive | Geography | Database search | Single | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Extratropical_cyclone | 16 | Terminology
The term " cyclone " applies to numerous types of low pressure areas, one of which is the extratropical cyclone. The descriptor extratropical signifies that this type of cyclone generally occurs outside the tropics and in the middle latitudes of Earth between 30° and 60° latitude. They are termed mid-latitude cyclones if they form within those latitudes, or post-tropical cyclones if a tropical cyclone has intruded into the mid latitudes. Weather forecasters and the general public often describe them simply as " depressions " or "lows". Terms like frontal cyclone, frontal depression, frontal low, extratropical low, non-tropical low and hybrid low are often used as well.
Extratropical cyclones are classified mainly as baroclinic, because they form along zones of temperature and dewpoint gradient known as frontal zones. They can become barotropic late in their life cycle, when the distribution of heat around the cyclone becomes fairly uniform with its radius. |
synth_fc_3470_rep26 | Negative | Time | Feature search | Single | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Requiem_(Verdi) | 1 | The Messa da Requiem is a musical setting of the Catholic funeral mass (Requiem) for four soloists, double choir and orchestra by Giuseppe Verdi. It was composed in memory of Alessandro Manzoni, whom Verdi admired, and therefore also referred to as the Manzoni Requiem. The first performance, at the San Marco church in Milan on 22 May 1874, conducted by the composer, marked the first anniversary of Manzoni's death. It was followed three days later by the same performers at La Scala. Verdi conducted his work at major venues in Europe. Verdi composed the last part of the text, Libera me, first, as his contribution to the Messa per Rossini that he had initiated after Gioachino Rossini had died, containing already the music later beginning the Dies irae sequence. Considered too operatic to be performed in a liturgical setting, the Requiem is usually given in concert form; it takes around 90 minutes to perform. Musicologist David Rosen calls it "probably the most frequently performed major choral work composed since the compilation of Mozart's Requiem". |
synth_fc_1528_rep24 | Positive | Geography | Feature search | Single | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Osogbo | 1 | Osogbo is a city in Nigeria. It became the capital city of Osun State in 1991. Osogbo city seats the Headquarters of both Osogbo Local Government Area and Olorunda Local Government Area. It is some 88 kilometers by road northeast of Ibadan. It is also 108 kilometres (67 mi) by road south of Ilorin and 108 kilometres (67 mi) northwest of Akure. Osogbo shares boundaries with Ikirun, Ilesa, Ede, Egbedore, Ogbomosho and Iragbiji and it is easily accessible from any part of the state because of its central nature. It is about 48 km from Ife, 32 km from Ilesa, 46 km from Iwo, 48 km from Ikire and 46 km from Ila-Orangun; the city had a population of about 200,000 people and an approximate land area of 126 km. The postal code of the area is 230. |
synth_fc_2546_rep20 | Positive | Museum | Feature search | Single | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Holi | 7 | Karnataka
Traditionally, in rural Karnataka, children collect money and wood in the weeks prior to Holi, and on "Kamadahana" night, all the wood is put together and lit. The festival is celebrated for two days. People in northern parts of Karnataka prepare special food on this day.
In Sirsi, Karnataka, Holi is celebrated with a unique folk dance called "Bedara Vesha", which is performed during the nights beginning five days before the actual festival day. The festival is celebrated every alternate year in the town, which attracts a large number of tourists from different parts of India. |
synth_fc_953_rep7 | Positive | Finance | Database search | Single | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Joseph_Dalton_Hooker | 6 | Sons Willy and Brian
Hooker regularly corresponded with the chief government scientist in New Zealand, Sir James Hector. He sent his son Willy (aged 15) to stay in New Zealand with the recently married Hector in 1869, Willy was sickly and coughing up blood, and a warmer climate was recommended. Though well-behaved he was indolent. Hector sent him on a cruise on a Government steamer the Sturt with a son (also 15) of Colonel Haultain the Defence minister. Mrs Hector treated him like a younger brother. After eight months and in better health Hector sent him home to England, saying he had greatly improved. His father was grateful, and surprised when Willy passed the civil service examination. He got an administrative job in the India Office, and lived to age 89.
However, his third son, Brian, was a "great worry" to him. He qualified as a geologist and mining engineer at the Royal School of Mines but unable to get a job in Britain emigrated to Australia, where he married. He resigned a Queensland lectureship to invest (with his brother Willy) in an impressively named but cash-strapped gold-mining company which collapsed, the Queensland Minerals Exploration Company. Joseph was appalled; Brian could not support his wife and children or find employment.
In 1891, Hector sent a pessimistic report on a proposed tin mine on Stewart Island, and saw Brian in 1892 and 1893, after he left his family in Australia. Hector ceased to be involved with mining in New Zealand under the new Liberal government. Brian returned to his family in Australia in 1894. |
synth_fc_3134_rep13 | Negative | Sport | Entity search | Single | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Roller_skating | 19 | Speed skating
Speed skating originally started on traditional roller skates, quads or four wheels per skate. The first organized, national competition was held in 1938 in Detroit Michigan at the Arena Gardens Roller Rink, once home of "Detroit's Premier Sports Palace. The Arena opened in 1935 as roller skating began its ascension as a top sport. In the early years, competitors representing the mid-west states, primarily Illinois, Indiana, Michigan and Ohio dominated the sport. By 1950 as rinks hired speed skating coaches who trained competitors, the east and west coast began to compete effectively for the national titles. But in the early years, national titles were dominated by Chicago, Detroit, Cleveland and Cincinnati.
As rules were established for state and national competitions, the speed skating season began in fall and continued through spring leading up to a state tournament. Eventually approximately 1947, due to the growth of speed skating, the top three places at a state tournament would qualify skaters for a regional tournament. The top three places at regional tournaments then went on to compete at a national tournament. Skaters could qualify as individuals or as part of a two-person or four-person (relay) team. Qualification at regional events could warrant an invite to the Olympic Training Center in Colorado Springs, CO for a one-week training session on their outdoor velodrome. Inline speed skating is a competitive non-contact sport on inline skates. Variants include indoor, track and road racing, with many different grades of skaters, so the whole family can compete. Speed skating has ancient roots, with the earliest forms dating back to the 13th century. The origins can be traced to Scandinavia and the Netherlands, where people used animal bones strapped to their feet to glide over frozen rivers and canals. |
synth_fc_1930_rep1 | Positive | History | Entity search | Single | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Felt | 7 | Development of felting as a profession
As felting grew in importance to a society, so, too, did the knowledge about techniques and approaches. Amateur or community felting obviously continued in many communities at the same time that felting specialists and felting centers began to develop. However, the importance of felting to community life can be seen in the fact that, in many Central Asian communities, felt production is directed by a leader who oversees the process as a ritual that includes prayers—words and actions to bring good luck to the process. Successfully completing the creation of felt (certainly large felt pieces) is reason for celebration, feasting, and the sharing of traditional stories.
In Turkey, craft guilds called "ahi" came into being, and these groups were responsible for registering members and protecting the knowledge of felting. In Istanbul at one time, there were 1,000 felters working in 400 workshops registered in this ahi. |
synth_fc_2879_rep28 | Negative | Restaurant | Recommendation | Single | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/French_cuisine | 18 | French Guiana
French Guianan cuisine or Guianan cuisine is a blend of the different cultures that have settled in French Guiana including European, Indian, Indigenous (Amerindian), Chinese, and Hmong influences. Common dishes include fricassés, stews made of awara broth (made from palm pulp), blaff (onions, garlic, celery and basil broth), pimentade (tomato sauce broth) or roast cougnade (grilled fish), and Colombos (meat-based stew and vegetables with curry). There are markets in Cayenne selling fresh and prepared foods among other items. Some dishes from Metropolitan France are reimagined using local ingredients such as Gratin de Couac using cassava root in lieu of potato. |
synth_fc_1231_rep2 | Positive | Finance | Calculation | Single | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Silver | 23 | Price
Silver prices are normally quoted in troy ounces. One troy ounce is equal to 31.1034768 grams. The London silver fix is published every working day at noon London time. This price is determined by several major international banks and is used by London bullion market members for trading that day. Prices are most commonly shown as the United States dollar (USD), the Pound sterling (GBP), and the Euro (EUR). |
synth_fc_2752_rep5 | Positive | Physics & Chemistry | Calculation | Multi | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/PH_indicator | 1 | A pH indicator is a halochromic chemical compound added in small amounts to a solution so the pH (acidity or basicity) of the solution can be determined visually or spectroscopically by changes in absorption and/or emission properties. Hence, a pH indicator is a chemical detector for hydronium ions (H3O+) or hydrogen ions (H+) in the Arrhenius model. Normally, the indicator causes the color of the solution to change depending on the pH. Indicators can also show change in other physical properties; for example, olfactory indicators show change in their odor. The pH value of a neutral solution is 7.0 at 25°C (standard laboratory conditions). Solutions with a pH value below 7.0 are considered acidic and solutions with pH value above 7.0 are basic. Since most naturally occurring organic compounds are weak electrolytes, such as carboxylic acids and amines, pH indicators find many applications in biology and analytical chemistry. Moreover, pH indicators form one of the three main types of indicator compounds used in chemical analysis. For the quantitative analysis of metal cations, the use of complexometric indicators is preferred, whereas the third compound class, the redox indicators, are used in redox titrations (titrations involving one or more redox reactions as the basis of chemical analysis). |
synth_fc_379_rep13 | Positive | Carbon footprint | Calculation | Single | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/World_Wide_Fund_for_Nature | 1 | The World Wide Fund for Nature (WWF) is a Swiss-based international non-governmental organization founded in 1961 that works in the field of wilderness preservation and the reduction of human impact on the environment. It was formerly named the World Wildlife Fund, which remains its official name in Canada and the United States. WWF is the world's largest conservation organization, with over five million supporters worldwide, working in more than 100 countries and supporting around 3,000 conservation and environmental projects. They have invested over $1 billion in more than 12,000 conservation initiatives since 1995. WWF is a foundation with 65% of funding from individuals and bequests, 17% from government sources and 8% from corporations in 2020. WWF aims to "stop the degradation of the planet's natural environment and to build a future in which humans live in harmony with nature." The Living Planet Report has been published every two years by WWF since 1998; it is based on a Living Planet Index and ecological footprint calculation. In addition, WWF has launched several notable worldwide campaigns, including Earth Hour and Debt-for-nature swap, and its current work is organized around these six areas: food, climate, freshwater, wildlife, forests, and oceans. WWF has faced criticism for its corporate ties and for supporting conservation measures that have resulted in violent conflict with local people. WWF is part of the Steering Group of the Foundations Platform F20, an international network of foundations and philanthropic organizations. |
synth_fc_3148_rep1 | Positive | Sport | Feature search | Single | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Snooker | 7 | Tournaments
The oldest current professional snooker tournament is the World Snooker Championship, which has taken place as an annual event most years since 1927. Hosted at the Crucible Theatre in Sheffield since 1977, the championship was sponsored by tobacco company Embassy from 1976 to 2005 and has since been sponsored by various betting companies after the introduction of an EU-wide ban on the advertising of tobacco products. The World Championship is the most highly valued title in professional snooker, in terms of financial reward (the tournament has carried a £500,000 winner's prize since 2019), ranking points and prestige.
The UK Championship, held annually since 1977, is considered to be the second most important ranking tournament after the World Championship. These two events, and the annual non-ranking Masters tournament, make up snooker's Triple Crown Series; among the oldest competitions on the professional circuit, the Triple Crown events are valued by many players as the most prestigious. As of April 2024, only eleven players have won all three events, the most recent being Judd Trump who completed the Triple Crown in May 2019. The Triple Crown events are televised in the UK by the BBC, while most other tournaments are broadcast across Europe on the Eurosport network, or ITV Sport, as well as numerous other broadcasters internationally.
After facing some criticism for matches taking too long, Matchroom Sport chairman Barry Hearn introduced a series of timed tournaments: the shot-timed Premier League Snooker, held between 1987 and 2012, featured seven players invited to compete at regular United Kingdom venues and was televised on Sky Sports. The players had twenty-five seconds to take each shot, with each player allowed five time-outs per match. The format did achieve some success but was not afforded the same amount of press attention or status as the regular ranking tournaments. The event was removed from the professional tour after the 2012–13 season, when the Champion of Champions was re-established; players qualify for this tournament by virtue of winning other events in the season, with sixteen champions competing.
Classified as a "precision sport" by the International Olympic Committee, snooker has never been contested at the Summer Olympics. In 2015, the WPBSA submitted a bid for snooker to be included at the 2020 Tokyo Olympics, but without success. Since its launch in October 2017, the World Snooker Federation (WSF) has been advocating for snooker to be added to the Olympic and Paralympic programme. Their initial bid for the 2024 Paris Olympics was unsuccessful, but the WSF is campaigning for snooker to be included at the 2032 Brisbane Olympics. Olympic status would create a significant public funding opportunity for the sport and boost its global exposure. A trial of the format for cue sports to be played at the 2024 Games was conducted at the 2019 World Team Trophy, which also featured nine-ball and carom billiards. Snooker has been contested at the World Games since 2001 and was included as an event at the 2019 African Games. |
synth_fc_2544_rep20 | Positive | Museum | Calculation | Multi | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rijksmuseum | 13 | Rembrandt
in 2019, to mark the 350th anniversary of the artist's death, the museum mounted an exhibition of all the works by Rembrandt in its collection. Consisting of 22 paintings, 60 drawings and over 300 prints, this was the first time they had all been exhibited together. Principal features were the marriage portraits of Marten Soolmans and Oopjen Coppit along with the presentation of the Night Watch immediately before its planned restoration. The exhibition ran from February to June. |
synth_fc_593_rep22 | Positive | Corporate Management | Database creation | Multi | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Electrical_grid | 10 | Blackout
A power outage (also called a power cut, a power out, a power blackout, power failure or a blackout) is a loss of the electric power to a particular area.
Power failures can be caused by faults at power stations, damage to electric transmission lines, substations or other parts of the distribution system, a short circuit, cascading failure, fuse or circuit breaker operation, and human error.
Power failures are particularly critical at sites where the environment and public safety are at risk. Institutions such as hospitals, sewage treatment plants, mines, shelters and the like will usually have backup power sources such as standby generators, which will automatically start up when electrical power is lost. Other critical systems, such as telecommunication, are also required to have emergency power. The battery room of a telephone exchange usually has arrays of lead–acid batteries for backup and also a socket for connecting a generator during extended periods of outage. |
synth_fc_1940_rep3 | Positive | History | Document search | Single | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Leon_Trotsky | 8 | Second emigration (1907–1914)
While en route to exile in Obdorsk, Siberia, in January 1907, Trotsky escaped at Berezov and once again made his way to London. He attended the 5th Congress of the RSDLP. In October, he moved to Vienna, Austria-Hungary. For the next seven years, he often took part in the activities of the Austrian Social Democratic Party and, occasionally, of the German Social Democratic Party.
In Vienna, Trotsky became close to Adolph Joffe, his friend for the next 20 years, who introduced him to psychoanalysis.
In October 1908 he was asked to join the editorial staff of Pravda ("Truth"), a bi-weekly, Russian-language social democratic paper for Russian workers, which he co-edited with Adolph Joffe and Matvey Skobelev. It was smuggled into Russia. The paper appeared very irregularly; only five issues were published in its first year.
Avoiding factional politics, the paper proved popular with Russian industrial workers. Both the Bolsheviks and the Mensheviks split multiple times after the failure of the 1905–1907 revolution. Money was very scarce for the publication of Pravda. Trotsky approached the Russian Central Committee to seek financial backing for the newspaper throughout 1909.
A majority of Bolsheviks controlled the Central Committee in 1910. Lenin agreed to the financing of "Pravda", but required a Bolshevik to be appointed as co-editor of the paper. When various Bolshevik and Menshevik factions tried to re-unite at the January 1910 RSDLP Central Committee meeting in Paris over Lenin's objections, Trotsky's Pravda was made a party-financed 'central organ'. Lev Kamenev, Trotsky's brother-in-law, was added to the editorial board from the Bolsheviks, but the unification attempts failed in August 1910. Kamenev resigned from the board amid mutual recriminations. Trotsky continued publishing Pravda for another two years until it finally folded in April 1912.
The Bolsheviks started a new workers-oriented newspaper in Saint Petersburg on 22 April 1912 and also called it Pravda. Trotsky was so upset by what he saw as a usurpation of his newspaper's name that in April 1913, he wrote a letter to Nikolay Chkheidze, a Menshevik leader, bitterly denouncing Lenin and the Bolsheviks. Though he quickly got over the disagreement, the message was intercepted by the Russian secret police, and a copy was put into their archives. Shortly after Lenin's death in 1924, the letter was found and publicized by Trotsky's opponents within the Communist Party to portray him as Lenin's enemy.
The 1910s were a period of heightened tension within the RSDLP, leading to numerous frictions between Trotsky, the Bolsheviks and the Mensheviks. The most serious disagreement that Trotsky and the Mensheviks had with Lenin at the time was over the issue of "expropriations", i.e., armed robbery of banks and other companies by Bolshevik groups to procure money for the Party. These actions had been banned by the 5th Congress, but were continued by the Bolsheviks.
In January 1912, the majority of the Bolshevik faction, led by Lenin, as well as a few defecting Mensheviks, held a conference in Prague and decided to break away from the Russian Social Democratic Labour Party, and formed a new party, the Russian Social Democratic Labour Party (Bolsheviks). In response, Trotsky organized a "unification" conference of social democratic factions in Vienna in August 1912 (a.k.a. "The August Bloc") and tried to re-unite the Bolsheviks and Mensheviks into one party. The attempt was generally unsuccessful.
In Vienna, Trotsky continuously published articles in radical Russian and Ukrainian newspapers, such as Kievskaya Mysl, under a variety of pseudonyms, often using "Antid Oto", a name chosen at random from an Italian dictionary, with Trotsky joking that "wanted to inject the Marxist antidote into the legitimate newspapers". In September 1912, Kievskaya Mysl sent him to the Balkans as its war correspondent, where he covered the two Balkan Wars for the next year. While there, Trotsky chronicled the ethnic cleansing carried out by the Serbian army against the Albanian civilian population. He became a close friend of Christian Rakovsky, later a leading Soviet politician and Trotsky's ally in the Soviet Communist Party. On 3 August 1914, at the outbreak of World War I, in which Austria-Hungary fought against the Russian Empire, Trotsky was forced to flee Vienna for neutral Switzerland to avoid arrest as a Russian émigré. |
synth_fc_374_rep11 | Positive | Book | Entity search | Multi | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Noah_Webster | 1 | Noah Webster (October 16, 1758 – May 28, 1843) was an American lexicographer, textbook pioneer, English-language spelling reformer, political writer, editor, and author. He has been called the "Father of American Scholarship and Education". His "Blue-Backed Speller" books taught generations of American children how to spell and read. Webster's name has become synonymous with "dictionary" in the United States, especially the modern Merriam-Webster dictionary that was first published in 1828 as An American Dictionary of the English Language.
Born in West Hartford, Connecticut, Webster graduated from Yale College in 1778. He passed the bar examination after studying law under Oliver Ellsworth and others, but was unable to find work as a lawyer. He found some financial success by opening a private school and writing a series of educational books, including the "Blue-Backed Speller". A strong supporter of the American Revolution and the ratification of the United States Constitution, Webster later criticized American society as being in need of an intellectual foundation. He believed American nationalism had distinctive qualities that differed from European values.
In 1793, Alexander Hamilton recruited Webster to move to New York City and become an editor for a Federalist Party newspaper. He became a prolific author, publishing newspaper articles, political essays, and textbooks. He returned to Connecticut in 1798 and served in the Connecticut House of Representatives. Webster founded the Connecticut Society for the Abolition of Slavery in 1791 but later became somewhat disillusioned with the abolitionist movement.
In 1806, Webster published his first dictionary, A Compendious Dictionary of the English Language. The following year, he started working on an expanded and comprehensive dictionary, finally publishing it in 1828. He was influential in popularizing certain American spellings. He played a role in advocating for copyright reform, contributing to the Copyright Act of 1831, the first major statutory revision of U.S. copyright law. While working on a second volume of his dictionary, Webster died in 1843, and the rights to the dictionary were acquired by George and Charles Merriam. |
synth_fc_13_rep2 | No function call | Acoustics | Calculation | Single | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fourier_transform | 20 | Numerical integration of closed-form continuous functions
Discrete sampling of the Fourier transform can also be done by numerical integration of the definition at each value of frequency for which transform is desired. The numerical integration approach works on a much broader class of functions than the analytic approach. |
synth_fc_1555_rep7 | Positive | Geography | Ranking | Single | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Middlemarch | 1 | Middlemarch, A Study of Provincial Life is a novel by English author George Eliot, the pen name of Mary Ann Evans. It appeared in eight installments (volumes) in 1871 and 1872. Set in Middlemarch, a fictional English Midlands town, in 1829 to 1832, it follows distinct, intersecting stories with many characters. Issues include the status of women, the nature of marriage, idealism, self-interest, religion, hypocrisy, political reform, and education. Despite comic elements, Middlemarch uses realism to encompass historical events: the 1832 Reform Act, early railways, and the accession of King William IV. It looks at medicine of the time and reactionary views in a settled community facing unwelcome change. Eliot began writing the two pieces that formed the novel in 1869–1870 and completed it in 1871. Initial reviews were mixed, but it is now seen widely as her best work and one of the great English novels. |
synth_fc_1556_rep28 | Negative | Geography | Ranking | Single | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_the_Romani_people | 1 | The Romani people, also referred to as Roma, Sinti, or Kale, depending on the subgroup, are an Indo-Aryan ethnic group that primarily lives in Europe. The Romani may have migrated from what is the modern Indian state of Rajasthan, migrating to the northwest around 250 BC. Their subsequent westward migration, possibly in waves, is now believed to have occurred beginning in about 500 AD. It has also been suggested that emigration from India may have taken place in the context of the raids by Mahmud of Ghazni. As these soldiers were defeated, they were moved west with their families into the Byzantine Empire. The author Ralph Lilley Turner has theorised a central Indian origin of the Romani, followed by a migration to northwest India, as the Romani language shares a number of ancient isoglosses with Central Indo-Aryan languages in relation to realization of some sounds of Old Indo-Aryan. This is lent further credence by its sharing exactly the same pattern of northwestern languages such as Kashmiri and Shina through the adoption of oblique enclitic pronouns as person markers. The overall morphology suggests that Romani participated in some of the significant developments leading toward the emergence of New Indo-Aryan languages, thus indicating that the proto-Romani did not leave the Indian subcontinent until late in the second half of the first millennium. |
synth_fc_2027_rep5 | Positive | History | Document search | Single | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Second_Boer_War | 44 | Prisoners of war sent overseas
The first sizeable batch of Boer prisoners of war taken by the British consisted of those captured at the Battle of Elandslaagte on 21 October 1899. Initially, these POWs were held on troopships in Simons Bay until POW camps in Cape Town and Simonstown were completed. In total, six prisoner of war camps would be set up in South Africa during the war. As numbers grew, the British decided they did not want them kept locally. The capture of 4000 POWs in February 1900 was a key event, which made the British realise they could not accommodate all POWs in South Africa. The British feared they could be freed by sympathetic locals. Moreover, they already had trouble supplying their own troops in South Africa and did not want the added burden of sending supplies for the POWs. Britain therefore chose to send many POWs overseas.
Around 31 prisoner of war camps were consequently set up in British colonies overseas during the war. The first overseas (off African mainland) camps were opened in Saint Helena, which ultimately received about 5,000 POWs. About 5,000 POWs were sent to Ceylon. Other POWs were sent to Bermuda and India.
In all, nearly 26,000 POWs were sent overseas. |
synth_fc_455_rep18 | Positive | Corporate Management | Database removal | Multi | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bullying | 17 | Work
Workplace bullying occurs when an employee experiences a persistent pattern of mistreatment from others in the workplace that causes harm. Workplace bullying can include such tactics as verbal, nonverbal, psychological, physical abuse and humiliation. This type of workplace aggression is particularly difficult because, unlike the typical forms of school bullying, workplace bullies often operate within the established rules and policies of their organization and their society. Bullying in the workplace is in the majority of cases reported as having been perpetrated by someone in authority over the target. Bullies can also be peers, and occasionally can be subordinates.
The first known documented use of "workplace bullying" is in 1992 in a book by Andrea Adams called Bullying at Work: How to Confront and Overcome It.
Research has also investigated the impact of the larger organizational context on bullying as well as the group-level processes that impact on the incidence, and maintenance of bullying behavior. Bullying can be covert or overt. It may be missed by superiors or known by many throughout the organization. Negative effects are not limited to the targeted individuals, and may lead to a decline in employee morale and a change in organizational culture. A Cochrane Collaboration systematic review has found very low quality evidence to suggest that organizational and individual interventions may prevent bullying behaviors in the workplace. |
synth_fc_35_rep26 | Positive | Architecture | Calculation | Single | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/String_instrument | 11 | Production of multiple notes
A single string at a certain tension and length only produces one note. To produce multiple notes, string instruments use one of two methods. One is to add enough strings to cover the required range of different notes (e.g., as with the piano, which has sets of 88 strings to enable the performer to play 88 different notes). The other is to provide a way to stop the strings along their length to shorten the part that vibrates, which is the method used in guitar and violin family instruments to produce different notes from the same string. The piano and harp represent the first method, where each note on the instrument has its own string or course of multiple strings tuned to the same note. (Many notes on a piano are strung with a "choir" of three strings tuned alike, to increase the volume.) A guitar represents the second method—the player's fingers push the string against the fingerboard so that the string is pressed firmly against a metal fret. Pressing the string against a fret while plucking or strumming it shortens the vibrating part and thus produces a different note.
Some zithers combine stoppable (melody) strings with a greater number of "open" harmony or chord strings. On instruments with stoppable strings, such as the violin or guitar, the player can shorten the vibrating length of the string, using their fingers directly (or more rarely through some mechanical device, as in the nyckelharpa and the hurdy-gurdy). Such instruments usually have a fingerboard attached to the neck of the instrument, that provides a hard flat surface the player can stop the strings against. On some string instruments, the fingerboard has frets, raised ridges perpendicular to the strings, that stop the string at precise intervals, in which case the fingerboard is also called a fretboard.
Moving frets during performance is usually impractical. The bridges of a koto, on the other hand, may be moved by the player occasionally in the course of a single piece of music. Many modern Western harps include levers, either directly moved by fingers (on Celtic harps) or controlled by foot pedals (on orchestral harps), to raise the pitch of individual strings by a fixed amount. The Middle Eastern zither, the qanun, is equipped with small levers called mandal that let each course of multiple strings be incrementally retuned "on the fly" while the instrument is being played. These levers raise or lower the pitch of the string course by a microtone, less than a half step. |
synth_fc_23_rep21 | Positive | Acoustics | Calculation | Single | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hearing | 8 | Hearing mechanism
There are three main components of the human auditory system: the outer ear, the middle ear, and the inner ear. |
synth_fc_2550_rep30 | Positive | Museum | Feature search | Multi | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Krishna | 8 | Iconography
Krishna is represented in the Indian traditions in many ways, but with some common features. His iconography typically depicts him with black, dark, or blue skin, like Vishnu. However, ancient and medieval reliefs and stone-based arts depict him in the natural color of the material out of which he is formed, both in India and in southeast Asia. In some texts, his skin is poetically described as the color of Jambul (Jamun, a purple-colored fruit).
Krishna is often depicted wearing a peacock-feather wreath or crown, and playing the bansuri (Indian flute). In this form, he is usually shown standing with one leg bent in front of the other in the Tribhanga posture. He is sometimes accompanied by cows or a calf, which symbolise the divine herdsman Govinda. Alternatively, he is shown as a romantic young boy with the gopis (milkmaids), often making music or playing pranks.
In other icons, he is a part of battlefield scenes of the epic Mahabharata. He is shown as a charioteer, notably when he is addressing the Pandava prince Arjuna, symbolically reflecting the events that led to the Bhagavad Gita – a scripture of Hinduism. In these popular depictions, Krishna appears in the front as the charioteer, either as a counsel listening to Arjuna or as the driver of the chariot while Arjuna aims his arrows in the battlefield of Kurukshetra.
Alternate icons of Krishna show him as a baby (Bala Krishna, the child Krishna), a toddler crawling on his hands and knees, a dancing child, or an innocent-looking child playfully stealing or consuming butter (Makkan Chor), holding Laddu in his hand (Laddu Gopal) or as a cosmic infant sucking his toe while floating on a banyan leaf during the Pralaya (the cosmic dissolution) observed by sage Markandeya. Regional variations in the iconography of Krishna are seen in his different forms, such as Jaganatha in Odisha, Vithoba in Maharashtra, Shrinathji in Rajasthan and Guruvayoorappan in Kerala.
Guidelines for the preparation of Krishna icons in design and architecture are described in medieval-era Sanskrit texts on Hindu temple arts such as Vaikhanasa agama, Vishnu dharmottara, Brihat samhita, and Agni Purana. Similarly, early medieval-era Tamil texts also contain guidelines for sculpting Krishna and Rukmini. Several statues made according to these guidelines are in the collections of the Government Museum, Chennai.
Krishna iconography forms an important element in the figural sculpture on 17th–19th century terracotta temples of Bengal. In many temples, the stories of Krishna are depicted on a long series of narrow panels along the base of the facade. In other temples, the important Krishnalila episodes are depicted on large brick panels above the entrance arches or on the walls surrounding the entrance. |
synth_fc_3680_rep10 | Positive | Video game | Database update | Single | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shigeru_Miyamoto | 1 | Shigeru Miyamoto (Japanese: 宮本 茂, Hepburn: Miyamoto Shigeru, born November 16, 1952) is a Japanese video game designer, producer and game director at Nintendo, where he serves as one of its representative directors as an executive since 2002. Widely regarded as one of the most accomplished and influential designers in video games, he is the creator of some of the most acclaimed and best-selling game franchises of all time, including Mario, The Legend of Zelda, Donkey Kong, Star Fox and Pikmin. More than 1 billion copies of games featuring franchises created by Miyamoto have been sold.
Born in Sonobe, Kyoto, Miyamoto graduated from Kanazawa Municipal College of Industrial Arts. He originally sought a career as a manga artist, until developing an interest in video games. With the help of his father, he joined Nintendo in 1977 after impressing the president, Hiroshi Yamauchi, with his toys. He helped create art for the arcade game Sheriff, and was later tasked with designing a new arcade game, leading to the 1981 game Donkey Kong.
Miyamoto's games Super Mario Bros. (1985) and The Legend of Zelda (1986) helped the Nintendo Entertainment System dominate the console game market. His games have been flagships of every Nintendo video game console, from the arcade machines of the late 1970s to the present day. He managed Nintendo's Entertainment Analysis & Development software division, which developed many Nintendo games, and he played an important role in the creation of other influential games such as Pokémon Red and Blue (1996) and Metroid Prime (2002). Following the death of Nintendo president Satoru Iwata in July 2015, Miyamoto became acting president alongside Genyo Takeda until he was formally appointed "Creative Fellow" a few months later. |
synth_fc_293_rep18 | No function call | Biomass | Calculation | Single | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Crop_yield | 1 | In agriculture, the yield is a measurement of the amount of a crop grown, or product such as wool, meat or milk produced, per unit area of land. The seed ratio is another way of calculating yields. Innovations, such as the use of fertilizer, the creation of better farming tools, new methods of farming and improved crop varieties, have improved yields. The higher the yield and more intensive use of the farmland, the higher the productivity and profitability of a farm; this increases the well-being of farming families. Surplus crops beyond the needs of subsistence agriculture can be sold or bartered. The more grain or fodder a farmer can produce, the more draft animals such as horses and oxen could be supported and harnessed for labour and production of manure. Increased crop yields also means fewer hands are needed on farm, freeing them for industry and commerce. This, in turn, led to the formation and growth of cities, which then translated into an increased demand for foodstuffs or other agricultural products. |
synth_fc_2729_rep24 | Positive | Physics & Chemistry | Database search | Multi | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Edward_A._Guggenheim | 1 | Edward Armand Guggenheim FRS was an English physical chemist, noted for his contributions to thermodynamics. |
synth_fc_1399_rep10 | Negative | Food | Recommendation | Single | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vaccinium_myrtillus | 1 | Vaccinium myrtillus or European blueberry is a holarctic species of shrub with edible fruit of blue color, known by the common names bilberry, blaeberry, wimberry, and whortleberry. It is more precisely called common bilberry or blue whortleberry to distinguish it from other Vaccinium relatives. |
synth_fc_1018_rep23 | No function call | Finance | Calculation | Single | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Almond_milk | 1 | Almond milk is a plant-based milk substitute with a watery texture and nutty flavor manufactured from almonds, although some types or brands are flavored in imitation of cow's milk. It does not contain cholesterol or lactose and is low in saturated fat. Almond milk is often consumed by those who are lactose-intolerant and others, such as vegans, who avoid dairy products. Commercial almond milk comes in sweetened, unsweetened, vanilla and chocolate flavors, and is usually fortified with micronutrients. It can also be made at home using a blender, almonds and water. Global almond milk sales in 2018 were US$5.8 billion, growing at 14% per year, and forecast to be a $13 billion global market by 2025. |
synth_fc_2580_rep27 | Positive | Music | Feature search | Single | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ike_Turner | 1 | Izear Luster "Ike" Turner Jr. was an American musician, bandleader, songwriter, record producer, and talent scout. An early pioneer of 1950s rock and roll, he is best known for his work in the 1960s and 1970s with his wife Tina Turner as the leader of the Ike & Tina Turner Revue. A native of Clarksdale, Mississippi, Turner began playing piano and guitar as a child and then formed the Kings of Rhythm as a teenager. His first recording, "Rocket 88", is considered a contender for the distinction of first rock and roll song. During the 1950s, Turner also worked as a talent scout and producer for Sun Records and Modern Records. He was instrumental in the early careers of various blues musicians such as B.B. King, Howlin' Wolf, and Bobby "Blue" Bland. In 1954, Turner relocated to East St. Louis where his Kings of Rhythm became one of the most renowned acts in Greater St. Louis. He formed the Ike & Tina Turner Revue in 1960, which over the course of the decade became a soul/rock crossover success. Turner's cocaine addiction and legal troubles, together with accounts by Tina Turner of domestic violence, had an impact on his career. Addicted to cocaine for at least 15 years, Turner was convicted of drug offenses and served 18 months in prison. After his release in 1991, he relapsed in 2004, and died of a drug overdose in 2007. During the last decade of his life, Turner revived his career as a frontman by returning to his blues roots. He released two award-winning albums, Here and Now (2001) and Risin' with the Blues (2006). Hailed as a "great innovator" of rock and roll by contemporaries such as Little Richard and Johnny Otis, Turner received critical acclaim as well. Rolling Stone editor David Fricke ranked Turner No. 61 on his list of 100 Greatest Guitarists and noted, "Turner was one of the first guitarists to successfully transplant the intensity of the blues into more commercial music." Turner won five Grammy Awards, including two competitive awards and three Grammy Hall of Fame Awards. He also received the Recording Academy's Heroes Award. Turner was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame with Tina Turner in 1991. As a solo artist he is inducted into the St. Louis Walk of Fame, the Clarksdale Walk of Fame, the Mississippi Musicians Hall of Fame, the Blues Hall of Fame, and the Rhythm & Blues Hall of Fame. |
synth_fc_2142_rep26 | No function call | Law | Entity search | Single | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pel%C3%A9 | 27 | Relationships and children
Pelé married three times and had several affairs, fathering seven children in all.
In 1966, Pelé married Rosemeri dos Reis Cholbi. They had two daughters, Kely Cristina (born 13 January 1967), who married Arthur DeLuca, and Jennifer (b. 1978), as well as one son, Edson ("Edinho", b. 27 August 1970). The couple divorced in 1982. In May 2014, Edinho was sentenced to 33 years in jail for laundering money from drug trafficking. On appeal, the sentence was reduced to 12 years and 10 months.
From 1981 to 1986, Pelé was romantically linked with TV presenter Xuxa. She was 17 when they started dating. In April 1994, Pelé married psychologist and gospel singer Assíria Lemos Seixas, who gave birth on 28 September 1996 to twins Joshua and Celeste through fertility treatments. The couple divorced in 2008.
Pelé had at least two more children from affairs. Sandra Machado, who was born from an affair Pelé had in 1964 with a housemaid, Anizia Machado, fought for years to be acknowledged by Pelé, who refused to submit to DNA tests. Pelé finally relented after a court-ordered DNA test proved she was his daughter. Sandra Machado died of cancer in 2006.
At the age of 73, Pelé announced his intention to marry 41-year-old Marcia Aoki, a Japanese-Brazilian importer of medical equipment from Penápolis, São Paulo, whom he had been dating since 2010. They first met in the mid-1980s in New York, before meeting again in 2008. They married in July 2016. |
synth_fc_1683_rep14 | Positive | Health | Database search | Single | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Circumcision | 1 | Circumcision is a procedure that removes the foreskin from the human penis. In the most common form of the operation, the foreskin is extended with forceps, then a circumcision device may be placed, after which the foreskin is excised. Topical or locally injected anesthesia is generally used to reduce pain and physiologic stress. Circumcision is generally electively performed, most commonly done as a form of preventive healthcare, as a religious obligation, or as a cultural practice. It is also an option for cases of phimosis, other pathologies that do not resolve with other treatments, and chronic urinary tract infections (UTIs). The procedure is contraindicated in cases of certain genital structure abnormalities or poor general health.
The procedure is associated with reduced rates of sexually transmitted infections and urinary tract infections. This includes reducing the incidence of cancer-causing forms of human papillomavirus (HPV) and significantly reducing HIV transmission among heterosexual men in high-risk populations; its prophylactic efficacy against HIV transmission in the developed world or among men who have sex with men is debated. Neonatal circumcision decreases the risk of penile cancer. Complication rates increase significantly with age. Bleeding, infection, and the removal of either too much or too little foreskin are the most common acute complications, while meatal stenosis is the most common long-term. There are various cultural, social, and ethical views on circumcision. Major medical organizations hold variant views on the strength of circumcision's prophylactic efficacy in developed countries. Some medical organizations take the position that it carries prophylactic health benefits which outweigh the risks, while other medical organizations generally hold the belief that in these situations its medical benefits are not counterbalanced by risk.
Circumcision is one of the world's most common and oldest medical procedures. Prophylactic usage originated in England during the 1850s and subsequently widely spread, becoming predominately established as a way to prevent sexually transmitted infections. Beyond use as a prophylactic or treatment option in healthcare, circumcision plays a major role in many of the world's cultures and religions, most prominently Judaism and Islam. Circumcision is among the most important commandments in Judaism. It is widespread in Australia, Canada, the United States, South Korea, most of Africa, and parts of Asia. It is relatively rare for non-religious reasons in parts of Southern Africa, Latin America, Europe, and parts of Asia. The origin of circumcision is not known with certainty, but the oldest documentation comes from ancient Egypt. |
synth_fc_1777_rep16 | Positive | Health | Calculation | Single | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pregnancy | 47 | Medical imaging
Medical imaging may be indicated in pregnancy because of pregnancy complications, disease, or routine prenatal care. Medical ultrasonography including obstetric ultrasonography, and magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) without contrast agents are not associated with any risk for the mother or the fetus, and are the imaging techniques of choice for pregnant women. Projectional radiography, CT scan and nuclear medicine imaging result in some degree of ionizing radiation exposure, but in most cases the absorbed doses are not associated with harm to the baby. At higher dosages or frequency, effects can include miscarriage, birth defects and intellectual disability. |
synth_fc_3397_rep15 | Positive | Store & Facility | Entity search | Multi | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wheelchair | 13 | All-terrain wheelchairs
All-terrain wheelchairs can allow users to access terrain otherwise completely inaccessible to a wheelchair user. Two different formats have been developed. One hybridises wheelchair and mountain bike technology, generally taking the form of a frame within which the user sits and with four mountain bike wheels at the corners. In general, there are no push-rims and propulsion/braking is by pushing directly on the tyres.
A more common variant is the beach wheelchair (beach-going wheelchair) which can allow better mobility on beach sand, including in the water, on uneven terrain, and even on snow. The common adaptation among the different designs is that they have extra-wide balloon wheels or tires, to increase stability and decrease ground pressure on uneven or unsteady terrain. Different models are available, both manual and battery-driven. In some countries in Europe, where accessible tourism is well established, many beaches have wheelchairs of this type available for loan/hire. |
synth_fc_2407_rep14 | Negative | Movie | Ranking | Single | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ed_Wood | 1 | Edward Davis Wood Jr. was an American filmmaker, actor, and pulp novelist. In the 1950s, Wood directed several low-budget science fiction, crime and horror films that later became cult classics, notably Glen or Glenda (1953), Jail Bait (1954), Bride of the Monster (1955), Plan 9 from Outer Space (1957) and Night of the Ghouls (1959). In the 1960s and 1970s, he moved towards sexploitation and pornographic films such as The Sinister Urge (1960), Orgy of the Dead (1965) and Necromania (1971), and wrote over 80 lurid pulp crime and sex novels. Notable for their campy aesthetics, technical errors, unsophisticated special effects, use of poorly-matched stock footage, eccentric casts, idiosyncratic stories and non sequitur dialogue, Wood's films remained largely obscure until he was posthumously awarded a Golden Turkey Award for Worst Director of All Time in 1980, renewing public interest in his life and work. Following the publication of Rudolph Grey's 1992 oral biography Nightmare of Ecstasy: The Life and Art of Edward D. Wood Jr., a biopic of his life, Ed Wood (1994), was directed by Tim Burton. Starring Johnny Depp as Wood and Martin Landau as Bela Lugosi, the film received critical acclaim and various awards, including two Academy Awards. |
synth_fc_630_rep25 | Positive | Currency | Calculation | Single | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ecuador | 42 | Return to democracy (1979–present)
Elections were held on 29 April 1979, under a new constitution. Jaime Roldós Aguilera was elected president, garnering over one million votes, the most in Ecuadorian history. He took office on 10 August as the first constitutionally elected president, after nearly a decade of civilian and military dictatorships. In 1980, he founded the Partido Pueblo, Cambio y Democracia (People, Change, and Democracy Party) after withdrawing from the Concentración de Fuerzas Populares (Popular Forces Concentration). He governed until 24 May 1981, when he died, along with his wife and the minister of defense Marco Subia Martinez, when his Air Force plane crashed in heavy rain near the Peruvian border. Many people believe that he was assassinated by the CIA, given the multiple death threats against him because of his reformist agenda, the deaths in automobile crashes of two key witnesses before they could testify during the investigation, and the sometimes contradictory accounts of the incident. Roldos was immediately succeeded by Vice President Osvaldo Hurtado.
In 1984 León Febres Cordero from the Social Christian Party was elected president. Rodrigo Borja Cevallos of the Democratic Left (Izquierda Democrática, or ID) party won the presidency in 1988, winning the runoff election against Abdalá Bucaram (brother in law of Jaime Roldos and founder of the Ecuadorian Roldosist Party). His government was committed to improving human rights protection and carried out some reforms, notably an opening of Ecuador to foreign trade. The Borja government negotiated the disbanding of the small terrorist group, " ¡Alfaro Vive, Carajo! " ("Alfaro Lives, Dammit!"), named after Eloy Alfaro. However, continuing economic problems undermined the popularity of the ID party, and opposition parties gained control of Congress in 1999.
A notable event was the Cenepa War fought between Ecuador and Peru in 1995.
Ecuador won its first Olympic medal in the 1996 Summer Olympics in Atlanta when Jefferson Pérez won gold in the 20 km walk.
Ecuador adopted the United States dollar on 13 April 2000 as its national currency and on 11 September, the country eliminated the Ecuadorian sucre, in order to stabilize the country's economy. The US Dollar has been the only official currency of Ecuador since then.
The emergence of the Amerindian population as an active constituency has added to the democratic volatility of the country in recent years. The population has been motivated by government failures to deliver on promises of land reform, lower unemployment and provision of social services, and the historical exploitation by the land-holding elite. Their movement, along with the continuing destabilizing efforts by both the elite and leftist movements, has led to a deterioration of the executive office. The populace and the other branches of government give the president very little political capital, as illustrated by the most recent removal of President Lucio Gutiérrez from office by Congress in April 2005. Vice President Alfredo Palacio took his place
In the election of 2006, Rafael Correa gained the presidency. In January 2007, several left-wing political leaders of Latin America, his future allies, attended his swearing-in ceremony. Endorsed in a 2008 referendum, a new constitution implemented leftist reforms. In December 2008, Correa declared Ecuador's national debt illegitimate, based on the argument that it was odious debt contracted by prior corrupt and despotic regimes. He announced that the country would default on over $3 billion worth of bonds, and he succeeded in reducing the price of outstanding bonds by more than 60% by fighting creditors in international courts. He brought Ecuador into the Bolivarian Alliance for the Americas in June 2009. Correa's administration reduced the high levels of poverty and unemployment in Ecuador.
Correa's three consecutive terms (from 2007 to 2017) were followed by his former Vice President Lenín Moreno 's four years as president (2017–21). After being elected in 2017, President Moreno's government adopted economically liberal policies, such as reduction of public spending, trade liberalization, and flexibility of the labour code. Ecuador also left the left-wing Bolivarian Alliance for the Americas (Alba) in August 2018. The Productive Development Act introduced an austerity policy, and reduced the previous development and redistribution policies. Regarding taxes, the authorities aimed to "encourage the return of investors" by granting amnesty to fraudsters and proposing measures to reduce tax rates for large companies. In addition, the government waived the right to tax increases in raw material prices and foreign exchange repatriations. In October 2018, Moreno cut diplomatic relations with the Maduro administration of Venezuela, a close ally of Correa. The relations with the United States improved significantly under Moreno. In June 2019, Ecuador agreed to allow US military planes to operate from an airport on the Galapagos Islands. In February 2020, his visit to Washington was the first meeting between an Ecuadorian and U.S. president in 17 years.
A series of protests began on 3 October 2019 against the end of fuel subsidies and austerity measures adopted by Moreno. On 10 October, protesters overran Quito, the capital, causing the Government of Ecuador to relocate temporarily to Guayaquil. The government eventually returned to Quito in 2019. On 14 October 2019, the government restored fuel subsidies and withdrew an austerity package, which ended nearly two weeks of protests.
In the 11 April 2021 election, conservative former banker Guillermo Lasso took 52.4% of the vote, compared to 47.6% for left-wing economist Andrés Aráuz, who was supported by exiled former president Correa. Lasso had finished second in the 2013 and 2017 presidential elections. On 24 May 2021, Lasso was sworn in, becoming the country's first right-wing leader in 14 years. Lasso's party CREO Movement, and its ally the Social Christian Party (PSC) won only 31 parliamentary seats out of 137, while Aráuz's Union for Hope (UNES) won 49 seats, which meant Lasso needed support from the Izquierda Democrática and the indigenist Pachakutik parties to push through his legislative agenda.
In October 2021, Lasso declared a 60-day state of emergency to combat crime and drug-related violence, including the numerous bloody clashes between rival groups in the state prisons. Lasso proposed a series of constitutional changes to enhance his government's ability to respond to crime. In a referendum in February 2023, voters overwhelmingly rejected his proposed changes, which weakened Lasso's political standing.
On 15 October 2023, centrist candidate Daniel Noboa won the premature presidential election with 52.3% of the vote against leftist candidate Luisa González. On 23 November 2023, Noboa was sworn in.
In January 2024, Noboa declared an " internal armed conflict " against organised crime, in response to the escape of imprisoned leader of the Los Choneros cartel, José Adolfo Macías Villamar (also known as "Fito"), and an armed attack at a public television channel. |
synth_fc_2647_rep19 | Positive | Music | Generation | Single | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Joe_Rogan | 1 | Joseph James Rogan is an American podcaster, UFC color commentator, comedian, actor, and former television host. He hosts The Joe Rogan Experience, a podcast in which he discusses current events, comedy, politics, philosophy, science, martial arts, and hobbies with celebrity guests. Rogan was born in Newark, New Jersey, and began his career in comedy in 1988 in the Boston area. After relocating to Los Angeles in 1994, he signed an exclusive developmental deal with Disney and appeared as an actor on several television shows, including Hardball and NewsRadio. In 1997, he started working for the UFC as an interviewer and color commentator. He released his first comedy special, I'm Gonna Be Dead Someday..., in 2000 and hosted the game show Fear Factor from 2001 to 2006. After leaving Fear Factor, Rogan focused on his stand-up career and hosted more comedy specials. He launched The Joe Rogan Experience in 2009; by 2015, it was one of the most popular podcasts in the world, regularly receiving millions of plays per episode. Spotify obtained exclusive distribution rights to The Joe Rogan Experience in 2020 for US$200 million. Rogan's audience has since grown significantly, and in 2024, he renewed his deal with Spotify for an estimated $250 million, but will no longer be exclusive to them. Rogan has been criticized for his associated acts, promotion of conspiracies and anti-transgender statements. He has expressed political opinions such as supporting Ron DeSantis and criticizing Justin Trudeau and Vladimir Putin, while also advocating for gun rights and free speech, criticizing cancel culture and military adventurism. Rogan has made controversial comments about COVID-19 vaccines, ivermectin, and hosted guests who spread misinformation, which led to public backlash and artists like Neil Young and Joni Mitchell removing their music from Spotify in protest. Additionally, Rogan has sparked controversy with his views on transgender athletes and making remarks promoting AIDS misinformation. However, Rogan supports same-sex marriage, gay rights, recreational drug use, universal health care and universal basic income. |
synth_fc_684_rep10 | Positive | Currency | Calculation | Multi | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Euro | 18 | Agreed direct usage without minting rights
The euro is also the sole currency in three overseas territories of France that are not themselves part of the EU, namely Saint Barthélemy, Saint Pierre and Miquelon, and the French Southern and Antarctic Lands, as well as in the British Overseas Territory of Akrotiri and Dhekelia. |
synth_fc_3637_rep14 | Positive | Video game | Entity search | Single | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tangerine_Dream | 1 | " Tangerine Dream is a German electronic music band founded in 1967 by Edgar Froese. The group has seen many personnel changes over the years, with Froese the only constant member until his death in January 2015. The best-known lineup of the group was its mid-1970s trio of Froese, Christopher Franke, and Peter Baumann. In 1979, Johannes Schmoelling replaced Baumann until his own departure in 1985. This lineup was notable for composing many movie soundtracks. Since Froese's death in 2015, the group has been under the leadership of Thorsten Quaeschning. Quaeschning is Froese's chosen successor and is currently the longest-serving band member, having joined in 2005. Quaeschning is currently joined by violinist Hoshiko Yamane who joined in 2011 and Paul Frick who joined in 2020. Prior to this Quaeschning and Yamane performed with Ulrich Schnauss from 2014 to 2020. Schnauss only played two shows with Froese in November 2014 before Froese's passing. Tangerine Dream are considered a pioneering act in electronica. Their work with the electronic music Ohr label produced albums that had a pivotal role in the development of the German musical scene known as kosmische Musik. Their "Virgin Years", so called because of their association with Virgin Records, produced albums that further explored synthesizers and sequencers, including the UK top 20 albums Phaedra (1974) and Rubycon (1975). The group also had a successful career composing film soundtracks, creating over 60 scores. From the late 1990s into the 2000s, Tangerine Dream continued to explore other styles of instrumental music as well as electronica. Their recorded output has been prolific, including over one hundred albums. Among other scoring projects, they helped create the soundtrack for the video game Grand Theft Auto V. Their mid-1970s work has been profoundly influential in the development of electronic music styles such as new-age and electronic dance music. On 29 September 2017, the band released an all-new music studio album entitled Quantum Gate. In December 2019, they released Recurring Dreams, a compilation of new recordings of some of the band's classic compositions. On 26 November 2021, the band released an EP entitled Probe 6–8, whose concept was developed further on their following album Raum, their latest studio album to date which was released on 25 February 2022. |
synth_fc_1884_rep21 | Positive | History | Ranking | Single | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dolores_del_R%C3%ADo | 1 | María de los Dolores Asúnsolo y López Negrete, known professionally as Dolores del Río, was a Mexican actress. With a career spanning more than 50 years, she is regarded as the first major female Latin American crossover star in Hollywood. Along with a notable career in American cinema during the 1920s and 1930s, she was also considered one of the most important female figures in the Golden Age of Mexican cinema, and one of the most beautiful actresses of her era. After being discovered in Mexico, she began her film career in Hollywood in 1925. She had roles in a string of successful films, including Resurrection (1927), Ramona (1928) and Evangeline (1929). Del Río came to be considered a sort of feminine version of Rudolph Valentino, a ‘female Latin Lover’, in her years during the American silent era. With the advent of sound, she acted in a range of film genres, from contemporary crime melodramas to musical comedies and romantic dramas. Her most successful films of that decade include Bird of Paradise (1932), Flying Down to Rio (1933) and Madame Du Barry (1934). In the early 1940s, when her Hollywood career began to decline, Del Río returned to Mexico and joined the Mexican film industry, which at that time was at its peak. When Del Río returned to her native country, she became one of the more important stars of the Golden Age of Mexican cinema. A series of Mexican films starring Del Rio are considered classic masterpieces and helped boost Mexican cinema worldwide. Of them stands out the critically acclaimed María Candelaria (1943). Del Río remained active mainly in Mexican films throughout the 1950s. In 1960 she returned to Hollywood. During the next years she appeared in Mexican and American films. From the late 1950s until the early 1970s she also successfully ventured into theater in Mexico and appeared in some American TV series. Del Río is considered a quintessential representation of the female face of Mexico in the world. |
synth_fc_3580_rep27 | Positive | Travel itinerary | Calculation | Multi | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/N%27Djamena | 15 | Road
The city is the eastern terminus of the Trans-Sahelian Highway, and is linked to East Africa by the (largely unpaved) N'Djamena–Djibouti Highway. The Tripoli-Cape Town Highway also passes through N'Djamena, making it a key Central African location in the Trans-African Highway network. N'Djamena is linked by road bridge to Kousséri in Cameroon. |
Subsets and Splits
No community queries yet
The top public SQL queries from the community will appear here once available.