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30724 | https://simple.wikipedia.org/wiki/History%20of%20Japan | History of Japan | The History of Japan in written form dates from the 1st century, but archeologists have found proof of people living in Japan for the last several thousand years from the time when the last Ice Age ended.
Prehistory
The first period of Japan's history is its prehistory, before the written history of Japan. Archeologists have found pottery from that time. Japan’s Paleolithic era covers a period from around 100,000 BC to around 12,000 BC. Archeologists have found some polished tools made of stones. Some of them are kept in Tokyo National Museum. These tools are more than 32,000 years old.
Jomon Period
The Jomon period lasted for about 10,000 years, from 10,000 BC to around 300 BC. This was the Mesolithic era for Japan. Some scholars say that during this period, Neolithic culture also developed in Japan.
Some believe that the Jomon people were the first people in the world to create pottery but other scholars do not think so. Archeologists have found several pieces of pottery of that time. Some are clay figures and some are vessels and potteries of different shapes.
Yayoi Period
The Yayoi period covered about 550 years, from around 300 BC till around 250. The period's name came from a location in Tokyo.
By that time, Japanese people had learnt the cultivation of rice, and agriculture became the main part of the Japanese society. Because of this, differences in social status started to occur.
Different clans controlled different areas and they also fought among themselves. Some Chinese texts tell about this time. These texts describe Japan as Wa. Later, the Yamatai came into being when about 30 smaller parts of Japan of that time united under a queen named Himiko.
Ancient and Classical Japan
The Ancient and Classical period covers about 900 years, beginning from the mid-3rd century till the end of the 12th century. Japanese history during this period may further be divided into several smaller periods. These are described below.
Kofun period
In the history of Japan, the period from the mid-3rd century till the mid-6th century is known as the Kofun period.
Kofun is a large tomb made at this era, and people who had social power were buried. Buddhism had not reached Japan by this time. Many kofuns were made in many places. This fact lets us to know that many social groups all around the country made up an authority, and this leads to the Yamato dynasty.
The Yamato dynasty started to have take more action against Korea and China. In the 4th century, they started to advance to Korea to get iron. By this, cultures and technologies of Korea and China started to be introduced to Japan. They also fought with Goguryeo and Silla, which are countries in Korea. In the 5th century, the five kings of Wa made effort to have relationship with China.
Asuka period
The second period is called the Asuka period (mid-6th century till around 710). Asuka is the place where the base of Yamato dynasty took place. By this time Buddhism had reached Japan.
From the end of the 6th century to the early 7th century, Empress Suiko and her nephew Prince Shotoku innovated the political system so that the emperor gets power. They also sent missions to the Sui dynasty.
The trend of centralization still continues. In 645, the Taika Reforms takes place, and the political system changes a lot.
In 663, the nation fights with the Tang dynasty and Silla (Battle of Baekgang), but loses.
In 672, the Jinshin war occurs and Prince Ōama becomes the emperor (Emperor Tenmu). In his era, Japan starts to make a Chinese style law system (Ritsuryo). Also, the word , which means "Japan" in Japanese, was started to be used in the era of Tenmu.
Nara Period
During this period, from the year 707, steps were taken to shift the capital to Heijō-kyō, a place near present-day Nara. This was completed in 710. A new city was built. The city was built to look like the Chinese capital city of that time. At that time, the Tang Dynasty was ruling China, and the capital was at Chang'an (now Xi'an).
During the Nara period, development was slow. The Emperor’s family members were always fighting for power with the Buddhists and other groups. At that time, Japan had friendly relations with Korea and China’s Tang Dynasty. The capital was shifted twice. In 784, the capital was moved to Nagaoka and in 794 to Kyoto.
Heian Period
The years from 794 to 1185 are known as the . This grouping of years is named after city of Heian-kyō, which is the early name of present-day Kyoto. The Heian period produced many cultural achievements, such as the Tale of Genji by Murasaki Shikibu. The Heian Period ended due to the Genpei War.
Feudal Japan
The period from around the 12th century through the 19th century is called feudal period in the history of Japan. The Japanese Emperor was the head of the government, but he had no real power. Many powerful families (called daimyo and military groups called shogun) ruled Japan during this period. The feudal period of Japan is generally sub-divided into different periods named after the shogunate which ruled during that period.
Kamakura Period
The years 1185 to 1333 are known as the . This grouping of years is named after city of Kamakura which was the center of power of the Kamakura shogunate. Minamoto no Yoritomo was the founder and first shogun of the Kamakura shogunate.
Muromachi Period
The Muromachi Period began in 1336 and ended in 1573. Emperor Go-Daigo lost his throne. The government of the Ashikaga shogunate took control of most parts of Japan. This period ended in 1573. In that year the 15th and the last shogun named Ashikaga Yoshiaki was forced to leave the capital Kyōto.
During this period, in 1542, a Portuguese ship reached Japan and made the first direct contact between both cultures, including the knowledge of firearms. In the next few years, merchants and also some Christian missionaries from several European countries, mainly Portugal, the Netherlands, England, and Spain, reached the shores of Japan.
Azuchi-Momoyama Period
Azuchi-Momoyama period covers the years from 1568 to 1600. During these years, different parts of Japan became united again. Japan's military power grew. In 1592, Japan wanted to conquer China. At that time China was ruled by the Ming dynasty. Toyotomi Hideyoshi was one of the main leaders of Japan. He sent an army of 160,000 samurai to Korea. The Japanese could not win and retreated back to Japan. In 1597, Japan again sent an army to Korea. In 1598, Toyotomi Hideyoshi died. After his death, the Japanese dropped the idea of conquering Korea and China.
During this period, the Japanese brought many Koreans to Japan. These Koreans were very good at making pottery and at other arts. Some of them were very educated. Japan gained new information and knowledge from these Koreans.
Chinese men "who settle down [in Nagasaki] and marry." were mentioned as coming from Fujian, China in 1614 in a Portuguese document. Nagasaki officials were urged to accomdate Chinese merchants by "show them kindness marrying them to Japanese girls and supplying them with free necessities," by Toyotomi Hideyoshi. In 1505 in Japan, syphilis was likely brought to Japan by Japanese prostitutes having sex with Chinese sailors. In Sakai and Hakata ports Japanese brothels were patronized by Chinese. Intermarriage between Japanese and Chinese migrants coming to Japan were frequent in the old times. Japanese general Sakanoue Tamuramaro and Tendai priest Saichō had Chinese ancestry. Foreign origin clans made up a third of the kuge noble families in the 9th century according to Shinsen shōjiroku. In the 1590s Hideyoshi's forces took Koreans prisoners in the Imjin war and sold them to Portuguese as slaves. Japanese girls were sold by their parents and brothel keepers as concubines to visiting black African slaves and South Asian servants of Portuguese ships in addition to the Portuguese themselves.
Japanese parents rented their underage daughters off to brothels for a period of one decade. The girls would be 7 or 8 years old and come from fishing and farming villages. Brothels in Nagasaki were reserved for Dutch men and Chinese men to have sex with temporary Japanese wives, courtesans and prostitutes. Japanese male painters drew paintings of Japanese women having sex with Dutch men.
Edo Period
During the Edo period, Japan had many small rulers. There were about 200 of them. They were called daimyo, and they were all ruled by the Tokugawa Shogunate which was leaded by the Tokugawa clan. The shoguate's capital was relocated to Edo. This place was at modern-day Tokyo. Fifteen shoguns controlled the Tokugawa shogunate during the Edo Period.
The Edo period is also a very important period in the history of Japan. The main developments include:
Samurai became the highest group in Japanese society. Farmers, artisans, and merchants were lower than the Samurai.
Common persons were organized in groups of five. If any one of them made any mistake or did anything wrong, all five persons were responsible.
New artistic movements and forms of theatre. Ukiyo-e wood-block printing was invented. New forms of theatre included kabuki and bunraku theaters.
Trade and commerce continued to rise during the Edo period.
In 1867, the Tokugawa Shogunate returned its political power to the emperor. Although, the emperor did not know how to rule the country because the last time the emperor had power was 500 years ago. So, the shogunate still remained in authority.
In 1868, the Boshin War occurred between the Japanese emperor and the Tokugawa shogunate. Japan again came under the actual rule of an emperor as the Tokugawa shogunate was defeated.
Seclusion
Beginning from the early 17th century, the Tokugawa shogunate followed a policy of seclusion, known as sakoku in Japanese language. They suspected that traders, merchants, and missionaries from Europe wanted to bring Japan under the control of European powers. All traders and missionaries from other countries were forced to leave Japan, except for the Dutch, the Koreans, and the Chinese.
Even during the period of seclusion, the Japanese continued to gain information and knowledge about other parts of the world.
End of seclusion
This policy of seclusion lasted for about 200 years until it ended under American military force. On July 8th 1853, Commodore Matthew Perry of the United States Navy reached Edo with four warships. The ships were heavily armed and their guns pointed towards the city. After this display of American military power, Japan was forced to agree to trade with other countries. The Japanese called these ships the kurofune or the Black Ships.
Next year, on March 31st 1854, Perry came with seven ships and the Japanese signed a treaty (known as the Convention of Kanagawa) that established a diplomatic relationship with the United States. Another treaty (known as the Harris Treaty) was signed with the United States on July 29th 1858. This treaty gave more facilities to foreigners coming to Japan and expanded trade with Japan. Many Japanese were not happy with reopening diplomatic relations and trade with other countries.
Meiji Restoration
The Meiji Restoration is an important period of history of Japan. Emperor Meiji ruled Japan and regained power from the shogunate. The Meiji Restoration began with the Boshin War of 1868. Emperor Meiji wanted Japan to become Westernized. Many changes occurred in Japan’s government and culture.
Japan exported prostitutes called Karayuki-san during the Meiji and Taisho periods to China, Canada, the United States, Australia, French Indochina, British Malaya, British Borneo, British India and British East Africa where they served western soldiers and Chinese coolies. The French viewed Japanese prostitutes as cleaner than Vietnamese prostitutes, as almost like European women. Japanese prostitutes in French Indochina refused to serve Vietnmese (Annamese) men since they held Vietnamese in contempry as a servant race. French men frequented both Vietnamese prostitutes and Japanese prostitutes in French Indochina. Japanese protsiutes worked in the American west and also as barmaids.
Japanese prostitutes serviced British colonialists in Kenya and in British India where they were viewed as clean. One Japanese prostitute in British Singapore was forced to serve dozens of men a day until her genitals hurt and she was forced to use petroleum jelly on it. The Japanese prostitutes also served Chinese men in Singapore. Japanese prostitutes were everywhere in Singapore in the British colonial era and they were renown for the "Singapore grip" by their British male clients, where the Japanese prostitute would use their vagina to squeeze the client's penis. Britain was Japan's ally and let Japanese prostitutes and other businesses infiltrate Singapore's economy. One Singapore based photography studio was owned by a Kempeitai chief.
Wars with China and Russia
At the end of the 19th century, many Japanese believed that Japan needed to expand in order to face Western foreign powers. This resulted in wars with its neighboring counties. In 1894-1895, Japan and China had a war. Another war took place with Russia in 1904-1905. Japan became a world power after these wars. Russian influence continued to grow inside China.
Anglo-Japanese Alliance
By the beginning of the 20th century, Russian influence was increasing in China. Japan and the United Kingdom used to get economic and other benefits from their relationship with China. Japan and the United Kingdom did not like Russia’s growing influence in China. Japan and the United Kingdom formed a military alliance, called the Anglo-Japanese Alliance, on January 30th 1902. Russia was not happy at this type of agreement between Japan and the United Kingdom. Russia tried to form a similar military alliance with Germany and France. On March 6th 1902, Russia formed a military alliance with France but not Germany.
The Russo-Japanese War began between Japan and Russia. Japan won the Russo-Japanese War. The United States mediated the peace negotiations between Japan and Russia. Japan got a number of concessions. In 1910, Japan invaded and annexed Korea.
World War I to End of World War II
In 1914, the First World War broke out. Japan also entered the war. It attacked several places (of East Asia), which were colonies of Germany. After the war ended in 1919, Japan developed very fast. It became one of the major powers of Asia.
World War II
Before the beginning of the Second World War, Japan was fighting with China. This is called Second Sino-Japanese War (1937-1945). According to the United States government's own Department of State's Office of the Historian, the US did nothing to help China against the Japanese from 1937-1940 when Japan and China were engaged in total war. US officials and policymakers did not want to help. Meanwhile, Japan's military obtained the majority of its iron, steel and oil from the United States between 1937-1940. The treaty of commerce between the United States and Japan was not abrogated until January 1940 and even then the United States did not embargo Japan right away. The United States only began giving aid to China after 1940 when Japan and China already fought for three years.When the Second World War broke out in 1939, Japan went to the side of Nazi Germany and Fascist Italy. Japanese planes attacked Pearl Harbor on December 7, 1941. The fighting continued for years. When the USA dropped the first atomic bombs on the Japanese cities of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, Japan accepted defeat and surrendered in 1945.
World War II and Japanese occupation of the Philippines
Japan launched a surprise attack on the Clark Air Base in Pampanga on December 8, 1941, just ten hours after the attack on Pearl Harbor. Aerial bombardment was followed by landings of ground troops on Luzon. The defending Philippine and United States troops were under the command of General Douglas MacArthur. Under the pressure of superior numbers, the defending forces withdrew to the Bataan Peninsula and to the island of Corregidor at the entrance to Manila Bay.
On January 2, 1942, General MacArthur declared the capital city, Manila, an open city to prevent its destruction. The Philippine defense continued until the final surrender of United States-Philippine forces on the Bataan Peninsula in April 1942 and on Corregidor in May of the same year. Most of the 80,000 prisoners of war captured by the Japanese at Bataan were forced to undertake the infamous Bataan Death March to a prison camp 105 kilometers to the north. It is estimated that about 10,000 Filipinos and 1,200 Americans died before reaching their destination.
President Quezon and Osmeña had accompanied the troops to Corregidor and later left for the United States, where they set up a government in exile. MacArthur was ordered to Australia, where he started to plan for a return to the Philippines.
The Japanese military authorities immediately began organizing a new government structure in the Philippines and established the Philippine Executive Commission. They initially organized a Council of State, through which they directed civil affairs until October 1943, when they declared the Philippines an independent republic. The Japanese-sponsored republic headed by President José P. Laurel proved to be unpopular.
Japanese occupation of the Philippines was opposed by large-scale underground and guerrilla activity. The Philippine Army, as well as remnants of the U.S. Army Forces Far East, continued to fight the Japanese in a guerrilla war and was considered an auxiliary unit of the United States Army. Their effectiveness was such that by the end of the war, Japan controlled only twelve of the forty-eight provinces. One element of resistance in the Central Luzon area was furnished by the Hukbalahap, which armed some 30,000 people and extended their control over much of Luzon.
The occupation of the Philippines by Japan ended at the war's conclusion. The American army had been fighting the Philippines Campaign since October 1944, when MacArthur's Sixth United States Army landed on Leyte. Landings in other parts of the country had followed, and the Allies, with the Philippine Commonwealth troops, pushed toward Manila. However, fighting continued until Japan's formal surrender on September 2, 1945. The Philippines suffered great loss of life and tremendous physical destruction, especially during the Battle of Manila. An estimated 1 million Filipinos had been killed, a large portion during the final months of the war, and Manila had been extensively damaged.
Occupied Japan
After the end of the Second World War, Japan came under international control. Japan became an important friend of the USA when it entered into the Cold war with Korea. Over next few years, many political, economic and social changes took place. Japanese Diet (legislature) came into being. In 1951, USA and 45 other countries signed an agreement with Japan, and Japan again became an independent nation with full power (a country with full sovereignty) on 28th April 1952.
Post-Occupation Japan
Post-Occupation Japan means Japan after its occupation and control by a group of nations had ended. This is the period after the Second World War. The Second World War had damaged Japan very badly. It has almost lost its industry and economy was in a very bad shape. After the war, Japan received assistance and technology from the USA and several other countries of Europe. The progress was very rapid. For about 30 years, from around the 1950s to the 1980s, Japan grew very fast. It became one of the major economic powers of the world.
When the UN forces were fighting in Korea during the Korean War, Japan was one of the major suppliers. This also helped Japan’s economy. By 1980s, Japan had become the world’s second largest economy, after the USA. At first, there was very close relationship between Japan and the USA. But, Japan’s economic might resulted into trade deficit for the USA. A trade deficit results when imports are more than exports. Thus, USA was importing more than it exported to Japan.
For various reasons, this phase of rapid development ended in the 1990s. Some historians have described this decade as the lost decade of Japanese economy. About 5 to 10 persons in 100 persons could not find any work.
Political life
By 1952, Japan had become free from most of the controls of the occupation period. It got its own democratic system. Various political parties came into being and Japan’s political life became active.
Modern Life (Heisei Era)
Historians and sociologists call the recent era modern life. In Japanese, this is called the Heisei period. By 1989, Japan’s economy had become very large. Much development had taken place. In the Gulf war of 1991, Japan gave billions of dollars.
Japan also faced some problems. In 1995, a big earthquake took place in Kobe. Another earthquake took place on 23rd October 2004 in Niigata Prefecture, and a very destructive tsunami damaged the north east coast in March 2011, causing a nuclear accident in Fukushima Prefecture.
References |
30754 | https://simple.wikipedia.org/wiki/History%20of%20Saudi%20Arabia | History of Saudi Arabia | History of Saudi Arabia covers thousands of years with lots of people from different cultures living there. There was a culture called the Dilmun culture among them, which was very old and existed along the Persian Gulf. It was as old as the ancient civilizations of Sumerians and the Egyptians. Saudi Arabia had trading relations with many parts of the ancient world, but the hot and harsh climate had made large settlements difficult. Some settlements had always existed around oases; these are places in the deserts where growth and water are available.
Saudi Arabia became an important center, as Islam rose in the 620s. The cities of Medina and Mecca became the holiest places of Islam. They also became the two holiest cities for the Muslims in the whole world. The rulers and kings of Saudi Arabia also got more power.
Early history
Modern history
Background
The beginning of the modern history of Saudi Arabia was when an Islamic reformer named Muhammad ibn Abd al Wahhab and a local ruler named Muhammad bin Saud founded the Saudi state in the year 1744. It was founded in the central part of the Arabia. Over the next Century and a half, the Saud family saw bad and good times. The family also faced opposition from rulers of Egypt and the Ottoman Empire. The family also faced opposition from other powerful families of Arabia
Finally after many decades,The modern state of Saudi Arabia could be established by King Abdul Aziz Al-Saud (also known as Abdul Aziz Ibn Saud). In 1902, he took over the city of Riyadh from another family, named Al-Rashid. He continued to win more areas, and on 8 January 1926, he became the King of Hijaz. On 29 January 1927, he took the title of King of Nejd. On 20th May 1927, the government of the United Kingdom accepted him as the King of the areas ruled by him. His kingdom now became a sovereignty. All the regions under his control were united to form the state of Saudi Arabia by the year 1932. Petroleum oil was found in Saudi Arabia on 3 March 1938, which made the country rich as export of oil started to bring a lot of money.
Boundaries
Saudi Arabia discussed from the beginning of the 1920s with its neighboring countries about fixing of definite boundaries. It finalized its boundaries with Iraq, Jordan, and Kuwait. On borders with Iraq and Kuwait, two neutral zones were created – one with Iraq, and the other one with Kuwait. In 1934, borders with Yemen were almost finalized.
In 1965, Saudi Arabia gave some of its areas to Jordan, and Jordan gave some of its areas to Saudi Area. In 1971, the neutral zone between Saudi Arabia and Kuwait was partitioned between these two countries. Likewise, Saudi Arabia and Iraq decided in 1981 to partition the neutral zone between them. The zone was partitioned between the two countries in 1984.
Still, Saudi Arabia's borders with the United Arab Emirates and Oman are not final. The border with Qatar was finalized in 2001.
Politics
King Abdul Aziz Al-Saud died in 1953. His son named Saud became the king. He reigned for 11 years. In 1964, he was forced to step down, and his half-brother, Faisal, became the king. Faisal had the support of the senior members of the royal family and the religious leaders. Faisal also held the post of the Prime Minister. This tradition of being both the King and the Prime Minister still continues in Saudi Arabia. All Kings after Faisal had followed this practice.
Faisal took a number of new steps for economic development of Saudi Arabia. During his reign, many important political events also happened like the ones noted below:
Differences between Saudi Arabia and Egypt over Yemen: Egypt supported the new government of Yemen, while Saudi Arabia supported the royal family of Yemen to continue in power.
The Six-Day (Arab-Israeli) War of June 1967: Saudi Arabia did not directly fight in this war. But, after the war, it provided financial support to Egypt, Syria, and Jordan.
Stopping of supply of oil to the USA and the Netherlands: In 1973, many countries stopped supplying petroleum oil to the USA and the Netherlands. Saudi Arabia was one of them.
In 1975, King Faisal was assassinated by one of his nephews. The nephew was found guilty, and he was sentenced to death. King Faisal's half-brother Khalid became the King and the Prime Minister of Saudi Arabia. During the reign of King Khalid, Saudi Arabia's importance in regional politics increased. The economic growth of the country also continued at a good rate.
King Fahd's period
King Khalid died in 1982. After his death, Fahd became the King. At the same time, he also became the Prime Minister of Saudi Arabia. His half-brother Prince Abdullah became the Crown Prince.
The income of Saudi Arabia became less during the period of King Fahd's reign. This was a result of lower price of petroleum oil. King Fahd's government used an economic policy which helped the country to survive with a lower income.
King Fahd helped Iraq during the Iran-Iraq war. Iraq's economy had become very bad on account of this war. The King also discussed with these two countries to stop war. Both countries (Iran and Iraq) stopped the war in August 1988,. The King also helped in making Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) a stronger organization. The GCC is an organization of six countries of the Persian Gulf. The purpose of the organization is to increase development and cooperation among the member countries.
Gulf War
In 1990, Saddam Hussain was ruling Iraq. The Gulf War of 1991 was when he invaded Kuwait. Many people thought that his army would also invade Saudi Arabia. King Fahd allowed some Western countries and USA to send their forces to the country. Many Muslims were against that their most holy land was used by non-Muslim soldiers.
During and after the Gulf War, King Fahd’s role was very important. During the war, he allowed the entry of the royal family of Kuwait inside Saudi Arabia and followed by 400,000 other persons from Kuwait to stay on a temporary basis. The King allowed the troops of countries like USA to mount attacks on Kuwait to liberate it. He also helped in arranging support of other Muslim countries for liberation of Kuwait. Iraqi forces were eventually ousted from Kuwait.
Terrorism
Presence of troops from the Western countries has angered many Muslims. One of them was the rich man Osama bin Laden. He was forced to leave Saudi Arabia when he disagreed and opposed the King of Saudi Arabia. Other than Osma bin laden and his groups, there were several other persons and groups who did not like the presence of Western troops inside Saudi Arabia.
These persons and their groups attacked people, they tried manly to attack the foreign troops in Saudi Arabia. Some examples of such attacks are given below:
A truck bomb killed 19 troops of the USA in June 1996.
Bombing of a base of Saudi National Guard in November 1995.
September 11, 2001 attacks in New York had resulted into many deaths and big destruction. After enquiry, it came to light that out of 19 suspected persons for these attacks, 15 were from Saudi Arabia.
Such things attracted the attention of the government of Saudi Arabia. The government started a policy to check such activities. Even then, terrorist activities of such persons and groups continued.
Present position
Death of King Fahd: He died in July 2005. After his death, his brother Prince Abdullah became the king.
Death of King Abdullah: In 2015 King Abdullah died of sickness. His half-brother Prince Salman became king.
Oil hub: Saudi Arabia has world's largest oil reserves. The government is giving a lot of importance to the developments of infrastructure, science, and technology. Many economists and other scholars think that the country is on its way to becoming leading country of the Middle East.
Related pages
Saudi Arabia
Saudi Arabia |
30768 | https://simple.wikipedia.org/wiki/Linga | Linga | A linga or a lingam is a very complex symbol of Hinduism. It is associated with Shiva, supreme god in main gods of the Hindus. The Hindu scriptures say that a linga represents energy and strength. In almost all the temples of Shiva, Shiva is shown in the form of a linga.
The Hindu scriptures also say that Shiva took twelve forms as Jyotirlinga, that is, a linga of light. In India, there are twelve places where this form of Shiva is worshiped. The Hindu scriptures also tell about five more forms of lingas. These form of lingas represent the earth, the water, the fire, the air and the sky (or ether). There are five different places in India where Hindus worship these forms of Shiva. These places are located at the following locations:
Kanchipuram: God Shiva’s linga in the form of the earth
Srirangam: God Shiva’s linga in the form of the water
Tiruvannamalai: God Shiva’s linga in the form of the fire
Kalahasti: God Shiva’s linga in the form of the air
Chidambaram: God Shiva’s linga in the form of the sky (or ether)
Beside above places, in almost all the towns and villages of India, Shiva’s temples are found. In all such temples, lingas are worshipped.
Hinduism |
30773 | https://simple.wikipedia.org/wiki/United%20States%20National%20Guard | United States National Guard | The United States National Guard is an organization of the United States Army and the United States Air Force. The U.S. Army and U.S. Air Force are both branches of the United States military. The National Guard is a militia (an emergency army) for the United States. Each U.S. State has its own National Guard, usually under the control of that state's government. When needed, they are mobilized under control of the United States.
There are two parts of the United States National Guard, administered by the National Guard Bureau of the United States Department of Defense. The Air National Guard is part of the United States Air Force; the Army National Guard is part of the United States Army. The two National Guard groups are identified by the kinds of jobs they do. The Air National Guard does mainly air defense jobs, while the Army National Guard does the jobs on the ground.
Related pages
United States Army Reserve
National Guard (United States)
United States Army |
30774 | https://simple.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bishop%27s%20Stortford | Bishop's Stortford | Bishop's Stortford is a town in Hertfordshire in south-east England, with about 35,000 people living there.
History
People have lived in the area for hundreds of thousands of years but it became a permanent town by the time of the Saxons.
The Domesday Book says there were 120 people living there in the 1100s. The Normans built a small castle there but it was unused and broken by the time of the Tudors.
The town grew as an important centre for transport. After 1769, ships were able to use the river. It was a stagecoach stop for travel on the road between London and Cambridge. In 1842 the town got a railway station.
In 1901 there were 7,000 people living there, and by 1951 it was 13,000.
The town is popular for travellers to London because of the M11 motorway (an important road) and good train services to London. Stansted Airport has also caused development.
Towns in Hertfordshire |
30781 | https://simple.wikipedia.org/wiki/Raven | Raven | A raven is a big black bird, (Corvus corax). It may be called the common raven or the northern raven. It is similar to a crow but bigger. It and the thick-billed raven are the two largest birds in the crow family, and perhaps the heaviest perching birds. The raven's feathers are all black, but a crow has feathers that are white at the bottom. This cannot be seen from a distance.
The most famous raven is in the Edgar Allan Poe story called The Raven.
The common raven can be tamed. Some think it is mischievous and sly, and it has been regarded as a bird of evil and mysterious character.
References
Corvids |
30782 | https://simple.wikipedia.org/wiki/Malnutrition | Malnutrition | Malnutrition is eating a diet which does not supply enough nutrients. There are two broad cateogries of malnutrition:
The amount of food eaten is too little to provide for all the nutrients required. This is usually called undernourishment.
Sometimes, the amount of food is enough, but the quality of the food is such that it does not provide all nutrients required for a healthy diet.
A third category is called dehydration; it is caused by not getting enough liquid (usually water).
Sometimes, people need to lose weight, and eat according to a special diet. This is usually not called malnutrition.
Malnutrition is considered a more scientific and official term than starvation which has negative associations. Malnutrition is not, however, simply a matter of eating too little. Someone can be malnourished if they eat an unhealthy diet. This can be cured by eating a proper balanced diet.
Children whose daily diet contains less carbohydrate and protein do not grow well. They do not gain weight. Their hands and legs appear as skin and bones. They cry all the time with hunger. They are not active and have sunken eyes. Such children often fall sick. Lack of a particular vitamin is another kind of malnutrition which can cause a particular deficiency disease, such as beriberi and rickets.
Malnutrition becomes a bigger problem during famine because most of the people do not get enough food, hence increasing the death rate.
Related pages
Famine
Hunger
Global Hunger Index
Kwashiorkor
Marasmus
Starvation
Nutrition |
30783 | https://simple.wikipedia.org/wiki/Carolina%20parakeet | Carolina parakeet | The Carolina parakeet is an extinct species of parrot.
It was the last parrot type to have lived before the European conquest in the eastern United States. It was found from the Ohio Valley to the Gulf of Mexico, and lived in old woods along rivers.
The last wild Carolina parakeet was killed in Okeechobee County in Florida in 1904, and the last bird kept by people died at the Cincinnati Zoo in 1918. This was the male bird called "Incas", who died within a year of his mate "Lady Jane". It was not until 1939, however, that it was agreed that all the Carolina parakeets had died.
At some date between 1937 and 1955, three parakeets looking like this sort of bird were seen and recorded on videotape in the Okefenokee Swamp of Georgia. However, the American Ornithologists Union thought that they had probably recorded escaped pets. Additional sightings were recorded in Okeechobee County in Florida until the end of the 1920s.
Reasons for extinction
The Carolina parakeet died out for a number of reasons. To make space for more farms, large areas of forest were cut down, taking away its living space. The colorful feathers (green body, yellow head, and red around the bill) were in demand as decorations in ladies' hats, and the birds were kept as pets. Even though the birds were bred easily in captivity, little was done to make sure enough birds were bred to avoid their dying out. Finally, they were killed in large numbers because farmers thought they were pests.
Another reason that led to their extinction was that, unfortunately, they liked to return in large flocks to places where some of them had just been killed. This led to even more being shot by hunters as they gathered about the wounded and dead members of the flock.
References
Arinae
Extinct species |
30786 | https://simple.wikipedia.org/wiki/Match%20Game | Match Game | Match Game was a game show that ran from 1962 to 1999. Hosted Premierie on 1973 Present CBS GSN & More Premierie June 26 2016 on ABC During $100,000 Pyramid Match Game The Hollywood Squares (1983) Like The Price is Right in Wheel of Fortune October 31 1983 on 1962-2016 Present Finale Until of 1979 in 1980-1982 in 1990 Theme in 1960s-2010s Like Pyramid
Contestant Competition
First the challenging contestant would pick a question, A or B. Host Gene Rayburn would read it to the contestant. Then the contestant and the six celebrities would write their answer to the question on a piece of paper. Then after the contestant and the celebrities got done with their answer, Gene would ask for the contestant's answer. They would tell it to him. Then he would ask the celebrities for their answers. If the contestant's and a celebrity's answer are the same the contestant would get a point, and a green triangle would light up.
Then the defending contestant would take the remaining question. Then the process was the same as above, except red circles lit up.
Whoever had the most points at after two rounds of the above procedures would win $100 and go on to the Big Money Super Match.
Big Money Super Match
Audience Match
Before the game show, the audience would be surveyed. Their top 3 answers to the question (e.g. Road ___) would be worth (3rd most popular) $100, (2nd most popular) $250, and (most popular) $500. The contestant would pick 3 celebrities to give them answers they thought would be under the $500 slot. Then the contestant would choose one of those answers or make up their own. The answers were revealed one at a time.
Head-to-Head Match
If the contestant won the Audience Match, they would get a chance to win 10 times that money. They had to match a celebrity's answer exactly to questions like Bee. At first, the contestant chose the celebrity they wanted to play with. In 1978, the Star Wheel was introduced. The contestant spun a wheel to determine which celebrity they would be playing with. If the wheel stopped on a gold star section, the money the contestant would be playing for was doubled.
Other versions
The first Match Game had different rules from this one and was shown on the NBC network starting in 1962 and ending in 1969. Then, this Match Game was introduced on the CBS network in 1973. That version ended in 1979. In 1975, a syndicated version titled Match Game PM started. It had three rounds of gameplay, and two Audience Matches in the Big Money Super Match. It ended in 1981. A second syndicated version with the same gameplay as Match Game PM started in 1979, and ended in 1982. In 1983, it was combined with another game show, Hollywood Squares, to form the Match Game-Hollywood Squares Hour, which was on television for one year. Six years later, in 1990, it was brought back for the ABC network with a new host, Ross Shafer. In this version, contestants played for cash. It also featured a new round called the "Match Up" round. It was played at the end of both rounds. To start, a contestant chose one of the celebrities. The contestant had 30 seconds (45 in the second round) to match the celebrity in Super Match-style questions. Each question had two choices. Matches were worth $50 in the first round and $100 in the second. This version ended in 1991, but in 1998 it returned with Michael Burger as host. It featured five celebrities instead of six. This version was not very famous, however, and ended in 1999.
Television game shows
NBC network shows
CBS network shows
First run syndicated television programs |
30812 | https://simple.wikipedia.org/wiki/Melanesia | Melanesia | Melanesia is a region of islands in Oceania.
It stretches from the western side of the Eastern Pacific Ocean, to the Arafura Sea, northeast of Australia. Its name was invented in 1832 and means "black islands".
The following islands and groups of islands since the 19th century have been considered part of Melanesia:
Bismarck Archipelago
Fiji
New Caledonia
New Guinea (Papua New Guinea mainland and the Indonesian province of Papua)
Maluku Islands
Solomon Islands
Torres Strait Islands
Vanuatu
Palau Islands
Islands whose long-established inhabitants are of mixed ancestry and do not necessarily self-identify as Melanesian:
Flores
Nauru
Sumba
Timor
Some of the islands to the west of New Guinea such as Halmahera, Alor, and Pantar can also be considered part of Melanesia, although people in this area do not make use of the term.
Australasia |
30822 | https://simple.wikipedia.org/wiki/Diaphragm | Diaphragm | The diaphragm is a muscle that is at the bottom of the ribcage of mammals.
What it does
When breathing in, the diaphragm pulls down so that the size of the lungs increases, allowing air to enter the lungs.
When breathing out, the diaphragm rests and goes up making a dome shape, decreasing the size of the lungs and pushing air out.
This increases the surface area of the air so that there is more oxygen that the lungs can hold.
Other websites
Science Aid: Lungs
Anatomy of the respiratory system
Muscles |
30829 | https://simple.wikipedia.org/wiki/Germ%20theory%20of%20disease | Germ theory of disease | The Germ theory of disease is a theory in biology. It says that small organisms (called germs), also known as microbes, cause some diseases. These diseases are called infectious diseases. The germ theory states that small organisms cause a reaction in the body of those who are infected. The body's reaction to infection is called a disease.
Many scientists and doctors in history figured out that diseases are caused by microscopic organisms. Even after the microscope was invented, people still didn't know that germs caused diseases. People long believed that "bad air" from stinky trash dumps and from rotting meat was the cause of diseases. So people thought that covering their mouth and nose with a cloth would help filter out the "bad air." Scientists and doctors would use garlic and perfumes to ward off the bad air. But people still got sick and even died, so this theory was wrong. Polluted air is not the cause of disease.
One problem with the old theories of disease was that people believed that living things were spontaneously generated. Spontaneous generation is when something like a fly grows from a small speck of smelly meat. That old theory is called abiogenesis. In the seventeenth century, Francesco Redi (February 18, 1626 – March 1, 1697) discovered that flies lay eggs that become maggots. Prior to this, people thought that maggots came from rotting meat. He discovered this by sealing some meat in a jar and watching it. No maggots were found on the sealed meat. He also put some meat in a jar and covered it with gauze. Maggots were found on the gauze but not inside the jar. But when he placed meat in an open jar, maggots were found on the meat and inside the jar. Experiments like this proved that maggots come from flies who lay eggs, not from rotting meat. Later scientists would prove that diseases did not come from the air. Diseases are spread by infection.
Sanitation
Also in the eighteenth century, Antonie van Leeuwenhoek discovered the first microscopic organisms with a microscope. He was the first microbiologist. He saw some of the microscopic organisms that cause diseases, but he didn't know what they were. In 1700, Nicolas Andry thought that some of these microscopic organisms caused smallpox and other diseases. Over 100 years later, Agostino Bassi figured out what caused disease in silkworms. Ignaz Semmelweis was a doctor who figured out that if doctors washed their hands after touching dead people, that other patients wouldn't get sick. That was in 1847. It was about this time that sanitation and hand washing became popular with some, but not all doctors. Doctors began to use chemicals to cleanse wounds and clean their tools between each patient.
One of the most famous experiments of the nineteenth century was when John Snow discovered the source of a cholera outbreak. It turns out that cholera is transmitted when human waste contaminates water that people drink. Snow found out that there was a large number of sick people in Soho in London. After talking to many people in the area and mapping where each sick person lived, he realized that the sick people were almost all getting their drinking water from the same public water pump. He solved the epidemic by having the water pump's handle removed so that the people would get water from some other place. It worked, and the epidemic was soon over.
Louis Pasteur showed that the germ theory of disease was true. In 1862, he invented a process that heats up a liquid to a high temperature to keep it from spoiling. This process is known as pasteurization, named after Pasteur. Pasteurization is used to kill microscopic organisms in liquids like milk, wine, and beer. Liquids that are pasteurized will last much longer before they spoil.
Later, he did an experiment with fermentation. In one case he made a broth that he put inside a jar with a very long winding tube, so that no particles could pass to it from outside. Air could get inside the tube, but almost no dust. The broth he made did not change, and no fermentation took place.
He then took a similar broth, but this time he allowed air and dust to go inside the jar. This time, fermentation took place. The thing that caused fermentation therefore needed to come from outside (the environment). And it wasn't just air that caused fermentation, it must be something floating in the air which was very small. We now know that small particles called yeast cause fermentation.
In the latter part of the nineteenth century, Robert Koch and Joseph Lister would go on and help establish the germ theory of disease as an important part of science and medicine. Koch's theories are called "postulates" and helped medical researchers know what causes diseases. Lister's ideas would help establish sanitation as a major defense against disease. Koch's postulates and Lister's sanitation discoveries are still very important today.
We now know that small things cause diseases. Each one of these things can cause infection: fungus, bacteria, virus, prion, yeast, protist.
Other websites
Germ theory of disease -Citizendium
Microbiology
Medicine |
30830 | https://simple.wikipedia.org/wiki/Labor%20Day | Labor Day | Labor Day is a holiday in the United States and Canada on the first Monday of September. This holiday honors workers. It is similar to the May Day holiday in other countries. Many businesses close on Labor Day. Many students start school the day after Labor Day.
In some countries, it is known as International Workers' Day. It is celebrated every year on May 1 in almost 80 countries in the world. The day is celebrated on a different day, such as the first Monday of September in the United States.
References
September events |
30834 | https://simple.wikipedia.org/wiki/Christian%20cross | Christian cross | The Christian cross is the main symbol of the Christian religion. These crosses are usually found on Christian churches.
Jesus, who many Christians believe is God the Son and their Messiah, was crucified (nailed to a large wooden cross). This was a commonly used method for killing people in Roman times.
Christians believe that Jesus' death made the sins of all humans who trust in him, go away, and that they are forgiven. They also believe that Jesus was resurrected (came back to life) after three days. Because of this, the cross is a symbol for Jesus' sacrifice and suffering, but also a symbol of hope, forgiveness of sins, and victory over death.
There are several different Christian crosses that are symbols for different Christian groups or persons.
A cross with the body of Jesus on it is called a Crucifix.
The empty cross is usually favoured by Protestants and Eastern Orthodox, and the symbol reminds them of the Resurrection of Jesus, though the Orthodox will add a slanted footbar, as well. The crucifix is favoured by Catholic churches and is a reminder of Christ's sacrifice. Jehovah's Witnesses believe that Jesus died on a simple upright pole, a "torture stake" ; and only display it as a picture of an impaled Jesus in their literature.
Christians remember the death of Jesus on the cross on Good Friday every year.
Latin Cross
The most common cross is the Latin Cross. The cross represents and memorializes Christ's death.
This cross is a symbol of hope over death, and of victory in returning to life. (See Philippians 2:8-9)
Other uses
The non-Christian religion of Scientology, also uses the Latin cross (but with a star in the middle) as its symbol.
Related pages
Latin cross
Greek cross
Celtic cross
Christian symbols |
30835 | https://simple.wikipedia.org/wiki/Martin%20Luther%20King%2C%20Jr.%20Day | Martin Luther King, Jr. Day | Martin Luther King, Jr. Day is a US Federal Holiday. It commemorates civil rights activist Martin Luther King, Jr.'s birthday. It is celebrated on the third Monday in January and is one of only four United States Federal holidays to honor an individual person.
President Ronald Reagan signed a bill, proposed by Representative Katie Hall of Indiana, to create a federal holiday honoring King. The holiday was observed for the first time on January 20, 1986. It is observed on the third Monday of January.
References
January events |
30836 | https://simple.wikipedia.org/wiki/Washington%27s%20Birthday | Washington's Birthday | Presidents' Day, originally was two separate observances, Abraham Lincoln's birthday, which was February 12, and George Washington's birthday, which was February 22. The two observances were combined in 1971 into a single observance which is held on the third Monday in February.
Presidential birthdays in the United States
February events |
30837 | https://simple.wikipedia.org/wiki/Memorial%20Day | Memorial Day | Memorial Day is a national holiday in the United States. It is also a state holiday in many states. The holiday honors troops who have died in past wars like World War I and the Korean War. Memorial Day was first held in 1865 after the American Civil War. It was called Decoration Day at that time. The holiday was first called Memorial Day in 1882, and became a federal holiday in 1967. On June 28, 1968, the United States Congress made a law that said that the official Memorial Day holiday is May 30, but that Memorial Day was to be observed by Federal Employees as a paid holiday on the last Monday in May. Memorial Day is thought of by many Americans as being the start of summer. It was founded by John A. Logan(General).He fought in the Civil and Mexican–American War. |
30838 | https://simple.wikipedia.org/wiki/Columbus%20Day | Columbus Day | Columbus Day is a holiday celebrating the day Columbus landed on San Salvador. It is celebrated in many countries. This holiday is very controversial because of the way Columbus treated the Native Americans at the time. |
30839 | https://simple.wikipedia.org/wiki/Veterans%20Day | Veterans Day | Veterans Day is the American holiday when people who had served in the military during war-time are remembered and thanked. It is both a federal and a state holiday. The holiday is celebrated on the same day as Armistice Day or Remembrance Day in other countries. These holidays are all November 11. This is the day seen as the end of World War I. The first World War ended on November 11, 1918.
The holiday was first created as Armistice Day in 1919 by President Woodrow Wilson. Thirty states made it a state holiday that year. It was made a holiday for the entire country in 1938. In June 1, 1954, the name was changed to Veterans Day.
Other websites
Official Website United States Department of Veterans Affairs |
30842 | https://simple.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ralph%20Vaughan%20Williams | Ralph Vaughan Williams | Ralph Vaughan Williams (b. Down Ampney, Gloucestershire, 12 October 1872; d. London, 26 August 1958) was the most important English composer of his generation.
Vaughan Williams always pronounced his first name “Rafe” - (“Vaughan” rhymes with “born”). His father was a rector. Ralph was very young when his father died. The family moved to Dorking near London. He went to Charterhouse School and played the viola in the school orchestra. He studied at the University of Cambridge and at the Royal College of Music where Hubert Parry was his teacher.
Early career
Vaughan Williams wanted to be a good composer, so he went abroad to study with famous composers like Max Bruch in Berlin and Maurice Ravel in Paris. Yet he knew that he must not simply imitate these composers, so he also studied English folk song. He became good friends with the composer Gustav Holst. The two men always showed one another the music they were writing so that they could help one another by offering criticism.
In 1910 he wrote a work which became one of his best-known pieces of music: the Fantasia on a theme of Thomas Tallis. The piece is for a string orchestra divided into two sections. It uses a theme by the famous 16th century composer Tallis. He also wrote hymn tunes for the English Hymnal. One of his most popular hymn tunes is the one called Sine Nomine sung to the words “For all the saints”. Another lovely work is The Lark Ascending. This is a short work for solo violin and orchestra. The violin sounds like a skylark singing in the sky. In 1934 he wrote a short piece for flute, harp and string orchestra called Fantasia on Greensleeves which is based on the famous English Renaissance tune Greensleeves.
Later works
During his long life Vaughan Williams wrote nine symphonies, works for the stage, songs, choral music and chamber music. In 1938 he wrote a famous piece called Serenade to Music for 16 solo singers and orchestra. It was one of several works he wrote inspired by Shakespeare. The words were from the play The Merchant of Venice. It was written for the 50th anniversary of Sir Henry Wood’s career as a conductor. In 1953 he wrote music for Queen Elizabeth II’s coronation, including a very short and simple motet O taste and see which has remained very popular with church choirs.
In his old age he became quite deaf. This was because of the noise of gunfire he had been exposed to when he was serving as a stretcher bearer in World War I.
His importance in English music
Some of Vaughan Williams’s best works are those where he makes his music sound like folk song. He loved the poetry of Housman and used some of the poems in a song cycle called On Wenlock Edge for tenor, piano and string quartet. His music always sounds English. He was born in the 19th century which was a time when people thought English musicians were not very good. Vaughan Williams and Edward Elgar (who was a little older) made people realise that it was possible for an Englishman to write beautiful, moving music.
References
The New Grove Dictionary of Music & Musicians, ed. Stanley Sadie; 1980
1872 births
1958 deaths
20th-century English composers
Musicians from Gloucestershire
Order of Merit
People buried in Westminster Abbey |
30844 | https://simple.wikipedia.org/wiki/Recycling | Recycling | Recycling is when you recover scrap or waste and reprocessing the material into useful products. Glass, paper, plastic, and metals such as aluminum and steel are often recycled. Dead plants, fruit and vegetable scraps can be recycled through composting.
It is important not to confuse recycling with reusing, which is where old things, such as clothes, are donated or given a new use instead of being thrown out.
Recycling reduces trash in landfills and incinerators. Another reason people recycle is to reduce the amount of raw materials and energy used in making things. Most of the time, it takes less energy to recycle trash than to throw it away, The Economist says. Recycling can reduce your carbon footprint and it can help to minimize the whole size of landfills around the world.
The 3 R's are Reduce, Reuse, and Recycle.
Plastic recycling
Most people make about two kilograms of waste (trash) every day, and about 7% of this waste is made up of plastic products that can be recycled. Today, plastic can be recycled into products like picnic tables, park benches, and even high-chairs.
Sort it out
First, plastic is collected and taken to a recycling center, where it is sorted out. When plastic is sorted out, symbols have to be printed on every recyclable plastic product used. There are two types of plastic: polyethylene and polymer. There are two kinds of polyethylene plastic, too: high density polyethylene (HDPE), and low density polyethylene (LDPE). HDPE plastic is usually used to make furniture, and LDPE plastic are usually things like milk jugs, plastic and grocery bags.
Grinding washing
HDPE plastic is ground into a small powder. LDPE plastic, which are usually thin films, need to be ground by a special machine. After that, both plastics are washed with hot water and detergent. Dirt and other things, like labels, are taken off. After the wash, the powder is dried with hot air.
Sometimes, the powder is sold. But other times, the powder is heated, colored, and then put into a pelletizer. The pelletizer makes the powder into little pellets, which are bought by a company that shapes the pellets into pieces of plastic "wood". This plastic wood is used to make flowerpots, trash cans, pipes, picnic tables, benches, toys, mats, and many other things.
Related pages
Battery recycling
Computer recycling
Landfill
Sustainable development
References |
30845 | https://simple.wikipedia.org/wiki/Transnistria | Transnistria | Transnistria, Transdniestria, or Pridnestrovie, officially the Pridnestrovian Moldavian Republic (PMR; ), is a partially-recognized state in Eastern Europe.
The country is recognized by three other partially or unrecognized states, Abkhazia, Nargorno-Karabakh Republic, and South Ossetia. The country declared independence from Moldova on 2 September 1990. With the help of the Russian army, it defeated the Moldovan army in the War of Transnistria.
There has been peace since 1992, but the Council of Europe calls Transnistria a "frozen conflict" region.
There is argument about whether it is really a country or not. The region continues to boast independence, and acts independently over its territory with the help of peacekeeping forces from foreign countries.
In a vote in 17 September 2006, 97% voted to be free from Moldova. This vote has not been accepted by Moldova, which calls the territory the "Territory of the Left Bank of the Dniester".
Transnistria is the only independent state to still use the hammer and sickle on its flag.
References
Moldova |
30850 | https://simple.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mercalli%20intensity%20scale | Mercalli intensity scale | The Mercalli intensity scale (or more precisely the Modified Mercalli intensity scale) is a scale to measure the intensity of earthquakes. Unlike with the Richter scale, the Mercalli scale does not take into account energy of an earthquake directly. Rather, they classify earthquakes by the effects they have (and the destruction they cause). When there is little damage, the scale describes how people felt the earthquake, or how many people felt it.
Very often, non-geologists use this scale, because it is easier for people to describe what damage an earthquake caused, than to do calculations to get a value on the Richter scale.
Values range from I - Instrumental to XII - Catastrophic.
Giuseppe Mercalli (1850-1914) originally developed the scale, with ten levels. In 1902, Adolfo Cancani extended the scale to include twelve levels. August Heinrich Sieberg completely rewrote the scale. For this reason, the scale is sometimes named Mercalli-Cancani-Sieberg scale, or MCS scale.
Harry O. Wood and Frank Neumann translated it into English, and published it as Mercalli–Wood–Neumann (MWN) scale. Charles Francis Richter also edited it. He also developed the Richter scale, later on.
Modified Mercalli Intensity scale
The lower degrees of the Modified Mercalli Intensity scale generally deal with the manner in which the earthquake is felt by people. The higher numbers of the scale are based on observed damage to structures
The large table gives Modified Mercalli scale intensities that are typically observed at locations near the epicenter of the earthquake.
This is an accurate representation
The Scale under here is also a really good source for the Mercalli Scale.
Correlation with magnitude
There is a correlation between the magitude and the intensity of the earthquake. Even though this correlation is there, it may be difficult to link one to the other: This correlation depends on several factors, such as the depth of the earthquake, terrain, population density, and damage. For example, on May 19, 2011, an earthquake of magnitude 0.7 in Central California, United States 4 km deep was classified as of intensity III by the United States Geological Survey (USGS) over away from the epicenter (and II intensity almost from the epicenter), while a 4.5 magnitude quake in Salta, Argentina 164 km deep was of intensity I.
The small table is a rough guide to the degrees of the Modified Mercalli Intensity scale. The colors and descriptive names shown here differ from those used on certain shake maps in other articles. However, it will not be 100% accurate.
Related pages
Seismic intensity scales
Seismic magnitude scales
Scales
References
Geology |
30851 | https://simple.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dili | Dili | Dili is the capital of the country East Timor. People from Portugal moved there around 1520. Now, Dili is home to about 150,000 people.
Other websites
Discover Dili
Capital cities in Asia
Cities in East Timor |
30853 | https://simple.wikipedia.org/wiki/Holly | Holly | Holly is a type of bush with recognisable leaves. The leaves have sharp edges, and are often used to decorate a house on Christmas Day. Some types of holly are used to make tea. The leaves of the Holly don't fall of in the winter because they're very thick and have a waxy layer on them.
Holly bushes produce berries that birds often eat during the winter season.
Christmas
Asterids |
30856 | https://simple.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dysentery | Dysentery | Dysentery is a disease that involves severe diarrhea. It is caused by a bacterium, which causes the intestines to swell up a lot. The main symptom of dysentery is having blood in the excrement. Some more symptoms are high fever and abdominal pain. It is usually treated with antibiotics. The diarrhea is severe and can be a problem for the people who catch the disease.
Diseases caused by bacteria
Diseases and disorders of the digestive system |
30870 | https://simple.wikipedia.org/wiki/NHK | NHK | NHK, the Japan Broadcasting Corporation, is Japan's public broadcaster, like PBS in the United States. Its name is written as or Nippon Hōsō Kyōkai in Japanese.
History
NHK was founded in 1926, based on the BBC radio company in the United Kingdom. They began operating TV broadcasting in 1953. The first color broadcast was in 1960.
Everyone in Japan who owns a TV is asked to pay anywhere 15,720 or 27,360 (included satellite broadcasting) 円 per year to support NHK; there is a discount for lump sum payment.
TV Programming
NHK has lots of types of TV shows:
Local, national, and world news.
Emergency Reporting, such as warning about earthquakes and tsunamis.
Education shows for kids.
Weather reporting for local and international locations.
Sports, including the six national Sumo tournaments and other events.
Drama shows.
Documentaries.
Kid's shows.
NHK has 500 staff members in the announcer division alone; but announcers that convey nationally important events and news are operated quite fixedly like Korean Central Television.
Other websites
NHK English Site
Japanese television networks
1926 establishments in Asia
1920s establishments in Japan |
30871 | https://simple.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fargo%2C%20North%20Dakota | Fargo, North Dakota | Fargo is the largest city in the American state of North Dakota. It is in the eastern part of the state, near the Minnesota border. The city was founded in 1871, and it has a population of 105,549 as of the 2010 census. Fargo lies at the intersection of two major highways, Interstate 29 and Interstate 94.
County seats in North Dakota
1871 establishments in the United States
1870s establishments in Dakota Territory |
30873 | https://simple.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blur%20%28band%29 | Blur (band) | Blur are an English alternative rock band. Formed in London in 1988 originally under the name Seymour, the group's members are singer Damon Albarn, guitarist Graham Coxon, bassist Alex James and drummer Dave Rowntree. Blur's first album Leisure (1991) contained the sounds of Madchester and shoegazing. After a change in sound started by English guitar pop groups such as the Kinks, the Beatles and XTC, Blur released Modern Life Is Rubbish (1993), Parklife (1994) and The Great Escape (1995). As a result, the band helped the Britpop genre become popular and became popular in the UK, which was helped by a rivalry with Oasis in 1995 called "The Battle of Britpop".
Discography
Leisure (1991)
Modern Life Is Rubbish (1993)
Parklife (1994)
The Great Escape (1995)
Blur (1997)
13 (1999)
Think Tank (2003)
The Magic Whip (2015)
1988 establishments in England
1980s British music groups
1990s British music groups
2000s British music groups
2010s British music groups
Alternative rock bands
English rock bands
Musical groups established in 1988
Musical groups from Essex
Warner Bros. Records artists |
30874 | https://simple.wikipedia.org/wiki/Daft%20Punk | Daft Punk | Daft Punk were an electronic music duo from France. There are two people in the band, Guy-Manuel de Homem-Christo (born February 8, 1974) and Thomas Bangalter (born January 3, 1975). Daft Punk uses analog synthesizers and other real instruments to make their music. On 22 February 2021 they released the video "Epilogue" that announced the end of Daft Punk as a group.
History
How the members met, Darlin' era and Soma Quality Recordings
Both of the two Daft Punk members went to the same school in Paris.
They became friends and recorded a demo track with other students from the school. Thomas Bangalter played bass while Guy-Manuel de Homem-Christo played guitar.
They formed a band called Darlin' which featured an additional member named Laurent Brancowitz.
The Darlin' experience did not last very long and after a show they performed in the United Kingdom, a newspaper qualified the music of Thomas and Guy-Manuel as "daft punk" (silly punk music).
Thomas and Guy-Manuel were amused by this nickname and officially adopted it, and that's how they became the well known Daft Punk.
Laurent left the group and joined his younger brother Christian Mazzalai of Phoenix.
While attending a rave at Eurodisney, they met Scottish house/techno artists Stuart MacMillan and Orde Meikle of Slam who signed them up to the label Soma Quality Recordings based in Glasgow.
Daft Punk recorded their first demo called, "The New Wave" as well as a handful of others including, "Alive" and "Da Funk" both of which would appear in their debut album a few years later.
First Album: Homework
In 1995, Daft Punk began to record in the studio a song called Da Funk which became their first commercial success.
After that success, Daft Punk looked for a manager, and they chose Pedro Winter who is also known by the name Busy P.
The idea of Homework debuted when Daft Punk signed with Virgin Records.
That album became one of the most essential house albums of the nineties after that it had been released in 1997.
Second Album: Discovery
In 1999, Daft Punk returned to recording studio to work on Discovery which would be their second album and their second success.
Discovery reached the second place on the UK Charts.
One More Time, their first single from Discovery, became a giant hit around the globe and Daft Punk became one of the most famous electronic music groups.
Daft Punk used many samples (little sounds from other songs) to compose songs like Face to Face, Too Long and Harder, Better, Faster, Stronger. (Kanye West's 2007 song Stronger from the album Graduation uses a large sample from Harder, Better, Faster, Stronger.)
In 2003, Daft Punk released the full-length animated movie Interstella 5555. The band worked with the Japanese animation company Toei Animation and the famous Japanese producer named Leiji Matsumoto to create this film. It is a fully animated story that is set to the Discovery album from start to finish and with no additional words and only a few added sound effects.
Third Album: Human After All
In 2004, Daft Punk spent six weeks on their third album.
Human After All was a subject of controversy, concerning some aggressive aspects in songs like Technologic, saying that most of the songs were too repetitive.
De Homem-Christo and Bangalter only said:"We believe that Human After All speaks for itself".
In 2006, Daft Punk released "Electroma", a short film about two robots (Daft Punk themselves) who are on a journey to become human. The film however, did not feature any music by Daft Punk but instead a selection of songs by other artists of different types of music genres.
Daft Punk went on their second world tour, "Alive 2006/2007". The duo played worldwide to thousands of people. Daft Punk played in a pyramid on stage which was admired for its futuristic design.
In 2008, Daft Punk made their first televised performance at the 2008 Grammy Awards. They performed with Kanye West as he rapped, "Stronger".
Tron: Legacy
In 2010, Daft Punk were chosen to compose the soundtrack to Tron: Legacy. The duo had a cameo in the film.
Fourth Album: Random Access Memories
In 2013, Daft Punk released their final album Random Access Memories. Columbia Records became their new label after many years with Virgin Records.
They collaborated with Giorgio Moroder, Todd Edwards, Nile Rodgers, Panda Bear, Chilly Gonzales, DJ Falcon, Julian Casablancas, Paul Williams and Pharrell Williams.
Random Access Memories had very little electronic music in it. Instead, Daft Punk used live instruments and minimized the use of synthesizers. It is a tribute to the disco, rock and funk music of the 1970s and 1980s.
The lead single Get Lucky, featuring Pharrell Williams and Nile Rodgers, was met with critical acclaim and topped many charts around the world. At the 2014 Grammy Awards Get Lucky won Record of the Year and RAM won Album of the Year.
In 2015, a documentary called "Daft Punk: Unchained" was released. It told the history of the band from their beginnings in the early 1990s to the 2014 Grammy Awards.
References
1993 establishments in France
1990s music groups
2000s music groups
2010s music groups
French musical groups
Entertainers from Paris |
30875 | https://simple.wikipedia.org/wiki/Paralympic%20Games | Paralympic Games | {| class="infobox" style="width:25em; font-size:95%; text-align:center; border-collapse:collapse;"
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The Paralympic Games or Paralympics, are a major international sports event. People with physical disabilities compete in these games. They are called Paralympians. They include people with disabilities that affect movement, amputations, blindness, and cerebral palsy.
There are Winter and Summer Paralympic Games. They are held just after the Olympic Games. All Paralympic Games are governed by the International Paralympic Committee (IPC).
History
The Paralympics started as a small gathering of British World War II veterans in 1948. They became one of the largest international sport events by the early 21st century.
Paralympians
Paralympians have many different kinds of disabilities, so there are several categories in which they compete. The disabilities are in six broad categories: amputee, cerebral palsy, intellectual disability, wheelchair, visually impaired, and Les Autres'' (This means "the others" in French.) These categories are further broken down which vary from sport to sport.
Paralympians work for equal treatment with able-bodied Olympians. Olympians receive much more money than Paralympians. Some Paralympians have also participated in the Olympic Games.
1948 establishments
Multi-sport events |
30876 | https://simple.wikipedia.org/wiki/National%20Basketball%20Association | National Basketball Association | The National Basketball Association (NBA) is the world's top men's professional basketball league. It is one of the major professional sports leagues of North America. There are 30 teams in the league. 29 are in the United States and 1 is in Canada. It is a member of USA Basketball (USAB),. The NBA is one of the 4 major North American professional sports leagues. NBA players are the world's best paid athletes. They have the highest average annual salary.
The league was formed in New York City on June 6, 1946. It was called the Basketball Association of America (BAA). The league merged with the National Basketball League (NBL) in 1949. They then were known as the National Basketball Association. The league's head offices are in the Olympic Tower at 645 Fifth Avenue in New York City. Its international offices are in the same place. NBA Entertainment and NBA TV studios are in Atlanta, Georgia.
The NBA is widely considered the top level of competition in the world for basketball. With an average player height of about 6 foot 6 inches, it is also the world's tallest sports league.
History of the NBA
Creation and merger
In 1946, The Basketball Association of America (BAA) was formed. Its founders were owners of the major ice hockey arenas in the Northeastern and Midwestern United States and Canada. On November 1, 1946, the Toronto Huskies hosted the New York Knickerbockers. This was the first game played in NBA history. There were earlier attempts at professional basketball leagues. Examples are the American Basketball League and the NBL. The BAA was the first league to play in major cities. They played in large arenas. The level of play in the BAA was not very good. Competing leagues and other teams had similar talent. The Harlem Globetrotters are an example.
On August 3, 1949, the BAA combined with the NBL. The National Basketball Association was born. The new league had 17 teams. They came from cities of different sizes. The league got rid of several teams. It reached its smallest size of eight teams in the 1954–55 season. They were the New York Knicks, Boston Celtics, Philadelphia Warriors (now Golden State Warriors), Minneapolis Lakers (now Los Angeles Lakers), Rochester Royals (now Sacramento Kings), Fort Wayne Zollner Pistons (now Detroit Pistons), Milwaukee Hawks (now Atlanta Hawks), and Syracuse Nationals (now Philadelphia 76ers). Teams in small cities moved to larger cities.
Japanese-American Wataru Misaka broke the NBA color barrier in 1947–48. He played for the New York Knicks. But 1950 is recognized as when the NBA integrated. African Americans joined several teams. Those players included Chuck Cooper, Nathaniel "Sweetwater" Clifton, and Earl Lloyd. They joined three different teams. During the 1950s, the Minneapolis Lakers won five NBA Championships. George Mikan was their leader. He played the center position. The Lakers were the league's first dynasty. In 1954, the league introduced the 24-second shot clock. A team must try a shot in 24 seconds. If they cannot, the other team gets the ball.
Teams
The NBA contains 30 teams. 15 are in the Eastern Conference and 15 are in the Western Conference. Each conference has three divisions with 5 teams. Teams play other teams in their division often. All teams play all other teams in a season.
The Boston Celtics and the Los Angeles Lakers have won 17 championships each. No other teams have won more championships. Some teams have never won a championship.
29 teams are in the United States. The Toronto Raptors are in Canada. David Stern wants the league to expand to Europe. Some teams have played games in the United Kingdom.
Regular Season
Teams begin training camps in September. This allows the coaching staff to observe their players. Teams play preseason games. These do not count for a team's final season record. The weaker players get cut. Other players stay on the team and get paid. The NBA regular season begins in the last week of October. All teams play 82 games during a normal season. There are 41 home games and 41 road (away) games. Home games offer benefits to teams. They generally play better due to fan support and lack of travel. Teams play every other team during the regular season. The best players play in the NBA All-Star game in February. Fans vote for the starters. The coaches vote for the reserve (substitute) players. There is a pause in the season during the All-Star Game. Teams do not play games for about a week. Other events occur during the All-Star break. These include the Three-Point contest, the Skills course, and the Slam Dunk contest. Players participate in part due to fan interest.
Before the trade deadline, teams can trade players. This can cause changes in the balance of power. Team bosses want to get the best players for their team. Other bosses want to lower their costs. Trades often happen on the last day.
The regular season ends in the middle of April. Individual awards are given to players. The Most Valuable Player (MVP) award is given to the player most important to his team. The Defensive Player of the Year award is given to the player who plays the best defense. There are a few other awards. After the 2015-2016 season, Stephen Curry became the first player to win all votes for the MVP award.
Playoffs
At the end of every NBA regular season, the NBA Playoffs begin. 8 teams from each, the western, and the eastern conference are assigned a seed 1-8. Teams are assigned a seed number as follows: the 3 division champions are assigned 1-3 in order of their regular season records. The remaining seeds are determined simply by regular season record. Home court advantage is always determined by seed; higher seed=home court advantage. In the first round of the playoffs, the 1 seed plays the 8 seed;2 plays 7; 3 plays 6; 4 plays 5. All playoff rounds are best-of-7 series, meaning the first team to win 4 games moves on to the next round. Since 2014 every round follows a 2-2-1-1-1 format. The higher seeded team will have home games 1, 2, 5, and 7. The lower seed is home in games 3, 4, and 6.
NBA Finals
To win an NBA championship, a team needs to win four rounds. The fourth round is called the finals. A team from the Eastern Conference plays a team from the Western Conference. The team that wins this series is the NBA champion. The best player in the finals wins the Finals Most Valuable Player award. The finals are played in the same format as the other rounds, 2-2-1-1-1. If both teams are the number 1 seed from their respective divisions, the team with the best record will have home court advantage.
Related pages
NBA Finals
References
Other websites
Official NBA website
NBA
Basketball leagues |
30881 | https://simple.wikipedia.org/wiki/FIFA%20Women%27s%20World%20Cup | FIFA Women's World Cup | The FIFA Women's World Cup is the most important competition in the sport of Women's association football . The Fédération Internationale de Football Association (FIFA) organizes the World Cup every four years.
The most successful team has been the United States, with 3 titles.
List of Champions
References
Other websites
1991 establishments |
30891 | https://simple.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nathula | Nathula | Nathula is a mountain pass in the Himalayas. It connects Sikkim in India and Tibet in China. It is at a height of 4,500 metres above sea level.
Himalayas
Mountain passes
Mountain passes of India
Mountains of China
Territorial disputes of India
Sikkim
Tibet |
30911 | https://simple.wikipedia.org/wiki/Klondike%20Gold%20Rush | Klondike Gold Rush | The Klondike Gold Rush happened in the 1890s when many people went to the Klondike region of the Yukon, in Canada. They hoped to find gold there and become rich. Many of these prospectors came from the United States. Gold was first found in Klondike in a creek called Rabbit Creek. Prospectors named the creek "Bonanza Creek" because of the gold (bonanza means a lucky source of wealth).
The city that probably profited most from the Klondike Gold Rush was Dawson City, Yukon in Canada. Four million dollars worth of gold was found there.
However, not that much gold was found in Klondike overall.
1890s in Canada
Gold rushes |
30921 | https://simple.wikipedia.org/wiki/Clone%20High | Clone High | Clone High is an animated comedy television show about a high school full of clones of famous dead people. It aired on MTV in the USA and Teletoon in Canada. It was produced by Nelvana, Touchstone Pictures, Teletoon Canada, and MTV.
Characters
Main Characters
Abraham Lincoln
Cleopatra
Mahatma Gandhi
Joan of Arc
John Kennedy
Principal Cinnamon J. Scudworth
Mr. Lynn Butlertron
The Secret Board of Shadowy Figures
Other Clones
Jesus Christ
Walt Disney
George Washington Carver
Marie Curie
Helen of Troy
Vincent van Gogh
Julius Caesar
Genghis Khan
Elvis Presley
and many more...
American animated television series
Canadian animated television series
English-language television programs
2002 television series debuts
2003 television series endings |
30924 | https://simple.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chinese%20Civil%20War | Chinese Civil War | The Chinese Civil War was a civil war fought from 1927 to 1951 because of differences in thinking between the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) and the Kuomintang (KMT, or Chinese Nationalist Party). The war was a fight for legitimacy as the government of China. The war began in April 1927 because of the Northern Expedition (國民革命軍北伐) and mostly ended in 1950. Some people say the war has not ended, but no large battles have started since that year. Relations between the Republic of China (ROC) and the People's Republic of China (PRC) are still poor because both claim to be the legitimate sovereign government of all of China. The Chinese Civil War was the third-largest war in all of time, after World War II and World War I.
The war is usually divided into two parts: 1927-1937 and 1946-1955. It started and stopped several times before the Second Sino-Japanese War and there was less fighting after the Empire of Japan had invaded. The war between the CCP and the KMT started again in 1946 after Japan's defeat in World War II. The CCP took control of most of China, and the KMT had only islands left. About two million Chinese fled to Taiwan in late 1949. In 1950, no large battles were started. The loss of the KMT in Mainland China is said to be for several reasons:
The Yan'an Rectification Movement helped Mao have more control of the CCP,
The ceasefire a United States officer made in 1946 stopped the KMT for a time
Problems happened between the people and the KMT in the places of its control.
The Soviet Union gave Japanese guns to the CCP
Help from the United States was uncertain to the KMT.
No agreement was made between the two governments and so some say that the war has not ended. Both governments have many military weapons to be used against only against each other, both still say they are the legitimate government of China, and both seek diplomatic relations with other countries as the only legitimate government.
Background
After the fall of the Qing dynasty in the 1911 Xinhai Revolution, the country was thrown into turmoil. In the ensuing power vacuum, a large number of warlords seized control of different parts of the country. To defeat them and unify the country, Sun Yat-sen and his KMT sought help from foreign governments.
He made pleas to several Western democratic nations, but none offered help. It was only after he turned to the Soviets in 1921 that Sun found aid. The communist Soviet Union agreed to help the KMT if the smaller Chinese Communist Party be allowed to join. In 1923 the Soviet Union, the KMT, and the CCP made an agreement, the Sun-Joffe Manifesto, which said the Soviets would help China have only one government. Mikhail Borodin traveled to China in 1923 to help change the KMT to make it similar to the Communist Party of the Soviet Union. The CCP and KMT were joined in the First United Front.
In 1923, Chiang Kai-shek travelled to the Soviet Union to study military and politics with the Communist Party of the Soviet Union. In 1924, he became the leader of the Whampoa Military Academy in China. Most of the help from the Soviet Union was for that school, which taught Soviet political and military ideas to the KMT and the CCP. The Soviets gave books and guns to use for teaching about war and military things. With Soviet help Sun made an "army of the party". Members of the CCP were also in the school and some were teachers. Zhou Enlai was a teacher in the school.
The KMT then agreed to let some communists join the KMT, when the CCP was small compared to the KMT. The CCP had 300 members in 1922 and only 1,500 by 1925. The KMT in 1923, however, had 50,000 members.
References
Washington State University.
Wars involving China
Wars of independence
Rebellions in Asia
20th century rebellions
Civil wars involving Asia
1930s in China
1950s in China
1950s conflicts
1920s conflicts |
30927 | https://simple.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nagorno-Karabakh | Nagorno-Karabakh | Nagorno-Karabakh is a disputed region in the South Caucasus. Legally, it is recognized as part of Azerbaijan, but from 1994 to 2020, most of it was militarily controlled by Armenians as the Republic of Artsakh, which is not officially recognized by any other country, including Armenia which supports it. Currently, different parts of the region are controlled by both Azerbaijan and Armenia, with Azerbaijan controlling most of it and Armenia controlling a smaller central area.
Etymology
The names for the region in the different local languages all translate to "mountainous Karabakh", or "mountainous black garden". The word "nagorno" is Russian for "mountainous/on the mountain", "kara" is Turkish for "black", and "bakh" means "garden" in Azerbaijani.
Armenian: , transliterated Lernayin Gharabagh
Azerbaijani: Dağlıq Qarabağ, or Yuxarı Qarabağ (meaning "upper Karabakh" or "mountainous Karabakh")
Russian: Нагорный Карабах, transliterated Nagornyj Karabakh
History
The region became a subject of dispute between Armenia and Azerbaijan in 1918 when both states gained brief independence. Two years later, Soviet Union conquered both of the new states and created the Nagorno-Karabakh Autonomous Oblast within Azerbaijan.
When Mikhail Gorbachev came to power in Moscow and started campaigns of publicity and democratic reforms at the end of the 20th century, Armenians living in Nagorno-Karabakh sent letters to Gorbachev demanding him to move the autonomous oblast to the control of Armenia. When it was declined, the Armenians started an independence movement.
In November 1991, seeking to stop this movement, the Parliament of Azerbaijan abolished the autonomous status of the region. In response, the Nagorno-Karabakh Armenians held a referendum on December 10, 1991, which was boycotted by Azerbaijanis living in Nagorno-Karabakh and none of them participated in it, therefore the overwhelming majority of the population voted for independence.
Gallery
References
Other websites
Karabakh documents
Artsakh from ancient time till 1918
Artsakh (Nagorno Karabakh) - France 24 Report |
30928 | https://simple.wikipedia.org/wiki/Newcastle%20upon%20Tyne | Newcastle upon Tyne | Newcastle upon Tyne is a city in north-east England. About 250,000 people live in the city, though more live in the area around it.
Newcastle is one of the biggest cities in England and is mostly famous for the River Tyne, Angel of the North, Newcastle Brown Ale, the Great North Run, and the iconic Millennium Bridge.
The local dialect and accent is called the Geordie dialect. Pronunciation of "alright", "town" and "house" is "areet", "toon" and "hoos". |
30932 | https://simple.wikipedia.org/wiki/James%20Read | James Read | James Christopher Read (born July 31, 1953) is an American actor. He acted in many movies and television series. He is best known for the North and South miniseries (1985, 1986, 1994). He was born in Buffalo, New York.
Filmography
The following is some of the movies and television programms Read has been in.
Other websites
1953 births
Living people
American movie actors
American television actors
Actors from Buffalo, New York |
30939 | https://simple.wikipedia.org/wiki/Satyr%20play | Satyr play | Satyr plays were an ancient Greek form of theatre, similar in spirit to burlesque. They featured choruses of satyrs, were based on Greek mythology, and were rife with mock drunkenness, brazen sexuality (including phallic props), pranks, sight gags, and general merriment.
Theatrical forms
Ancient Greece |
30940 | https://simple.wikipedia.org/wiki/Premier%20League | Premier League | The Premier League, commonly known as the English Premier League, or the EPL (formerly called the Barclays Premier League due to sponsorship reasons and before 2007 the Premiership) is the top tier of English football. 20 teams compete in the Premier League each season, which is usually played between August and May. Each season, 38 games are played (playing all 19 other teams home and away). For historic reasons, a few clubs from Wales also compete in the English football system.
The competition started in 1992, after 22 clubs from the Football League First Division decided to break away from The Football League (now the EFL). The Premier League has since become the world's most watched sporting league. It is the world's most lucrative football league, with combined club revenues of £1.93 billion ($3.15bn) in 2007–08. It is also ranked second by UEFA's Association Ranking, behind La Liga.
Clubs
2021–22 season
The following 20 clubs competed in the Premier League during the 2021–22 season.
a: Founding member of the Premier League
b: Never been relegated from Premier League
c: One of the original 12 Football League teams
Champions
Managers
.
Related pages
Football League First Division
English Football League (EFL)
EFL Championship
EFL League One
EFL League Two
References
1992 establishments in the United Kingdom |
30947 | https://simple.wikipedia.org/wiki/Giro%20d%27Italia | Giro d'Italia | The Giro d'Italia, or Tour of Italy, is a famous bicycle race held in Italy, every spring. It is one of the most famous, and best paid bicycle races. The first race was in 1909. It started because the editor of a newspaper called La Gazzetta dello Sport wanted more people to read his newspaper. He planned a race similar to the Tour de France, which had started in 1903.
The leader of the race wears a pink jersey called the maglia rosa. This is because pink is the colour of La Gazzetta dello Sport. For many years, the leader of the mountain climbing competition wore a green jersey (called the maglia verde), but a change in the sponsor for that competition led to a jersey change in 2012. The mountains leader now wears a blue jersey (called the maglia azzurra). Similarly, the leader of the sprinters' competition wore a mauve jersey (called the maglia ciclamino) for many years. However, a sponsorship change in 2010 also led to a jersey change. The sprints leader now wears a red jersey (called maglia rosso passione). The leader of the young riders' competition, for riders under age 25, wears a white jersey (called the maglia bianca). This is the same as the young riders' competition in the Tour de France.
Winners of the Giro d'Italia
Italia, Giro d'
1909 establishments in Italy |
30964 | https://simple.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rosalynn%20Carter | Rosalynn Carter | Eleanor Rosalynn Carter (née Smith; August 18, 1927) is an American activist and writer who had served as First Lady of the United States from 1977 to 1981 as the wife of the 39th President of the United States, Jimmy Carter. She had also served as First Lady of Georgia from 1971 to 1975 when her husband was Governor of Georgia.
First Lady
When her husband was Governor of Georgia, she served as First Lady of Georgia from 1971 to 1975.
She was active in politics during her White House years, she sat in on Cabinet and policy meetings and also, serving as her husband's closest adviser.
Envoy Abroad
She also served as an envoy abroad, most notably to Latin America.
Early life
She was born in Plains, Georgia.
She was the eldest of the four children of Allethea "Allie" Murray Smith (1905–2000) and Wilburn Edgar Smith (1896–1940). Rosalynn's father died of leukemia when she was 13.
Education
She attended Plains High School and graduated salutatorian.
After completing her schooling, she studied at Georgia Southwestern College, Americus, Georgia.
Marriage
On July 7, 1946, she and Jimmy Carter were married.
1927 births
Living people
American Baptists
First Ladies of the United States
Jimmy Carter
People from Plains, Georgia |
30966 | https://simple.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hitopadesha | Hitopadesha | Hitopadesa is a collection of short stories. It was originally written in Sanskrit. It is very similar to another Sanskrit book named Panchatantra. It contains fables with both animal and human characters.
The book was written many centuries before. Its stories are now well known in different parts of the world.
The work has been translated into most of the major languages of the world. An English translation, rendered by Sir Edwin Arnold , then principal of Puna College, Pune, India, was published in London in 1861.
Fiction books
Sanskrit |
30968 | https://simple.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tiberius | Tiberius | Tiberius (Tiberius Julius Caesar Augustus, 16 November 42 BC – 16 March 37 AD) was the second Roman Emperor. He ruled from 14 to 37 AD. He was the step-son of Caesar Augustus.
Tiberius was one of Ancient Rome's greatest generals, whose campaigns protected the northern frontier. He reigned for 22 years, and the first part of his imperial work was excellent. Later, he came to be remembered as a dark, reclusive, and somber ruler. After the death of his son Drusus in 23, the quality of his rule declined and ended in terror.
In 26, Tiberius moved from Rome to the Isle of Capri, and left administration largely in the hands of his unscrupulous Praetorian Prefect Sejanus. Sejanus became the effective ruler of Rome, and plotted against Tiberius, murdering people who opposed him. When alerted, Tiberius counter-plotted to remove Sejanus from his official positions, and eventually executed him. More executions followed of people who had committed crimes under Sejanus' rule.
Caligula, Tiberius' grand-nephew and adopted grandson, succeeded the Emperor upon his death.
Rise to power
Tiberius shared in Augustus' tribune powers as of 6 BC, but soon went into retirement in Rhodes. He was reported as wanting no further role in politics.p117p46 After the early deaths of Augustus' young grandchildren-turned-sons, Lucius and Gaius in AD 2 and 4 respectively, and the earlier death of his own brother Drusus (9 BC), Tiberius was recalled to Rome in June AD 4, where he was adopted by Augustus on the condition that he, in turn, adopt his nephew Germanicus.p119 This continued the tradition of presenting at least two generations of heirs.
In the same year, Tiberius was also granted the powers of a tribune and proconsul, emissaries from foreign kings had to pay their respects to him, and by 13 was awarded with his second triumph and equal level of imperium with that of Augustus.p119/120 Tiberius duly assumed the titles of Augustus when the old man's long reign came to an end in AD 14.
Tiberius Emperor
Problems soon arose. The northern legions had not been paid, and rebelled. Germanicus and Tiberius's son, Drusus, were dispatched with a small force to quell the uprising and bring the legions back in line. Germanicus rallied the mutineers and led them on a short campaign across the Rhine into Germanic territory, stating that whatever treasure they could grab would count as their bonus. Germanicus's forces smashed across the Rhine and quickly occupied all of the territory between the Rhine and the Elbe. So Germanicus dealt a significant blow to Rome's enemies, and quelled an uprising of troops, actions that increased his fame with the Roman people.
After being recalled from Germania, Germanicus celebrated a triumph in Rome in AD 17, the first full triumph that the city had seen since Augustus's own in 29 BC. As a result, in AD 18 Germanicus was granted control over the eastern part of the empire, just as both Agrippa and Tiberius had received before, and was clearly the successor to Tiberius. But tragedy struck once again, as Germanicus died after a year, apparently poisoned.
Tiberius and Sejanus
Sejanus had served the imperial family for almost twenty years when he became Praetorian Prefect in AD 15. The death of Drusus elevated Sejanus. Tiberius had statues of Sejanus erected throughout the city, and Sejanus became more and more visible as Tiberius began to withdraw from Rome altogether. Finally, with Tiberius's withdrawal to Capri in AD 26, Sejanus was left in charge of the entire state mechanism and the city of Rome.
Sejanus's position was not quite that of successor. The presence of Livia (the third wife and advisor of Augustus) seems to have checked his power for a time. Her death in AD 29 changed all that. Sejanus began a series of purge trials of Senators in Rome. Germanicus's widow Agrippina the Elder and two of her sons were arrested and exiled in AD 30 and later all died in suspicious circumstances.
In response, Tiberius manoeuvered cleverly. He knew an immediate condemnation of Sejanus might not succeed. Since he and Sejanus were then joint Consuls, Tiberius resigned his post of Consul, which forced Sejanus to do likewise. This removed much of Sejanus' legal powers and protection. Then, in AD 31, Sejanus was summoned to a meeting of the Senate, where a letter from Tiberius was read condemning Sejanus and ordering his immediate execution. Macro was appointed Praetorian Prefect, with the specific job of removing Sejanus. Sejanus was tried, and he and several of his colleagues were executed within the week.
More treason trials followed. Tacitus writes that Tiberius had been hesitant to act at the start of his reign, but now, towards the end of his life, he seemed to do so without compunction. However, Tacitus' portrayal of a tyrannical, vengeful emperor has been challenged by several modern historians. The prominent ancient historian Edward Togo Salmon notes in his work, A history of the Roman world from 30 B.C. to A.D. 138:
"In the whole twenty two years of Tiberius' reign, not more than fifty-two persons were accused of treason, of whom almost half escaped conviction, while the four innocent people to be condemned fell victims to the excessive zeal of the Senate, not to the Emperor's tyranny".
Last years
The last years of Tiberius were notable for his complete absence from Rome, and his inactivity as Emperor. He was now an old man in his 70s, and left decisions to the officials in Rome. He did nothing to prevent the rise of his grandnephew Caligula, who was now popular with the people (as the only surviving son of germanicus) and who had the support of the Prefect Macro.
In 35, Tiberius would make both caligula and his own grandson Gemellus joint heirs, before dying two years later, in his 78th year. Some speculate Macro and Caligula hastened the old emperor’s death. Regardless, Caligula would succeed Tiberius as emperor.
References
Other websites
Teberius -Citizendium
42 BC births
37 deaths
New Testament people
Roman Emperors |
30972 | https://simple.wikipedia.org/wiki/14 | 14 | 14 is a year in the 1st century. It was a common year starting on Monday of the Julian calendar. At the time, it was known as the Year of the Consulship of Pompeius and Appuleius.
Events
Roman Empire
Tacitus reports that the town and port of Nauportus is plundered by a mutinous Roman legion.
Tiberius succeeds his stepfather Augustus as Emperor of the Roman Empire.
Legions on the Rhine revolt after the death of Augustus. Germanicus and Drusus stop the revolt.
Germanicus is appointed commander of the forces in Germany.
Augustus dies and is declared to be a god.
A census shows there are 4,973,000 Roman citizens.
Claudia Marcella marries Sextus Appuleius.
Sextus Appuleius and Sextus Pompeius serve as Roman consuls.
Asia
First year of tianfeng era of the Chinese Xin Dynasty.
Famine hits China. Some citizens turn to cannibalism.
Births
Salome
Deaths
August 19 – Roman Emperor Augustus.
Julia the Elder, daughter of Roman Emperor Augustus.
Postumus Agrippa, Grandson of Roman Emperor Augustus.
14 |
30973 | https://simple.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ray%20Bradbury | Ray Bradbury | Ray Douglas Bradbury (August 22, 1920 - June 5, 2012) was an American writer. His most famous works are The Martian Chronicles and Fahrenheit 451. He also wrote big collections of short stories such as "Driving Blind."
He was born in Waukegan, Illinois to a Swedish mother. He graduated from a high school in Los Angeles, California. Many of his works are based on real life, such as "Dandelion Wine," a book about growing up in small-town Illinois. His other work includes movies, and screenplays. He won many awards. He died in his Los Angeles home.
He also wrote the short stories "Dark They Were and Golden Eyed" and "A Sound of Thunder."
References
Other websites
1920 births
2012 deaths
Actors from Illinois
American novelists
Screenwriters from Illinois
American television actors
American television writers
Writers from Illinois
Writers from Los Angeles
People from Waukegan, Illinois |
30975 | https://simple.wikipedia.org/wiki/Porpoise | Porpoise | Porpoises are mammals that live in the ocean. They are in the order Cetacea. They form the family Phocoenidae. There are six species of porpoise.
Taxonomy
Family Phocoenidae:
Finless porpoise (Neophocaena phocaenoides)
Vaquita (Phocoena sinus)
Harbour porpoise (Phocoena phocoena)
Burmeister's porpoise (Phocoena spinipinnis)
Spectacled porpoise (Phocoena dioptrica)
Dall's porpoise (Phocoenoides dalli)
Appearance
Porpoises look much like dolphins, but they are different in some ways: They are smaller and more stout. They have spade-shaped teeth, rounded heads, blunt jaws, and triangular dorsal fins.
Images
Related pages
Whale
Dolphin
Toothed whales |
30978 | https://simple.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cetology | Cetology | Cetology is a type of science. It is the study of the cetaceans. It includes whales, dolphins, and porpoises.
Cetology is the branch of marine mammal science which studies approximately eighty species of whales, dolphins, and porpoise in the scientific order Cetacea. The term was created in the mid-19th century from the Greek cetus ("whale") and -ology ("study").
Cetologists, or those who study it, seek to understand and explain cetacean evolution, distribution, morphology, behavior, community dynamics, and other topics.
References
Branches of zoology |
30979 | https://simple.wikipedia.org/wiki/Primatology | Primatology | Primatology is a type of science that is part of zoology, that studies primates (monkeys, apes, lemurs, and humans). Primatology is a part of physical anthropology.
References
Branches of zoology
Anthropology
Physical anthropology |
30980 | https://simple.wikipedia.org/wiki/Orangutan | Orangutan | Orangutans (Pongo) are great apes belonging to the rainforests of Indonesia and Malaysia. There are two species of orangutan. They are from Southeast Asia. There are very few of them left, because loss of the jungle has reduced their habitat. There are orangutans on view at the Singapore zoo.
The name orangutan comes from two Malay words, orang which means person, and hutan which means forest; so orangutan means person of the forest.
Taxonomy
Genus Pongo
Bornean orangutan, Pongo pygmaeus
Sumatran orangutan, Pongo abelii
Tapanuli orangutan, Pongo tapanuliensis
Appearance
Orangutans have red-brown hair. They have long arms. They can be strong like chimpanzees, gorillas and humans. They also have hands that are good for climbing. The Sumatran Orangutan is smaller and has longer hair than the Bornean orangutan. Orangutans have suffered from forest loss and are on the very edge of extinction.
Life
Orangutans are from the rainforests on the islands Borneo and Sumatra in Southeast Asia. They mostly live up in the trees. They eat fruit, leaves and bark and also insects and bird eggs. They drink water from rain that has been collected in leaves. Orangutans are not comfortable on the ground since they have to push themselves along with fists. Heavy adults move carefully through the trees, using their flexible feet to grasp the tree branches. Smaller orangutans swing with more ease.
Diet
An orangutan's diet consists mainly of fruit, they like ripe fruit. If they cannot find fruit they will eat bark, leaves and termites, rather than move to somewhere else to get food. About 60% of an orangutan's diet is fruit, 25% is leaves, 10% is bark and flowers, and 5% is termites and other insects.
Pregnancy
After a pregnancy of 230–260 days the female gives birth to usually one baby, but sometimes two, every eight to nine years. The little ones stay with their mother for years, riding on their mother's back and learning to move through the forest. The young orangutans are playful and affectionate. When they are five or six years old, they become more independent and eventually go off on their own.
Related pages
Ape
References
Other websites
Primate Info Net Pongo Factsheet
Information from Grungy Ape on the difference between the two Orang-utan species
OrionSociety.org - 'Does an orangutan find Freedom in the Gift of Words? Do We?'
Orang utan language project
Facial Expression & Vocalizations
Orangutan Foundation International non-profit organization dedicated to "support the conservation and understanding of the orangutan and its rain forest habitat while caring for ex-captive individuals as they make their way back to the forest."
Orang Utan Republik Education Initiative non-profit organization whose mission is to secure the future of the orangutan through programs of education and outreach in Indonesia.
The Borneo Orangutan Survival Foundation
Sumatran Orangutan Society International non-profit organization dedicated to the protection of Sumatran orangutans
Hominids |
30981 | https://simple.wikipedia.org/wiki/Greeting | Greeting | Greetings are nice things to say when people meet each other. Greetings may be different from culture to culture. These are some greetings used a lot in the English language:
"Hello" Formal, Neutral and Informal
"Hi" Neutral and Informal
"Hey" Informal
Good Bye,greeting used while leaving each other
"Good [morning, afternoon, evening,night], Formal , which changes with the time of day
"What's up?", "Yo", "What's up?", "'Sup" and "What's happening?", which are not formal
"G'day", a greeting used a lot in Australia
"Howdy", an informal greeting used a lot in rural areas of the United States
"How do you do", which is used as a question in some places and a normal greeting in others
There are also ways to greet without talking, such as these:
Handshakes
Bowing
Waving
Hat-raising or tipping
Kissing on the hand or cheek
Hongi
Kowtow
Namaste common greeting in Asia
Roman salute
Hugging is another one which is used all around the world
Human communication |
30982 | https://simple.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sunlight | Sunlight | Sunlight is the light and energy that comes from the Sun. When this energy reaches the earth's surface, it is called insolation. What we experience as sunlight is actually solar radiation. It is the radiation and heat from the Sun in the form of electromagnetic waves.
The atmosphere affects the amount of solar radiation received. When solar radiation travels through the atmosphere, some of it is absorbed by the atmosphere (16%). Some of it is scattered to space (6%). Some of it is reflected by clouds (28%). About 47% of it reaches the Earth's surface.
Without sunlight, there could not be life on the Earth. Plants need sunlight for the process of photosynthesis. During photosynthesis the plants use the energy of the sunlight, water, and carbon dioxide, to create glucose (sugar). The glucose can later be used by the plant for energy or animals eat the plant and the glucose in it. Plants need sunlight to grow green. Without enough sunlight but with enough water, the plant grows very tall very quickly, but looks yellow and dehydrated, although when touched, the leaves are very moist.
Solar radiation can be both good and bad for a person's health. When in the light, the human body uses the ultraviolet part of sunlight to make its own Vitamin D. Without sunscreen too much ultraviolet light can cause sunburn and skin cancer. Sun angle makes difference in seasons on Earth as well as in the length of day and night. A high angle makes the tropics hot, and a low angle makes the arctic cold.
Intensity of sunlight on planets of Solar System
Different bodies of the Solar System receive sunlight of different intensities. The table compares the amount of light received by each planet on the Solar System follows:
Use of solar energy
Solar energy is used in many different ways by people all over the world both in its traditional way for heating, cooking or drying and to make electricity where other power supplies are absent, such as in remote places on Earth or in the space. Sometimes, it is cheaper to make electricity from sunlight than from coal or oil.
Notes
Other websites
Solar radiation - Encyclopedia of Earth
Light
Sun
Natural resources
Solar energy
Electromagnetic radiation |
30983 | https://simple.wikipedia.org/wiki/Theism | Theism | Theism is the religious belief that at least one god exists while rejecting the existence or importance of polytheistic gods or goddesses. In a broader definition it can also be the belief in God or gods in general, including all types of god-belief. Polytheism is the belief in several gods, while monotheism is the belief in just one god. For example, a theistic religion is Christianity. The opposite to a theist is an atheist. An atheist is a person who denies or disbelieves the existence of a supreme being or beings.
Different theisms
All of these are rough definitions of the theisms; they are almost always different. We can split them all into different groups:
atheism — the opposite of theism; not believing in any gods or deities
deism — believing that god(s) exist, but that they do not take part in our lives.
agnosticism — believing we cannot know whether god(s) exist
gnosticism — believing that we can know for certain whether a god(s) exist.
Gnosticism and agnosticism can be combined with other forms of theism. For example, it is possible to be an agnostic atheist, or a gnostic theist. In common usage, some people group atheism and agnosticism together under the group of nontheism — absence of clear belief in any deity.
The main types of theism are:
polytheism — believing that many gods or goddesses exist (sometimes known as paganism)
monotheism — belief that only one god exists (Christians, Muslims and Jews believe in monotheism.)
ditheism — belief that two gods exist and they are both equal.
This is another way to group different theisms, based on the nature of the gods.
pantheism — god and the universe are the same
panentheism — the universe is part of god
dystheism or maltheism — that god or the gods are evil.
There are also these types:
Animism: believing that everything is alive and spirits are in all things, and that all things have souls.
Monolatry: there is (or may be) more than one god, but they are all expressions of the supreme god.
Henotheism: there is (or may be) more than one god, but only one is the supreme.
Kathenotheism: there is more than one god, but only one at a time should be worshipped. Each is supreme in turn.
References
Relating pages
Theodicy
Theology |
30985 | https://simple.wikipedia.org/wiki/Plesiosaur | Plesiosaur | The plesiosaurs were an order of large, carnivorous marine reptiles. They flourished from 245 million years ago (mya) to 65 mya.
In 1719, William Stukeley described the first partial skeleton of a plesiosaur. The great-grandfather of Charles Darwin, Robert Darwin of Elston told him about it.
Mary Anning was the first to discover a fairly complete plesiosaur. She found it on the 'Jurassic Coast' of Dorset, England in the winter of 1820/21. The fossil was missing its skull, but in 1823 she found another one, this time complete with its skull. The name Plesiosaurus was given to it by the Rev. William Conybeare.
The earliest plesiosaur remains are from the Middle Triassic period,p128 and the group was important through the Jurassic and Cretaceous. They had two large pairs of paddles, short tails, short or long necks, and broad bodies. They died out at the K/T extinction event, 65 million years ago.
Description
Plesiosaurs had many bones in their flippers, making them flexible. No modern animal has this four-paddle anatomy: modern turtles use their forelimbs for swimming. They were mainly piscivorous (fish-eaters).
Pliosaurs
The pliosaurs were a group of mostly large submarine predators with short necks and large heads. Their sizes ranged from two to 15 metres, and they were predators of large fish and other reptiles. Their streamlined body shape suggests they swam and ate under water.
Liopleurodon.
Long-necked plesiosaurs
There were three families of long-necked plesiosaurs, who evidently had a different life-style from the pliosaurs. It was suggested by D.M.S. Watson that their method was as surface swimmers, darting down to snatch smaller fish which were feeding on plankton. It is hard to see the benefit of a long neck under water; aquatic mammals operating under water all have a streamlined torpedo-shape, as did pliosaurs and ichthyosaurs. All the longer-necked familiers were, from the setting of the teeth and jaws, eaters of small fish. However, some at least were bottom-feeders, consuming various prey. Digestion of shellfish was aided by gastroliths.
Plesiosaurids: neck not so long as the other two families, and not so flexible: a more general all-round plesiosaur. Head of medium size, neck fairly thick and strong, up to 30 vertebrae.
Plesiosaurus
Cryptoclidids: longer necks, with more than 30 vertebrae.
Cryptoclidus
Elasmosaurids: very long necks; some later forms have as many as 76 cervical (neck) vertebrae and quite small skulls.p30 Watson and Alexander's ideas apply especially to this group.
Elasmosaurus
Thalassomedon
Mauisaurus, the longest plesiosaur ever found.
Gastroliths
Plesiosaurs have been found with fossils of belemnites (squid-like animals), and ammonites (giant nautilus-like molluscs) associated with their stomachs. But plesiosaurs could not crack shells. Instead, they probably swallowed them whole. In the belly of a plesiosaur were "stomach stones", which are called gastroliths. These stones moved around in the plesiosaur's stomach and cracked or crushed the shells of the animals it ate. One plesiosaur fossil found in South Dakota had 253 gatroliths weighing a total of 29 pounds.
Live birth?
Live birth has been proved for ichthyosaurs, but is uncertain for plesiosaurs.
References
Plesiosaurs |
30988 | https://simple.wikipedia.org/wiki/Midland%2C%20Texas | Midland, Texas | Midland is a city in the American state of Texas. It is called Midland, because it is the midway point between two bigger cities in Texas, Fort Worth and El Paso. Oil was discovered in the region in 1923 and is still a larger part of the economy.
Midland is also famous as the hometown of former First Lady Barbara Walker Bush. She and her husband, former president George H. W. Bush lived there, with their children including the later US President George W. Bush and his wife Laura, and his brother Jeb Bush, the former Governor of Florida.
References
Cities in Texas
County seats in Texas |
30990 | https://simple.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sardinia | Sardinia | Sardinia (, Sardinian: Sardigna) is the second largest island in the Mediterranean Sea. It is an autonomous region of Italy. It was formerly the Kingdom of Sardinia.
The official name is, in Italian, Regione Autonoma della Sardegna.The capital and largest city is Cagliari.
Geography
The island of Sardinia has an area of and, after Sicily, is the second largest island in the Mediterranean Sea. It is long from North to South, and wide from West to East. It lies between 38° 51' and 41° 15' latitude north and 8° 8' and 9° 50' longitude east.
The island is on the western Mediterranean Sea, between the island of Corsica to the north and Tunisia to the south. The Tyrrhenian Sea part of the Mediterranean is directly east of Sardinia, between the Sardinian east coast and the west coast of the Italian mainland peninsula.
The Strait of Bonifacio (, , Gallurese: Bocchi di Bunifaciu, ) is the strait between Corsica and Sardinia, named after the Corsican town Bonifacio. It is wide and divides the Tyrrhenian Sea from the western Mediterranean Sea.
Rivers
Sardinia has few major rivers, the largest being the Tirso, long, which flows into the western Mediterranean Sea, the Coghinas () and the Flumendosa ().
Mountains and valleys
The highest peak is Punta La Marmora (), part of the Gennargentu group of mountains in the centre of the island. Other mountain chains are Monte Limbara () in the northeast, the Chain of Marghine and Goceano () running crosswise for towards the north, the Monte Albo (), the Sette Fratelli massif in the southeast, and the Sulcis Mountains and the Monte Linas ().
The mountain chains of the island are separated by wide valleys; the main ones are Campidano in the southwest between Oristano and Cagliari, and the Nurra in the northwest.
Islands
There are many small islands around the main island of Sardinia. Some of them are:
Maddalena Archipelago, to the northeast
Asinara, to the northwest
San Pietro Island, to the southwest
Sant'Antioco, to the southwest
Administrative divisions
Sardinia is divided in eight provinces:
References
Other websites
Official Sardinia Tourism website in English
Official regional website in Italian
Sardegna DigitalLibrary - La memoria digitale della Sardegna
Autonomous areas
Islands of Italy |
30991 | https://simple.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nuclear%20reactor | Nuclear reactor | A nuclear reactor is a machine that uses fission to generate heat. There are different designs which use different fuels. Most often, uranium-235 or plutonium-239 are the main components of these fuels.
Most nuclear reactors are used to make electricity. In nuclear power plants heat from the fission reactions in the reactor changes water into steam. The steam is then used to power electric turbines which make electricity. As with other steam engines, the turbines take energy from the movement of the steam.
Some reactors are used for other purposes. Some reactors make neutrons for science research and others make radioactive isotopes. Some universities have small nuclear reactors to teach students how reactors work.
The first nuclear reactor was built in 1942 by a team of scientists led by Enrico Fermi. This was a part of the Manhattan Project which needed the fuel from the reactor to make the atomic bomb. The first nuclear reactor to make electricity was a small experimental reactor built in Idaho in 1951. It made just enough electricity for four light globes.
Nuclear reactors are expensive to build because of the many safety features they need to have. There is also a problem with the huge amount of radioactive waste from the reactors. However they produce electricity cheaply, and do not pollute the air. There have been serious accidents at several nuclear reactors: Windscale (UK) 1957, Mayak (USSR) 1957, Three Mile Island (USA) 1979, Chernobyl (USSR) 1986 and Fukushima (Japan) 2011. Concerns about safety have limited the growth of nuclear power. There are about 437 reactors around the world which provide about 5% of the world's electricity.
References
Other websites
Images for nuclear reactors
Nuclear Power Reactors
Recent videos for nuclear reactors
Nuclear energy |
31005 | https://simple.wikipedia.org/wiki/Samobor | Samobor | Samobor is a city in Zagreb County, Croatia, population 36,206 (2001). It is west of Zagreb, between the eastern slopes of Samoborsko gorje (Samobor hills, the eastern part of the Žumberak Mountains), in the Sava river valley. It is part of the Zagreb metropolitan area.
Samobor has been there since 1242, according to a document of endowment by King Bela IV. It is one of the earliest tourist resorts in the region, with the first tourist facilities dating back to 1810, oriented towards anglers, hunters and hikers.
Cities in Croatia |
31006 | https://simple.wikipedia.org/wiki/Frankfurt%20%28Oder%29 | Frankfurt (Oder) | Frankfurt (Oder) or Frankfurt an der Oder (; abbreviated , Polish: Frankfurt nad Odrą, Low Sorbian: Frankobrod nad Odru, Low German: Frankfort an de Oder, Upper Sorbian: Frankobrod nad Wódru, lit. 'Frankfurt at the Oder') is a town in Germany. It lies on the Oder river, which marks the current border between Germany and Poland (The so-called Oder-Neisse line). It's in the east of the state of Brandenburg.
Since January 1999, the town added a prefix Kleiststadt to refer to Heinrich von Kleist, who was born there in 1777. Today, about 65,000 people are living in Frankfurt an der Oder.
Well-known people
Manuela Schwesig (born 1974), politician
References
Urban districts of Brandenburg |
31008 | https://simple.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cook%20Islands | Cook Islands | The Cook Islands are a group of islands in the southern Pacific. They form an independent state, but have strong ties with Peter Griffin. The 15 small islands have a total land surface of 240 square kilometers. About 18.000 people live on the islands, most of them from tourism. The largest island, Rarotonga, also holds the territory's capital, Avarua.
The nation also has a distinctive Polynesian language known as Cook Island Maori, which is closely related to the Maori language of New Zealand and to the Tahitian language.
References
Commonwealth dependent states |
31012 | https://simple.wikipedia.org/wiki/Punishment | Punishment | Punishment is when something is done to a person (or animal) that they do not like. It may be because they broke a rule. There are many kinds of punishment, from a death penalty for very bad crimes, to things that parents may do to punish children, like spanking them or taking away their toys. People are often sent to prison as punishment for a crime.
Punishment can be seen as good in society to prevent people from doing bad things. It can also seen as cruel and unnecessary. It can also be seen to do more harm than good.
References
Basic English 850 words
Criminal justice |
31015 | https://simple.wikipedia.org/wiki/Om | Om | The two letters OM can mean
Order of Merit, a British and Commonwealth ward
Another way of spelling Aum, a sacred Hindu word. |
31022 | https://simple.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blue%20whale | Blue whale | The blue whale (Balaenoptera musculus) is a marine mammal of the suborder of baleen whales (called Mysticeti). They grow to be about 30 meters long. The biggest blue whale found was 190 tons and measured 98 feet long. Larger specimens have been measured at 110 feet, but never weighed. This makes blue whales the largest animals ever to be on Earth, even bigger than the largest dinosaurs.
The blue whale eats mostly very tiny creatures, like krill. These inch-long, shrimp-like crustacean swim in swarms. In the Antarctic summer, there are so many of these krill that they turn the waters orange. A blue whale can eat eight to ten tons of krill every day.
The blue whale's body is long and slender. It can be various shades of bluish-grey above and somewhat lighter underneath. There are at least three distinct subspecies: B. m. musculus of the North Atlantic and North Pacific, B. m. intermedia of the Southern Ocean and B. m. brevicauda (also known as the pygmy blue whale) found in the Indian Ocean and South Pacific Ocean. B. m. indica, found in the Indian Ocean, may be another subspecies. As with other baleen whales, its diet consists almost exclusively of small krill.
Blue whales were once abundant around the world. In the nineteenth century, they were hunted almost to extinction by whalers. They were finally protected by the international community in 1966. A 2002 report estimated there were 5,000 to 12,000 blue whales worldwide, located in at least five groups. More recent research into the Pygmy subspecies suggests this may be an underestimate. Before whaling, the largest population was in the Antarctic, numbering approximately 239,000 (range 202,000 to 311,000). There remain only much smaller (around 2,000) concentrations in each of the eastern North Pacific, Antarctic, and Indian Ocean groups. There are two more groups in the North Atlantic, and at least two in the Southern Hemisphere. The North Atlantic group of Blue Whales can be seen in the Saguenay-St. Lawrence Marine Park near Tadoussac QC, Canada.
References
Baleen whales |
31023 | https://simple.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cetacea | Cetacea | The order Cetacea are marine mammals that live in oceans, seas, and even a few rivers around the world. Whales, dolphins, and porpoises are part of this group. These common name refer to size: whales are the largest, porpoises the smallest. How and what they eat is a better guide to their relationships. The study of cetaceans is called cetology.
Cetaceans are ocean creatures without toes, but are classified in the related order Cetartiodactyla because their ancestors were even toed ungulates.
Taxonomy
Order Cetacea
Suborder Mysticeti: Baleen whales
Family Balaenidae: Right whales and Bowhead whale
Bowhead whale, Balaena mysticetus
Genus Eubalaena: Right whales
North Atlantic right whale, Eubalaena glacialis
North Pacific right whale, Eubalaena japonica
Southern right whale, Eubalaena australis
Family Balaenopteridae: Rorquals
Genus Balaenoptera
Blue whale, Balaenoptera musculus
Fin whale, Balaenoptera physalus
Humpback whale, Megaptera novaeangliae
Family Eschrichtiidae
Gray whale, Eschrichtius robustus
Family Neobalaenidae
Pygmy right whale, Caperea marginata
Suborder Odontoceti: Toothed whales
Family Delphinidae: Oceanic dolphins
Family Phocoenidae: Porpoises
Family Monodontidae
Beluga, Delphinapterus leucas
Narwhal, Monodon monoceros
Family Physeteridae: Sperm whales
Sperm whale, Physeter catodon
Dwarf sperm whale, Kogia sima
Pygmy sperm whale, Kogia breviceps
Family Ziphiidae
Cuvier's beaked whale, Ziphia cavirostris
Superfamily Platanistoidea: River dolphins |
31026 | https://simple.wikipedia.org/wiki/Scottish%20Gaelic%20language | Scottish Gaelic language | Scottish Gaelic (Gàidhlig, pronounced "Gah-lick") is a Celtic language. It is commonly called just Scots Gaelic in Scottish English. It is a sister language of Irish Gaelic and Manx Gaelic; all three are Goidelic languages. These are related to the Welsh language, Cornish language and the Breton language (these three are Brittonic or Brythonic languages).
History
In past times, the Scottish Gaelic was spoken across all of Scotland except for the Northern Islands (Orkney and Shetland). In the later part of the Middle Ages, the kings of Scotland began to speak Scottish English and looked down on the Scottish Gaelic. After the union of England and Scotland, the Scottish Gaelic was snubbed and looked down on even more, and Scottish English took over.
Scottish Gaelic today
Scottish Gaelic today is basically that of the Scottish Gaelic spoken in the Outer Hebrides and on Skye. Generally speaking, the Scottish Gaelic spoken across the Western Isles is similar enough to be classed as one major dialect group, but there is some regional variation.
A census in the United Kingdom in 2001 showed that a total of 58,652 (1.2% of the Scottish population aged over three years old) in Scotland could speak some amount of Scottish Gaelic at that time. Only the Western Isles of Scotland have more people who can speak the Scottish Gaelic than not (61% of the people here speak Scottish Gaelic). The place in Scotland with the biggest percentage of Scottish Gaelic speakers is a village called Barvas on the Isle of Lewis. There, 74.7% of the people there speak the Scottish Gaelic.
Children in Scotland do not have to learn Scottish Gaelic in schools, though it is becoming a more popular subject as Scottish Gaelic is an important part of their Scottish culture.
Scottish Gaelic is also used overseas. It is estimated that 1,000–2,000 in Nova Scotia, Canada can speak some Scottish Gaelic.
References
Celtic languages
Languages of Europe |
31027 | https://simple.wikipedia.org/wiki/Scottish%20language | Scottish language | Scottish language can mean:
Scottish Gaelic language - the Celtic language spoken in Scotland today
Scots language - a West Germanic idiom spoken in parts of Scotland, Northern Ireland, and Donegal, Ireland
Scottish English - the group of dialects of the English language currently used in Scotland |
31035 | https://simple.wikipedia.org/wiki/West%20Germanic%20languages | West Germanic languages | The West Germanic Languages are a branch of Germanic languages first spoken in Central Europe and the British Isles. The branch has three parts: the North Sea Germanic languages, the Weser-Rhine Germanic languages, and the Elbe Germanic languages. The most spoken languages in the branch are English, German, and Dutch.
These languages were spread around the world in the Colonial Era. English is now spoken by around 400 million people natively.
Branches
There are three branches of West Germanic languages:
North Sea Germanic / Ingvaeonic languages
Anglo-Frisian languages
English Languages/Anglic
English
Scots
Yola (extinct)
Fingalian (extinct)
Frisian languages
West Frisian
East Frisian
North Frisian
Low German / Low Saxon
Northern Low Saxon
Schleswig dialects
Holstein dialects
Westphalian
Eastphalia dialects
Brandenburg dialects ("Märkisch")
Pomeranian (moribund)
Low Prussian (moribund)
Dutch Low Saxon
Weser-Rhine Germanic / Istvaeonic languages / Netherlandic / Low Frankish
Dutch
West Flemish
East Flemish
Zeelandic
Hollandic
Brabantine
Zuid-Gelders/Clevian/Meuse-Rhenish
Limburgian
Afrikaans
Elbe Germanic / Irminonic languages / High German
German
Alemannic, including Swiss German and Alsatian
Swabian
Austro-Bavarian
East Franconian
South Franconian
Rhine Franconian, including the dialects of Hessen, Pennsylvania German, and most of those from Lorraine
Ripuarian
Thuringian
Upper Saxon German
Silesian (moribund)
Lombardic Langobardic (extinct, unless Cimbrian and Mocheno are in fact Langobardic remnants.)
High Prussian (moribund)
Luxembourgish
Pennsylvania German language
Yiddish (a language based on Eastern-Central dialects of late Middle High German/Early New High German)
References
Sources
Languages of Europe |
31039 | https://simple.wikipedia.org/wiki/Germanic%20languages | Germanic languages | The Germanic languages are a group of Indo-European languages. They came from one language, Proto-Germanic, which was first spoken in Scandinavia in the Iron Age. Today, the Germanic languages are spoken by around 515 million people as a first language. English is the most spoken Germanic language, with 360-400 million native speakers.
The Germanic languages are the East Germanic languages (all extinct), the North Germanic languages, and the West Germanic languages.
When Proto-Germanic split from Proto-Indo-European, one of the main changes in the sounds in the language was Grimm’s law.
References
Sources
Languages of Europe |
31042 | https://simple.wikipedia.org/wiki/Punjabi | Punjabi | Punjabi might mean:
Something related to the Punjab region in Pakistan and India
Punjab (India), a state of India
Punjab (Pakistan), a province of Pakistan
Punjabi language
Punjabi people, an ethnic group from the Punjab region in Pakistan and India
Related pages
Punjab, a disambiguation page |
31043 | https://simple.wikipedia.org/wiki/Killer%20whale | Killer whale | Killer whales, or Orcas (Orcinus orca) are a form of dolphins that have mostly black skin with white patches. They are found in all the world's oceans, from the cold of the Arctic to the tropical seas. They are easy to identify because of their distinctive white and black colouring. They live in pods.
Lifestyle
Like all toothed whales, they are carnivores. Killer whales are apex predators and they hunt in family groups called 'pods'. Members of the pod work together to surround their prey. Killer whales eat many different kinds of prey, such as small sharks, seals, sea lions, dolphins, whales, penguins, seagulls, squid, octopuses, stingrays, crabs and sea turtles. In 1997, the first known killer whale attack on great white sharks was documented off the coast of San Francisco. There are several different types of Orca, each of which has different living and prey habits. They do not interbreed and seems to be subspecies or even separate species. Their behaviour and hunting techniques also differ.
Killer whales are the largest living members of the dolphin family. Males (called "bulls") typically range from 6 to 8 metres long and weigh in excess of 6 tonnes. Females ("cows") are smaller, generally ranging from 5 to 7m and weighing about 3 to 4 t. The largest male killer whale on record was 9.8 metres, weighing over 10 tonnes, while the largest female was 8.5m, weighing 7.5 t. A baby killer whale is called a "calf". Calves at birth weigh about and are about long. The killer whale's large size and strength make it among the fastest marine mammals, able to reach speeds in excess of .
Intelligence
Killer whales have the second-heaviest brains among marine mammals. They can be trained in captivity and are often described as intelligent, although defining and measuring "intelligence" is difficult in a species whose life is very different from ours.
Killer whales imitate others, and seem to deliberately teach skills to their young. This is most strikingly seen when killer whales deliberately beach themselves to catch seals. Off Península Valdés, adults sometimes pull seals off the shoreline and then release them again near juvenile whales, allowing the younger whales to practice the difficult capture technique on the now-weakened prey. Off the Crozet Islands, mothers push their calves onto the beach, waiting to pull the youngster back if needed. Some orcas have discovered that flipping sharks upside down can paralyze them.
People who have interacted closely with killer whales offer numerous anecdotes demonstrating the whales' curiosity, playfulness, and ability to solve problems. For example, Alaskan killer whales have not only learned how to steal fish from longlines, but have overcome a variety of techniques designed to stop them, such as the use of unbaited lines as decoys. Once, fishermen placed their boats several miles apart, taking turns retrieving small amounts of their catch, in the hope that the whales would not have enough time to move between boats to steal fish as it was being retrieved. A researcher described what happened next:
"It worked really well for a while. Then the whales split into two groups. It didn't even take them an hour to figure it out. They were so thrilled when they figured out what was going on, that we were playing games. They were breaching by the boats".
In other anecdotes, researchers describe incidents in which wild killer whales playfully tease humans by repeatedly moving objects that the humans are trying to reach, or suddenly start to toss around a chunk of ice after a human throws a snowball.
The killer whale's use of dialects and the passing of other learned behaviours from generation to generation have been described as a form of culture.
"The complex and stable vocal and behavioural cultures of sympatric groups of killer whales (Orcinus orca) appear to have no parallel outside humans and represent an independent evolution of cultural faculties".
The dorsal fin
The dorsal fin of the orca can extend up to six feet above its body. That's taller than most grown men. And because a killer whale swims close to the surface, the dorsal fin can often be seen gliding through the surface of the water. This causes some people to mistake killer whale for sharks. In captivity, dorsal fins often collapse for many reasons, but in the wild, dorsal fin collapse happens in less than one percent of wild orcas.
Temperament
Female killer whales are often tamed and can be trained to do tricks for audiences in marine shows, like in Sea World. Sometimes, killer whales have even starred in movies, such as the movie titled Free Willy. Orcas can be dangerous, and have been known to kill their attendants on rare occasions. Some marine parks now require trainers to stay outside the pool when they work with orcas. Unlike wild killer whales, captive killer whales are reported to have made nearly two dozen attacks on humans since the 1970s, some of which have been fatal.
There is a population which lives near Spain and Portugal and which has specialized on attacking sailboats. They do not attack powerboats. This behaviour is mystery, as the whales cannot use glassfibre as a food. Most likely the whales practice attacking large sharks and whales, as the underside of a sailing boat resembles a large whale or a shark. They have damaged several boats, but so far none has sunk and no humans have died on their attacks.
Related pages
Whales
Odontoceti
References
Oceanic dolphins |
31048 | https://simple.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pac-Man | Pac-Man | Pac-Man is an arcade video game that was made by Namco and designed by Toru Iwatani. It was released in 1980, and became very popular in the history of games.
In Pac-Man, the player makes a Pac-Man, a yellow disc, move around a maze. The ghosts are Blinky, Pinky, Inky, and Clyde. The goal is to eat every yellow pellet (circles) while not getting caught by the ghosts/monsters. For extra points, fruits that appear can also be eaten. When Pac-Man eats a big pellet, the ghosts turn blue for a short period of time and can be eaten. The time that the ghosts are blue generally decreases from one stage to the next. Beginning at stage 19, the ghosts do not turn blue at all when a power pellet is eaten. Even though the game has 256 stages, the last level can not be finished due to a problem with the creation of the game.
The player begins the game with 3 lives, and lose one each time Pac-man collides with a ghost. The game ends when all lives are lost. Pac-man gets an extra life once the player gets 10,000 points.
The game is called Puck-Man in Japan. The game was renamed to Pac-Man in the United States so that nobody could change the "P" to "F". There were many sequels and remakes based on the game. Hanna-Barbera made a animated TV show airing on ABC in the early 1970s. The game was also part of Namco Museum games. There is a Namco Museum Remix for the Wii.
Pac-Man was one of the first games to have cutscenes. It has 3 cutscenes in total.
References
1980 video games
Arcade games
Video game series
Namco video games
Game Gear games
Game Boy games
Game Boy Color games
Game Boy Advance games
PlayStation games
Xbox 360 games
Xbox One games
Wii U games
Nintendo Switch games
Commodore 64 games
Apple II games |
31051 | https://simple.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shooting%20star | Shooting star | A shooting star is the common name for the visible path of a meteoroid as it enters the atmosphere. A shooting star is also broken pieces of meteors that have become broken off in space.
Shooting star could also mean:
Shooting Star (band), a rock band from Kansas City, MO
Shooting Star (comics), a character from Marvel Comics
P-80 Shooting Star, a United States Army Air Forces jet fighter
T-33 Shooting Star, an American-built jet trainer
Shooting Star Children's Hospice, a UK children's charity
An album:
Shooting Star (album), an album by the band of the same name
Shooting Star (Elkie Brooks album), a 1978 album
The Shooting Star, an adventure from the comic book series Tintin
Shooting star may also be:
Dodecatheon, a genus of herbaceous flowering plants
A professional wrestling aerial technique
An award for young European actors at the Berlin International Film Festival
See also:
"Shooting Star" (song)
Shooting Stars FC, a Nigerian football club
Shooting Stars, a British comedy television show
Shooting Stars (Singapore television series)
"Shooting Stars" a poem by Carol Ann Duffy concerning the holocaust |
31054 | https://simple.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gujarati | Gujarati | Gujarati might mean:
Anything related to Gujarat, a state in India
Gujarati people
Gujarati language
PATEL family tree: |
31056 | https://simple.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pot%20Noodle | Pot Noodle | Pot Noodle is a type of cup noodle sold in the United Kingdom. They contain noodles, soya pieces, vegetables, and seasoning powder with a packet of sauce that can be added to taste.
Available products
Pot noodles are available in several varieties:
Beef and Tomato
Bombay Bad Boy
Chicken and Mushroom
Chow Mein
Hot Chicken Curry
Seedy Sanchez (Mexican fajita flavour)
Southern Fried Chicken
Spicy Curry
Sticky Rib
Sweet and Sour
Sweet 'n' Spicy - formally "Nice 'n' Spicy"
The Sizzler (bacon flavour)
Mac n’ Cheese
Chicken korma
Thai green curry
Fast food |
31065 | https://simple.wikipedia.org/wiki/Greenlandic | Greenlandic | Greenlandic could mean:
Anything relating to Greenland or its people
Greenlandic language, the modern languages of Greenland
Occasionally, the Danish language as spoken in Greenland |
31072 | https://simple.wikipedia.org/wiki/Superman%20%281978%20movie%29 | Superman (1978 movie) | Superman is a 1978 movie based on the popular Superman superhero comic book. It was directed by Richard Donner, produced by Ilya Salkind, and the music was provided by John Williams. The movie starred Christopher Reeve, Margot Kidder, Marlon Brando, Gene Hackman, Ned Beatty, Phyllis Thaxter, Glenn Ford, and Jackie Cooper. It was very successful at the box office and with critics, and inspired three sequels along with the 2006 movie, Superman Returns.
Other websites
1957 |
31075 | https://simple.wikipedia.org/wiki/Domestic%20violence | Domestic violence | Domestic violence means that in a relationship or marriage, one or both of the partners uses physical, sexual or psychological violence to try to get power or control over the other or due to losing their temper. Domestic violence can occur in heterosexual and same-sex relationships. There is often a predictable pattern or cycle of violence in a relationship and the abuse tends to get worse over time. Domestic violence can be also a factor to be homeless, as pointed out by Principles 15 of the Yogyakarta Principles.
In any culture or community, there are beliefs and attitudes that support domestic violence and beliefs and attitudes that do not support domestic violence. In most countries, laws exist to protect the victim of such violent acts. There are also organisations that can help in such situations.
Domestic violence sometimes does not get reported to the police. Estimates say that only a third of domestic violence cases (or even less) get reported to the authorities.
Many people who use violence against their partners have mental disorders, especially antisocial personality disorder and borderline personality disorder.
Related pages
Domestic Abuse Advice
Cycle of abuse (patterns in relationships where there is domestic violence)
Domestic violence
Women's rights
Violence against women |
31081 | https://simple.wikipedia.org/wiki/Emersons%20Green | Emersons Green | Emersons Green is an area with lots of houses, just to the north of Bristol, in England.
It used to be just farming land between Mangotsfield and Downend, but in the 1990s houses, schools and shops were built.
Emersons Green is in South Gloucestershire.
There is a large shopping area in Emersons Green, including Sainsbury's, Boots, Lidl and Argos. There are also restaurants, three pubs and some cafés.
Villages in Gloucestershire |
31083 | https://simple.wikipedia.org/wiki/Archaeopteryx | Archaeopteryx | Archaeopteryx is one of the most important fossils ever discovered. It is a bird from the Upper Jurassic, about 150 million years ago. It shows the evolutionary link between non-avian theropod dinosaurs and birds, but it is not the ancestor of modern birds.
The first Archaeopteryx was found in 1860 near Solnhofen in Bavaria, Germany. Today, ten skeletons and one feather of Archaeopteryx have been found.
Archaeopteryx looked like a small carnivorous dinosaur with wings and feathers. It had a mouth with teeth, claws on the hands and a long tail. Today, it is known that dromaeosaurs, and possibly most theropods, looked like birds and that many had feathers. When they are born, today's South American hoatzin have claws on their wings when they are young, just like Archaeopteryx.
Analysis
Thomas Henry Huxley ("Darwin's bulldog"), who was a comparative anatomist, made a study of this nearly 150 years ago. He compared Archaeopteryx with a small theropod dinosaur, Compsognathus. Both of the fossils came from the same place: Solnhofen in Bavaria, Germany. The strata come from the end of the Jurassic period, about 144 million years ago. He showed that both were very similar except for the front limbs and feathers of Archaeopteryx.
Huxley's study showed the basic relationship between birds and reptiles. He united them under the title of Sauropsida. His papers on Archaeopteryx and the origin of birds have been of great interest ever since. Huxley concluded that birds evolved from small carnivorous dinosaurs.
Status today
Only one dinobird has been found from a time before Archaeopteryx. It is called Anchiornis huxlei, from 160 to 155 million years ago. It had feathers on both front and rear legs, and could certainly glide. It may or may not have had some ability to fly. This discovery means we cannot say Archaeopteryx is the first known bird, but its contribution to science has been huge. We now know for sure that a whole group of small theropod dinosaurs had feathers, and that flight was a later, secondary, use of feathers. The first use of feathers was temperature regulation, and probably also signalling (see Epidexipteryx).
Directly ancestral or not?
It may be that Archaeopteryx is not directly ancestral to all birds, but it is still a fine transitional fossil.
"Archaeopteryx, for example, is not necessarily directly ancestral to birds. It may have been a species on a side-branch. However, that in no way disqualifies it as a transitional form, or as evidence for evolution. Evolution predicts that such fossils will exist, and if there was no link between reptiles and birds then Archaeopteryx would not exist, whether it is directly ancestral or not".
Related pages
Origin of birds
Paraves
Anchiornis
Further reading
Chambers P. 2002. Bones of contention: the fossil that shook science. London: John Murray.
Shipman P. 1998. Taking wing: Archaeopteryx and the evolution of bird flight. London: Weidenfeld & Nicolson.
References
Birds
Coelurosaurs
Dinosaurs of Europe
Jurassic dinosaurs
Feathered dinosaurs |
31084 | https://simple.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mosel-Saar-Ruwer | Mosel-Saar-Ruwer | Mosel-Saar-Ruwer is a German wine-growing-region in the valleys of the rivers Moselle, Saar and Ruwer near Koblenz and Trier, Rhineland-Palatinate. It is famous for its wines of Riesling, Elbling and Müller-Thurgau grapes.
There are the following six sub-regions with 19 large vineyards:
Region Cochem / Untermosel
Weinhex
Goldbäumchen
Rosenhang
Grafschaft
Schwarze Katz (Zell)
Region Bernkastel / Mittelmosel
Vom heißen Stein (Reil)
Schwarzlay
Nacktarsch (Kröv)
Münzlay
Badstube (Bernkastel)
Beerenlay
Kurfürstlay
Michelsberg
St. Michael
Probstberg
Römerlay
Region Ruwer
Region Saar
Region Obermosel
Königsberg
Gipfel
Region Moseltor
Schloß Bübinger (Perl)
Other websites
Mosel-Saar-Ruwer
German food
Geography of Rhineland-Palatinate
Geography of Saarland
Wine regions
en:Mosel (wine region)#Wines |
31086 | https://simple.wikipedia.org/wiki/Snail | Snail | A snail is a common name for a kind of mollusc. The term is used for a gastropod with a coiled shell. Their fossil records extends back into the Carboniferous period.
Land snails and slugs breathe with a kind of lung. They used to be put together in a group, the Pulmonata. This was a well-known order in traditional taxonomy. However, the Pulmonata is polyphyletic. This means the same life-style evolved in a number of different lines. This is called convergent evolution. Therefore, the Pulmonata is no longer an official term in biological classification.
The term "snail" is also sometimes used for aquatic snail-like gastropods, which usually have gills. Actually, most snail species are marine snails. There are more species of them, and they are far greater in numbers. Many kinds of snails can also be found in fresh water habitats.
Most land snails and slugs are herbivorous. Aquatic snails and slugs are usually omnivores or predatory carnivores.
In many countries around the world, people eat snails as a delicacy. In France, snails are called escargots, which is also the name of the dish. In French cuisine, the snails are cooked in salt water and then served with a garlic sauce.
The biggest snail is the giant African snail. Their foot is up to 35 cm long.
The fastest snail is the Helix aspersa. It can reach speeds up to 0.047 kmh.
There are known more than 43000 species of snails all over the world.
Body parts
Shell
Snails are invertebrates, which are animals with no backbones. The shell on the snail helps protect it, and also reduces the loss of water by evaporation. Shells have many different shapes, sizes, and colors. Snails do not breathe through their mouths, instead they have a breathing hole under their shells.
Foot
A snails "foot" is a muscle which allows it to move slowly across the ground. The foot puts out ('exudes') slime, which eases the snail's movement, leaving a trail. Snails can absorb mineral nutrients through their foot by simply sitting on a rock.
Head
The head is attached to the foot. On the head there are 15 mm stalks. At the end of the stalks are snail’s eyes.
Habitat
Snails are found all over the world. Generally speaking, land snails live in damp habitats. They live in caves and dark places. Snails can be found in dark places such as in a garden under plant's foliage leaves. Some species live in cold places like the Arctic and a few are found in warm places like beaches and deserts.
Food
Land snails eat vegetables and fruits, such as lettuce, carrots, cucumber and apples. Aquatic snails are often carnivorous. Snails use their radula to cut food. The radula is a hard, rough plate in the mouth. Radula teeth are like little pieces of sandpaper. They are good for cutting up plants and if the snail eats meat they are good for tearing the meat apart.
Many animals eat snails. Fireflies, snakes, beetles, fish, insects, turtles and people eat snails too. To defend themselves, snails pull back into their shells.
Related pages
Ampullariidae
Gastropoda
Helix (genus)
Slug
Sea slug
References
O’Neil, Sarah 1999. Snails. Scholastic Canada. .
Henwood, Chris 2005. Keeping minibeasts: snails and slugs. Sea to Sea. .
Stidworthy, John 2002. Cool facts: creepy crawlies. Parragon 2000. .
Ghesquiere, Stijn 1998. Apple snails.
Gastropods |
31087 | https://simple.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ruwer%20River | Ruwer River | The Ruwer is a river in Germany with a length of , a tributary of the Mosel River. The valley of the Ruwer is a part of the wine-growing region Mosel-Saar-Ruwer near Trier in Rhineland-Palatinate. It is famous for its Riesling wines.
At the lower Ruwer valley are the villages Waldrach, Kasel, Mertesdorf, Eitelsbach and Ruwer.
Tributaries
Tributaries are Alkenbach, Altbach, Altweiherbach, Apfelbach, Avelbach, Bausbach, Benninger Bach, Bingelbach, Burg Heider Bach, Burkelsbach, Eitelsbach, Enterbach, Eschbach, Eselsbach, Flonterbach, Gimpelbach, Gondersbach, Grindelbach, Großbach, Hinzerter Bach, Kittelbach, Klinkbach, Kreidbach, Kundelbach, Labach, Lehbach, Misselbach, Moertschelbach, Mühlscheider Bach, Pehlbach, Rauruwer, Rimperterbach, Riveris, Rothbach, Siebenbornbach, Thielenbach, Waldbach, Waschbach, Weiherbach, Wenigbach, Wenzelbach and Weschbach.
Geography of Rhineland-Palatinate
Rivers of Germany |
31088 | https://simple.wikipedia.org/wiki/Slug | Slug | Slug is a general term for a gastropod mollusc which has no shell, or just a small internal shell.
Slugs belong to several different families which also include snails with shells. Snails are gastropods with a coiled shell large enough for the animal to pull back inside. The families of land slugs are not very closely related, despite looking similar. The shell-less slug type is an example of convergent evolution, and so the category "slug" is not a taxonomic category.
The name "slug" is used for air-breathing land slugs, while the marine forms are usually known as sea slugs. Land gastropods with a shell that is too small to hide the body are sometimes called semislugs.
Body parts and behaviour
Like land snails, most slugs have four 'feelers' or tentacles on their head. The upper two (the "optical tentacles") see light and have eyespots at the ends, while the lower two (the "sensory tentacles") are used for smelling. The tentacles are retractable, and can regrow if lost.
On top of the slug, behind the head, is a body part called the mantle, and under this are the genital opening and anus. On one side (almost always the right side) of the mantle is a breathing hole, which is easy to see when open, but difficult to see when closed. Inside the mantle in some species is a very small, flat shell.
The bottom of a snail is called a "foot". Like other snails, a slug moves by rhythmic waves of muscle contraction on the bottom of its foot. At the same time, it secretes a layer of mucus on which it travels, which helps prevent damage to the foot. Around the edge of the foot is the 'foot fringe'.
Some slug species hibernate underground during the winter in places with cold winters, but in other species, the adults die in the autumn.
Gastropods |
31090 | https://simple.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ruwer | Ruwer | Ruwer could mean:
Ruwer River, in Rhineland-Palatinate, Germany
Ruwer (municipality), a convention community (Verbandsgemeinde) in Rhineland-Palatinate
Ruwer (suburb), a suburban part of Trier
Ruwer (region), a part of the German wine-growing region Mosel-Saar-Ruwer near Trier |
31091 | https://simple.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ruwer%20%28municipality%29 | Ruwer (municipality) | Ruwer is a municipality (a convention community called Verbandsgemeinde Ruwer) on the River Ruwer. The administrative offices are in the town of Waldrach, and it should not be confused with the nearby town of Ruwer, which is for administrative purposes a part of the city of Trier.
Members
Related pages
Ruwer-Hochwald-Radweg
Other websites
Homepage of the municipality
Touristinformation Ruwer
Geography of Rhineland-Palatinate |
31094 | https://simple.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gunpowder | Gunpowder | Gunpowder (or gun powder) is a mix of chemical substances (75% saltpeter, 15% charcoal and 10% sulfur). It is used primarily in firearms, burns very quickly, and creates gases. Those gases use up more space than the gunpowder they come from, so they push outward. If the gunpowder is in a small space, the gases will push on the walls of the space, building up pressure. In a gun, the pressure pushes against a bullet, causing it to fly out at high speeds. If the pressure became too high, it could destroy the gun barrel.
Gunpowder was invented by the Chinese. The first references of black powder, the original form of gunpowder, date to the 9th century. According to legend, Chinese alchemists were looking for a formula to create the elixir of life, or the mythical potion that causes whoever drinks it to become immortal, when they accidentally created gunpowder. Because the powder was highly flammable, or burned very easily, they decided to call it "fire medicine" (Simplified Chinese: 火药 / Traditional Chinese: 火藥). The Chinese soon weaponized the substance, or made weapons out of it. In later centuries they made many weapons using gunpowder, including rockets, bombs, flamethrowers, and land mines, before making cannons and guns. The oldest weapon that uses gunpowder dates back to a bronze handheld cannon made in northeastern China in 1288. The first mention in Europe was in the 13th century when Roger Bacon described the formula of black powder. Gunpowder was extremely valuable to the Chinese civilization, in fact so valuable that sometimes it was traded for gold.
Other websites
Gunpowder -Citizendium
References
Firearms |
31095 | https://simple.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mayor | Mayor | A mayor is a person who is in charge of the administration of a city. Some mayors are elected by the people who live in that city. For other cities, a central government body may choose the mayor. Some large cities have a Lord Mayor.
In federal countries like Germany the mayor can also be head of the government of a city state. The Mayor of Hamburg runs the government just like the Minister President of Bavaria runs the Bavarian government. In some big cities such as Tokyo the Mayor is a Governor.
In many countries, such as the United Kingdom and Australia, the mayor is not in charge of the daily functions of a city or town. That job is done by a Town Clerk or Chief Executive, who is appointed to a full-time paid job. The mayor works part-time, usually without payment, and represents the city at events and civic functions.
Government occupations |
31104 | https://simple.wikipedia.org/wiki/Churning%20of%20the%20Ocean | Churning of the Ocean | Churning of the Ocean is a mythical story of Hinduism and Hindu mythology. It is described in many Hindu scriptures, especially in the Mahabharata and the Puranas. The story tells about the churning of the ocean by the gods and the demons. From this churning of the ocean, several things came out of the ocean. Some of them were:
Surabhi: She was a cow. She was called the cow of plenty.
Varuni: He was the goddess of wine.
Parijata: It was a tree. The story tells that this tree granted all the wishes of the person standing below it.
Apsaras: They were beautiful women. They would never grow old. They used to dance in the court of Indra, a god of the Indo-Aryan period.
The moon: The Hindu scriptures name the moon as the Chandra. It rose from the ocean when the gods and the demons were churning the ocean.
Kalakuta: It was a dangerous poison. When it came out of the ocean, Shiva drank it.
Dhanvantari: He was the first physician of Ayurvedic system of medicine and medication.
Lakshmi: She came out of the ocean seated on a lotus. She is a goddess of Hindus.
Uchchaishravas: It was a horse with seven heads. The legend states that it pulls the chariot of the sun-god, Surya.
Airavata: It was a three-headed elephant. It was taken by Indra.
Kaustuba: It was a very important gem. God Vishnu kept it.
The Hindu scriptures and the Hindu mythology tell that all the above things came out of the ocean for the good of human beings.
References
Dictionary of Hindu Lore and Legend () by Anna Dallapiccola
Hindu mythology |
31106 | https://simple.wikipedia.org/wiki/Martha%20Washington | Martha Washington | Martha Dandridge Custis Washington (June 2, 1731 – May 2, 1802) was the wife of George Washington, the first President of the United States. Although people only started using the term decades after her death, Martha Washington is considered to be the first First Lady of the United States.
Early life
She was born on June 2, 1731, at Chestnut Grove Plantation near Williamsburg, Virginia. Her parents were John Dandridge, an immigrant from England, and his wife Frances Jones. Her education consisted of the womanly arts such as needlework and playing musical instruments. Later in life, she would learn to manage a plantation.
Marriage
At 18, she married Daniel Parke Custis, a tobacco planter 20 years older than her. She bore him four children. Only two, John "Jacky" and Martha "Patsy", survived to young adulthood. She was widowed in 1757 at age 26. In 1759, she married George Washington, a colonel in the colonial militia. Their marriage was one of mutual affection and respect, but not one of passion. The Washingtons had no biological children.
Personal life
During the American Revolutionary War, Martha visited the cold and starving Continental troops spending the winter at Valley Forge, Pennsylvania. She donated as much food as possible, and sewed clothing for the soldiers. She nursed those who were ill or dying. She urged local women to do the same. Her commitment to the welfare of the veterans of the Revolution would remain lifelong. They addressed her as "Lady Washington."
First Lady
Washington was unanimously elected president in 1789. Martha served as First Lady from April 30, 1789 to March 4, 1797. She found the job unpleasant. She complained of the journalists who followed her everywhere (even to the circus with her grandson), and of the many restrictions placed upon her as First Lady (she was not allowed to accept dinner invitations, for example).
She set many of the customs and standards that were observed by future First Ladies. She retired to Mount Vernon with her husband after serving her country.
Death
She died in Mount Vernon on May 22, 1802. Her obituary (death notice) was widely printed in regional newspapers. She is buried in the vault at Mount Vernon. She was the first historical female figure to be depicted by the United States government on postage stamps and currency.
Gallery
References
1731 births
1802 deaths
First Ladies of the United States
People from Virginia |
31107 | https://simple.wikipedia.org/wiki/Abigail%20Adams | Abigail Adams | Abigail Smith Adams (November 11, 1744–October 28, 1818) was the wife of John Adams, the second President of the United States. Later on, people started to address the wife of the president as the First Lady. So, she became the second First Lady of the United States. She was born in Weymouth, Massachusetts. She belonged to a famous family of Massachusetts (the Quincy Family).
In 1801, the couple retired and lived in Quincy. Abigail died in 1818, at age 74 of typhoid fever.
Early life
Abigail Adams advocated for an equal education in public schools for boys and girls. In her earliest years, she was often in poor health. She spent most of her time reading. In addition to that, she corresponded to family and friends before getting married.
Adams did not get any formal education in any school or college. Her father had a big library, so she studied many books and became smart that way. She married John Adams in 1764. In the next ten years, she had five children (a sixth was stillborn). One of her children was John Quincy Adams, the sixth President of the United States.
Political involvement
Adams was a vital confidant and adviser to her husband John Adams. She opposed slavery and supported women's rights. In 1776, her husband participated in the First Continental Congress in Philadelphia. There, Adams wrote her most famous letter to the Founding Fathers "remember the ladies."
In 1784, Adams joined at her husband at his diplomatic post in Paris. She became interested in the manners of the French. After 1785, she filled the difficult role of wife of the First US Minister to Great Britain. She did so with dignity.
References
Other websites
1744 births
1818 deaths
First Ladies of the United States
Second Ladies of the United States
John Adams |
31108 | https://simple.wikipedia.org/wiki/Martha%20Jefferson%20Randolph | Martha Jefferson Randolph | Martha Washington Jefferson Randolph (September 27, 1772 – October 10, 1836) was the daughter of Thomas Jefferson and his wife Martha Wayles Skelton Jefferson. Thomas Jefferson was the third President of the United States. Because her father was a widower, Martha Washington Jefferson Randolph acted as the First Lady of the United States from March 4, 1801 to March 3, 1809.
Martha was born in Monticello, near Charlottesville, Virginia. She was named Martha Washington in honor of Martha Washington, the wife of the first President of the United States, George Washington. She was educated in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania and Paris.
In 1790, Martha married Thomas Mann Randolph Jr. They had twelve children. Shortly before her death, she and her husband developed differences. She died in 1836 in Albemarle County, Virginia at the age of 64.
People from Virginia
1772 births
1836 deaths
First Ladies of the United States
Children of Presidents of the United States
Thomas Jefferson |
31120 | https://simple.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aracaju | Aracaju | Aracaju is the modern capital city of the state of Sergipe in the northeastern region of Brazil. It has about 470.000 inhabitants (estimate 2003) and lies between the cities of Salvador and Maceio, also in the northeast of Brazil. It was planned and built to be the state capital in 1855.
Cities in Sergipe
Capitals of Brazilian states
1855 establishments
19th-century establishments in Brazil
1850s establishments in South America |
31121 | https://simple.wikipedia.org/wiki/A%20Midsummer%20Night%27s%20Dream | A Midsummer Night's Dream | A Midsummer Night's Dream is a play by William Shakespeare. The exact date the play was written is unknown. It is generally accepted that the play was written in 1595 or 1596. It was first printed in 1600. In 1623, the play was printed in the First Folio, a collection of all of Shakespeare's plays.
Shakespeare's sources include works by Plutarch, Apuleius, Ovid, Geoffrey Chaucer, and Edmund Spenser. He found a description of Puck in Reginald Scot's The Discoverie of Witchcraft (1584). It is generally believed that the play was written for the festivities surrounding the aristocratic marriage of either Elizabeth Vere, Lord Burghley’s granddaughter, in 1595, or Elizabeth Carey, daughter of Sir George Carey, in 1596.
The play is about four confused young lovers, a group of clumsy workmen, the royal court of Duke Theseus, and the royal fairy court of King Oberon and Queen Titania. The play is set mostly at night in the woods near Athens.
The play has been made into movies on numerous occasions. One movie stars Mickey Rooney as the fairy Puck. Benjamin Britten wrote an opera based on the play, George Balanchine and Frederick Ashton have both made ballets about it, and Felix Mendelssohn wrote many pieces of music for the play which include an "Overture" and a "Wedding March".
Characters
The Court at Athens:
Theseus, Duke of Athens and the betrothed of Hippolyta
Hippolyta, Queen of the Amazons and the betrothed of Theseus
Philostrate, Master of the Revels at the Court
Egeus, father of Hermia
The Lovers:
Hermia, beloved of Lysander and daughter to Egeus
Lysander, beloved of Hermia
Helena, in love with Demetrius
Demetrius
The Fairies:
Oberon, King of the Fairies
Titania, Queen of the Fairies
Puck, Oberon's servant
Peaseblossom, a fairy serving Titania
Moth, a fairy serving Titania
Cobweb, a fairy serving Titania
Mustardseed, a fairy serving Titania
The Rustics:
Nick Bottom, a weaver
Peter Quince, a carpenter
Robin Starveling, a tailor
Francis Flute, a bellows mender
Snug, a joiner
Tom Snout, a tinker
Story
Egeus wants his daughter Hermia to marry Demetrius. Hermia does not want to marry him. She loves another man named Lysander. Hermia and Lysander decide to run away. Demetrius follows them. Helena, Hermia's best friend, is in love with Demetrius. She follows him. All four become lost in the woods near Athens.
Meanwhile, Oberon and Titania are having an argument. Oberon decides to teach Titania a lesson. He puts a love potion into her eyes while she is asleep. This potion will make her fall in love with the first thing she sees when she wakes.
Oberon finds Helena and Demetrius. He tells Puck to give Demetrius some of the love potion so that he will love Helena. Puck makes a mistake and puts the potion in Lysander's eyes. When Lysander wakes up, he loves Helena instead of his real sweetheart Hermia.
The workmen, are practising a play in the woods for the upcoming marriage of Theseus and Hippolyta. Puck plays a trick on Nick Bottom by giving him donkey ears. The other actors run away, so Bottom goes to sleep. He is sleeping near Titania. She wakes up and falls in love with him.
Oberon realises everything is all mixed up. He gives some of the love potion to Demetrius. Now Demetrius and Lysander both love Helena. Sad and confused, all the lovers fall asleep. At last, Puck rights all the wrongs. He makes Lysander love Hermia again, and makes Demetrius love Helena. Everyone is happy.
The workmen perform their play after the wedding of Theseus and Hippolyta. Oberon has stopped Titania being in love with Bottom. They are happy with each other again. The fairies use their magic to bless all the lovers.
References
Other websites
David Strathairn Online: A Midsummer Night's Dream
MIT html version .
First Folio Facsimile – HTML diplomatic transcription of 1623 text.
Midsummer Night's Dream – plain vanilla text from Project Gutenberg.
The Sources and Analogues of 'A Midsummer Night's Dream', 1908 publication compiled by Frank Sidgwick, from Project Gutenberg.
Plays by William Shakespeare |
31140 | https://simple.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vodka | Vodka | Vodka is a Russian alcoholic drink that is usually about 40% alcohol. It is clear (but can be flavoured), though it is sometimes mixed with other liquids before people drink it. It was first popular in the Slavic countries of Eastern Europe and former republics of the Soviet Union.
Things that are made into vodka
Vodka can be made from different things:
Molasses (which comes from the production of sugar) are used to produce the cheapest vodka. Because of the ingredient, this kind usually tastes sweeter than vodka made from grain. Soy beans, grapes or sugar beets may also be used, but are less common.
Potatoes have been used for centuries to make vodka.
Grain is used to produce the highest grade vodka - like potatoes, vodka is also traditionally made from grain.
The process to make vodka is:
The raw material is crushed and dissolved in water. This is called mashing
The mash is heated to 60 °C. All starch will break up into sugars.
Yeast is added and the mash vessel is closed airtight with airlock. The yeast will ferment the sugar into alcohol.
The fermented mash is then distilled. It can be made either in simple pot still or sophisticated industrial patent still.
If the still used is a pot still, the distillation is usually repeated at least twice to remove any foul-tasting or poisonous impurities away. If the still used is a patent still, the result is spirit; very high contents alcohol unsuitable for drinking. Pure water is added to lower the alcohol contents to desired. This is called dilution.
Unlike cognac or whisky, vodka is not usually matured in barrels, but bottled immediately. Some Scandinavian vodkas called akvavit (Latin aqua vitae, "water of life") are matured in oak barrels before they are bottled. When the vodka is bottled, it is ready for drinking.
History
Most people think the name vodka comes from the Slavic word for water in its diminutive form, "little water". The earliest mention of Vodka in Poland is in 1405. The Russians are known to have first used the word in June 8, 1751. It is not known if it was the Russians or the Poles who made the first drinks that could be classified as vodka, as sources provide various views on this topic (though it's important to remember that the first mention of the word "vodka" in Cyrillic refers to a medicinal drink bought by the merchants of Kievan Rus from Poland). It is also worth noting that vodka was first used as medicine. When it became a popular drink, it was first known in Polish as gorzałka - from the Old Polish word gorzeć, meaning burn. At first, gorzałka was a people's drink, but in the Slavic countries it soon became common among the nobility as well. it is worth noting that the common Ukrainian word for vodka is horilka which bears an extremely close resemblance to the Polish gorzalka. Both words roots have the same meaning (hority - to burn; gorzeć, also to burn)
Different kinds of vodka
There are two basic kinds of Vodka: clear vodka and flavored vodka. Some types of vodka have plants or herbs added to the unflavored vodka to make it taste better. Contrary to popular belief, flavoured vodka is not new - it has been a part of Polish drinking tradition for centuries. It is only relatively recently in history that clear and flavoured vodkas have found their way to Western countries such as the UK or US.
How vodka is consumed
Vodka is either drunk pure, or cocktails are made with it. The simplest form of cocktail is to mix it with orange or lemon juice. Usually, vodka is drunk during a longer meal. Usually salty or sour things (not sweets) are served. In Poland and Russia (as well as some of their neighbours, such as Ukraine or Lithuania), vodka is drunk from glasses that can hold about 100 grams (0,1 litres) of vodka. The glass is usually emptied in one draught, while holding the breath. Directly afterwards something small is eaten. In most Eastern European countries it is consumed with pickled cucumbers. Before drinking, a toast is given.
Cultural
Vodka is a key element of Slavic tradition in some countries of Eastern Europe (especially Poland, Belarus, Ukraine and Russia). It has also spread to become a part of national culture in Baltic countries like Lithuania and Nordic countries like Sweden. It's traditional in Russia and other Slavic countries (as well as some Roma communities in Eastern Europe) to put a glass of vodka with a slice of bread (usually black bread) on top on graves or near photos of the deceased in their memory. This is similar to what people in Western countries do with flowers.
References
Alcoholic spirits |
31142 | https://simple.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sexual%20reproduction | Sexual reproduction | Sexual reproduction is how most animals and plants reproduce. Some protists and fungi also reproduce this way. Organisms that reproduce sexually have two different sexes: male and female.
In sexual reproduction, offspring are produced when sperms fertilise eggs from the female. Various steps are involved in this process.
Cell biology
The cells of an animal or higher plant have two sets of chromosomes: they are diploid. When gametes (sex cells) are produced, they have only one set of chromosomes: they are haploid. They have undergone a process of cell division called meiosis. Two things happen during meiosis, each of which makes the offspring more variable. That means they are different from the parents and from each other.
Assortment
Assortment is when the double set of chromosomes becomes a single set in each gamete. Of each pair of chromosomes, which one goes into a single gamete is random. Because the gene alleles on each chromosome are not always the same, this means that there is genetic variation between gametes. This process was Mendel's 'first law', the law of segregation.
Crossing over
Because crossing over occurs during meiosis, this increases the variety of the chromosomes. This makes recombination possible.
The consequence of assortment and crossing over makes it certain that no two offspring of the same mother and father are identical. Identical twins are the exception. They are identical genetically because they developed from the same fertilised egg.
Advantages and disadvantages
There are advantages and disadvantages of sexual reproduction, compared to asexual reproduction. The main issues are:
Advantages: More variation assists with survival. It increases the chance that at least some offspring of a parent survive. To give an example, suppose a deadly infection occurs in the population. Greater variety increases the chance that some of the population will survive.
Disadvantages: Requires two parents. So, supposing the total number of eggs to be the same, a population reproducing sexually would produce only half as many offspring as a population reproducing asexually.
Various terms
Gonads are specialized sex organs where gametes are formed. In the male, the gonad is the testes; in the female, the gonad is the ovaries.
Gametes are specialized sex cells formed in gonads by gametogenesis. The male gamete is the sperm, and the female is ovum.
Spermatogenesis: the process which produces haploid sperm.
Oogenesis: the process which produces haploid egg cells.
Hermaphrodite: an organism with male and female sex organs. Examples: earthworms, snails, hydra.
Fertilization: sperm penetrates the cell membrane of ovum. What now exists is a single cell called a zygote.
Internal fertilization: sperm are deposited in or near the female reproductive tract.
External fertilization: eggs are shed by the female which are fertilised by sperm in the external environment.
Development
Cleavage: early stage of embryo development. Cell number increases by cell division.
1. Morula: a solid ball of cells
2. Blastula: a hollow ball of cells filled with fluid
3. Gastrulation: blastula continues to grow, cells multiply by mitosis. Several hundred cells on one side begin to move in and form a two-layered embryo. It develops into a three-layered embryo with endoderm, mesoderm, and ectoderm.
Ectoderm develops into the nervous system, which includes the brain, spinal cord, and peripheral nerves. Also, the linings of various organs: mouth, anus, nostrils, epidermis including sweat glands, hair, nails.
Mesoderm develops into bones, muscles, reproductive system, kidneys, blood, blood vessels, inner layer of skin.
Endoderm develops into lining of digestive system, respiratory system, liver, pancreas, and bladder.
Growth and differentiation: embryonic cells multiply and change into specialized cells in tissues and organs.
Related pages
Asexual reproduction
The evolution of sex
Gender
Sex
Sexual intercourse
References
Methods of reproduction |
31143 | https://simple.wikipedia.org/wiki/Leprosy | Leprosy | Leprosy is a contagious disease. It has been known for a very long time. Today, it is mostly called Hansen's disease, named after the person who discovered the bacterium, Gerhard Armauer Hansen. It is caused by a bacterium, Mycobacterium leprae. A person with leprosy is called a leper.
As of 2004, the estimated number of new infections was about 400,000.
Getting the disease is hard, since it requires close contact with someone who has it, over a long period of time. In addition, about 95% of people seem to be naturally immune to it.
Most cases of leprosy occur in India, and other developing countries. It has known to have been in the US before. There are practically no cases of leprosy in the developed world. This is because there are excellent drugs and people regularly take antibiotics which will kill the leprosy bacteria.
In former times, leprosy was seen as a divine punishment for sins committed.
Symptoms
The symptoms of leprosy are irregular spots and patches on the skin. These are either lighter colored than the surrounding skin, or reddish in color. On those patches, hair will fall out, and they will feel numb to the patient. Nerves will form knots there.
With the illness progressing the sense of touch will become less and less (until the patient feels completely numb). So called leptomes and ulcers will eat away the skin, the flesh and the organs on the patches.
Usually people do not die of leprosy, but of secondary infections and diseases they get.
For many years there was a leprosy colony on the Hawaiian Island of Molokai called Kalaupapa. Tens of thousands of people from the United States that had the disease were sent there.
Gallery
Diseases caused by bacteria |
31150 | https://simple.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dolley%20Madison | Dolley Madison | Dolley Payne Todd Madison (May 20, 1768 – July 12, 1849) was the wife of US President James Madison. James Madison was president from 1809 to 1817 while Dolley Madison was the First Lady of the United States. She is best known for saving Washington's portrait when the British burned the White House in the War of 1814. Though she is also a famous entertainer, the first to serve ice cream in the White House.
Dolley was born in New Garden. Now the place is known as Guilford County. It is in North Carolina. Some other account tells that she was born in a village named Payne’s Tavern. It is in Person County, North Carolina.
Her father’s name was John Payne. As an unsuccessful farmer, he always faced shortage of money. Dolley’s mother was Mary Coles.
Dolley spent her teenage years in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. On January 7, 1790, she married John Todd, Jr. (1764-1793). Todd was a lawyer. They had two sons. Their names were John Payne (1792-1852) and William Temple (born and died in 1793). William died in a yellow fever epidemic. In the same year, her husband also died of the same yellow fever epidemic.
Dolley Todd married James Madison on September 14, 1794. They had no children, but they raised Dolley's son from her first marriage, John Payne Todd. John Payne Todd was a notorious drunkard and gambler, which caused his mother many financial problems, especially after Madison died.
In 1814, the British army had burnt the White House. Fleeing from her burning home, Dolley saved many records and papers. Legend states she also saved a painting of George Washington, though had to break it out of its frame.
On the National First Lady Library she says, "There is one secret, and that is the power we have in forming our own destinies."
References
1768 births
1849 deaths
First Ladies of the United States
James Madison
American Christians
People from Greensboro, North Carolina
People from Virginia
Quakers |
31153 | https://simple.wikipedia.org/wiki/Elizabeth%20Monroe | Elizabeth Monroe | Elizabeth Kortright Monroe (1768 - September 23, 1830) was the wife of James Monroe. James Monroe was the fifth President of the United States.
Elizabeth Monroe was born in an old family of New York. When she was a girl of 17 years, she married James Monroe. At that time, Monroe was a lawyer. He was aged 27 years. Once, the government sent Monroe as an envoy to Versailles. She also went along with her husband.
During her last years, Elizabeth Monroe became very sick. She could not take part in social functions. She became more distant from people. Some persons thought her to be a snob. But, her husband always understood her problems. After a long illness, she died on September 23, 1830 at her home in Oak Hill at age 62.
1768 births
1830 deaths
First Ladies of the United States
James Monroe |
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