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Amount
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527152
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Quality
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Quality is how good something is. If the quality of a product is high then that means that it is fit for its purpose. If the quality of an item is low that means that the product may break easily or not work properly. When people say something is a quality product that means that the product is of good quality. Usually higher-quality products cost more money, because the materials used to make them are better, or the way they were made was more effective. In other words, things that are low quality are cheap.
Quality is understood differently by different people, depending on what they consider quality to be. Generally, though, it is how well a product is suited to the purpose it was made for.
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640235
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Gargoyle
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A gargoyle is a grotesque statue that is attached to a building. It is carved out of stone, usually granite. It is used to get water away from the building when it rains. Gargoyles are often made to look like animals or people. The collected water comes out of their mouths. Most gargoyles were made a long time ago. People used to believe that they scared away evil spirits. Many cathedrals have gargoyles.
New buildings use rain gutters instead of gargoyles to move water. There are not many gargoyles in America.
Gargoyles are often confused with grotesques. They are similar, but only gargoyles get rid of rainwater through their mouths.
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Oostende
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Ostend (, ; ; ; , literally "East End") is a city in the Belgian province of West Flanders.
In 2007, 69115 people lived there.
It is at 51° 13 North, 02° 54 East.
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Ostend
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Ostende
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Windows 2.0
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List of UEFA European Championship finals
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The list of UEFA European Championship champions:
The number of times each country has won the UEFA European Championship including finals and semi-finals results:
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935234
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Abuja
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Abuja () is a city in Nigeria. It is the national capital of Nigeria. Around 2.5 million people live there. Abuja is in the middle of the country, in the center of the Federal Capital Territory, Nigeria. It replaced Lagos, the country's most populous city but very small in size, as the capital on 12 December 1991.
Abuja is a planned city, which means that architects designed it specifically to be Nigeria's capital city. Construction of the first parts of the city was finished in the late 1980s.
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Quang Ngai City
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Irony
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Irony is a term for a figure of speech. Irony is when something happens that is opposite from what is expected. It can often be funny, but it is also used in tragedies. There are many types of irony, including those listed below:
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Assault rifle
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An assault rifle is a rifle that has a removable magazine, automatic-fire and semi-automatic modes, and uses intermediate cartridges. These cartridges include the 5.56 NATO and 7.62x39mm cartridges. Intermediate cartridges have more power and penetration than pistol cartridges fired by submachine guns, and less than the larger battle rifle cartridges.
Two rifles made in Italy and Russia before World War I are sometimes called assault rifles. The Germans were the first to use assault rifles in large numbers.
Common examples of "assault rifles" are the English L85, Russian AK-47, the American M16.
The term “assault rifle” comes from the firearm Sturmgewehr 44 (StG 44), translated to “Assault Rifle 1944”. The armed forces of other sovereign states adopted assault rifles later.
The term "assault rifle" and less commonly "assault weapon" have seen increasing use by American, Canadian and European politicians seeking to limit access to civilian rifles that fire similar or identical rounds to common "assault" or "battle" rifles, such as the or the 30-06 Springfield.
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Assault Rifle
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Salvador Dalí
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Salvador Domingo Felipe Jacinto Dalí i Domènech, 1st Marquess of Dalí of Púbol (; ; ; 11 May 1904 – 23 January 1989) was a Spanish painter who became famous for the unusual images he used in his paintings. He was born in Figueres, Catalonia, Spain. He was a key figure in surrealist art.
His most famous work was "The Persistence of Memory" (1931), which is now in MoMA, the Museum of Modern Art in New York. It is a dream-like landscape with a soft, melted pocket-watch.
Dalí died of a Cardiac arrest on January 23, 1989 in Catalonia, Spain. Salvador Dalí had a wife called Gala Dalí.
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Salvador Dali
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Anne Mowbray, 8th Countess of Norfolk
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Anne de Mowbray, "Baroness Mowbray" (10 December 1472 - 19 November 1481) was the daughter of John Mowbray, 4th Duke of Norfolk and Elizabeth Talbot. She was born in 1472 in Framlingham Castle, Suffolk, England. She also became Baroness Segrave.
When Anne's father died in 1476 Anne became very rich. She also became Countess of Norfolk. Anne was married to Richard of York on 15 January, 1478 in Westminster Abbey. Richard was the son of King Edward IV of England and Elizabeth Woodville. Richard's father had married him to Anne so that he could have control of her fortune. When he married Anne became known as the Duchess of York
Anne died when she was 8 years old at Greenwich, London, England in 1481. Her body was placed in a lead coffin in the Chapel of St Erasmus of Formiae in Westminster Abbey. However, when this chapel was knocked down around 1502 to make room for the Henry VII Lady Chapel, Anne's coffin became lost.
In December 1964, construction workers in Stepney, London, accidentally found Anne's coffin. It was opened and Anne's remains were looked at by scientists. Anne's body still had a shroud wrapped around her and there was still red hair on her skull. Her body was later reburied in Westminster Abbey.
A facial reconstruction of the duchess, commissioned by the late John Ashdown-Hill and executed by Amy Thornton of Dundee University, was completed in 2016.
References.
From The Peerage.com
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Framlingham Castle
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Framlingham Castle is a castle in Framlingham, Suffolk, England. It was once the home of the Dukes of Norfolk, and was where Anne Mowbray, 8th Countess of Norfolk was born in 1472.
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Warwick Castle
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Warwick Castle (pronounced 'Worrick') is a large castle in Warwickshire, England. It is near the town of Warwick. The castle was once the family home of the Earls of Warwick.
There are many rooms in the castle. Some of the rooms have mannequins in them that look like real people. These are dressed in costume. They are used to show how people might have lived in the castle hundreds of years ago. Warwick Castle has a dungeon. One part of the castle is said to be haunted. Actors play the part of the ghost and the servant who killed him in a dramatic "Spook Experience". Lights and sounds are used to add to the effect.
The castle has a very high wall walk. It can be explored, so that visitors can see from where the guards looked for enemies. A long, steep flight of steps leads up to the highest part of the castle where the flagpole is.
There are many paintings in the castle. There are portraits of English Kings and Queens as well as of members of the family who owned the castle. It is possible to see the private chambers, or bedrooms, where the family and their most important guests slept.
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Edinburgh Castle
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Edinburgh Castle is a castle in Edinburgh, Scotland. It is built on the volcanic Castle Rock in the centre of Edinburgh, and is easy to see from the main shopping streets. In 1103, Edinburgh Castle was built which makes the Castle over 900 years old. The castle has a military display every year, called a "tattoo", where soldiers show their skills at marching and competitions, and there are brass bands and bands of bagpipes.
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Alfred Kinsey
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Alfred Charles Kinsey (June 23, 1894 August 25, 1956) was an American biologist. He was born in Hoboken, New Jersey.
In the first part of his career he was an entomologist specializing in gall wasps of the family Cynipidae. Later, he became famous for the research he did on human sexuality. His research had a great influence on social and cultural values in many parts of the world. It also had an influence on the sexual revolution of the 1960s and 70s.
Kinsey and his co-workers wrote two books which became known as the Kinsey Reports. They were based on thousands of interviews with men (first report), and then women. The aim was to find out how widespread or differentiated human sexual practices were. He developed the Kinsey Scale to measure sexual orientation. On one end of the scale, at the value 0, the individual is entirely heterosexual. On the other end, at value 6, he or she has a purely homosexual orientation. Kinsey was bisexual.
Kinsey died of heart disease and pneumonia in Bloomington, Indiana.
A biopic of him, "Kinsey", was released in 2004.
Early work.
Kinsey wrote his doctoral thesis on gall wasps. In 1919, Kinsey was awarded a ScD degree by Harvard University, and he accepted an academic post in biology at Indiana University.
In 1920 he published several papers in the American Museum of Natural History in New York City. The papers introduced the gall wasp to the scientific community and described its phylogeny. Of the more than 18 million insects in the museum's collection, some 5 million are gall wasps collected by Kinsey.
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Alfred Charles Kinsey
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Charles Kinsey
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Kinsey Reports
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The Kinsey Reports are two books, published in 1948 and 1953 by Alfred Kinsey and his co-workers. The books "Sexual Behaviour in the Human Male" and "Sexual Behaviour in the Human Female", were based on thousands of interviews by Kinsey and his team.
The books were shocking when they came out, as they talked about subjects that were taboo. It also questioned widely-held beliefs about sexuality. They were controversial.
Findings of the reports.
Kinsey found the following, amongst other things:
Criticism.
People said that the selection of the sample (those asked) was not well done. One in four were prisoners, and 5% were male prostitutes. The institute, or location Kinsey did these tests, then did another such tests, without asking prisoners or prostitutes, and the findings were more or less the same. People also say that child abuse may have been involved when collecting the data.
Kinsey scale.
The Kinsey scale attempts to describe a person's sexual history or episodes of their sexual activity at a given time. It uses a scale from 0 to 6. "0" means the person tested is exclusively heterosexual. A person scoring "6" is exclusively homosexual. In the "Kinsey Reports", an extra grade was used for asexuality. The scale was first published in "Sexual Behavior in the Human Male" (1948). It was also important in the complementary work "Sexual Behavior in the Human Female" (1953).
Kinsey introduced the scale:
The scale is as follows:
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Kinsey Report
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Kinsey Scale
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Ruthenium
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Ruthenium is a chemical element. It has the chemical symbol Ru. It has the atomic number 44. It is a rare metal. It is silver white. In chemistry it is placed in a group of metal elements named the transition metals. It is also part of the platinum group. Ruthenium is found in platinum ores.
Ruthenium is used as a catalyst in some platinum alloys.
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Niobium
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Niobium is a chemical element. It is sometimes named columbium. It has the chemical symbol Nb. It has the atomic number 41. It is a rare metal. Niobium is hard and grey. It is ductile. In chemistry it is placed in a group of metal elements named the transition metals. Niobium was discovered in a variety of a mineral called columbite (now called niobite). Niobite is an ore of niobium.
Niobium is considered a "technology-critical element". It is used in alloys, such as to make special steels and strong welded joints. Less than 0.1% of Niobium significantly improves the strength of steel. It is in the superconducting alloys used in MRI scanners, which are one of the most important medical inventions of the modern age.
Name and history.
In 1801, Charles Hatchett claimed to have discovered a new chemical element in a sample from the United States. He named the mineral "columbite" and his element "columbium", after Columbia, another name for the United States. However, chemists were uncertain that columbium was a new element because of its similarity to tantalum. William Hyde Wollaston claimed that columbium and tantalum were the same element. Other chemists claimed that up to five new elements were in these minerals, one of which was named "niobium".
It took until 1864 to make pure tantalum and niobium and show there were only two elements in these minerals. One of these two elements was named "tantalum", but this showed that "niobium" and "columbium" were the same element. Americans preferred the name "columbium", while "niobium" was more common in Europe. Almost a hundred years later, IUPAC decided on the name niobium as part of an effort to make the names of chemical elements more universal.
Production.
Niobium and tantalum are in the same group, so their chemistry is very similar. Their ores make a solid solution series called coltan. Niobium and tantalum are both extracted from coltan by leaching. Pyrochlore is another important niobium ore, which can be reduced by aluminium or carbon to make ferroniobium..
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Explosion
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An explosion is a fast increase in volume and increase in energy made available. It normally makes high temperatures and makes gases. Many natural events can make explosions, such as lightning, volcanic eruptions, meteors, and supernovae. People make explosions mostly by using chemical explosive materials.
A chemical explosion starts pressure waves in the medium where it happens. Explosions are categorized as deflagrations if the pressure waves are subsonic and detonations if they are supersonic. When a detonation happens, the resulting pressure waves are named shock waves.
Unintentional explosions.
Unintentional explosions can be caused when chemicals are mixed together, or when pressurized containers or flammable materials are heated or exposed to flames as in the Texas City disaster. To cause an explosion, pressure does not have to be present but is always a result of an explosion.
Several safety measures are used to prevent unintentional explosions. Many countries require that chemicals, fuels, and pressurized containers that may explode be labelled with warning labels. As well, many countries have regulations restricting the possession and use of potentially explosive materials so they will only go to appropriate industrial and research uses. Transportation regulations require potentially explosive chemicals, fuels, and pressurized containers to be transported safely.
Intentional explosions.
Intentional explosions are caused when armies fire artillery or when air forces drop bombs on enemies. Military engineers handle explosives and arrange intentional explosions during wartime. Intentional explosions are also used by civilians in "demolition". They break up old and obsolete buildings and bridges, and break rock and stone for construction. Explosions are made for activities such as mining, construction, and large-scale civil engineering projects such as building tunnels, roads, railways, and dams.
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Rhodium
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Rhodium is a chemical element. It has the chemical symbol Rh. It has the atomic number 45. It is a rare metal. It is silver white and hard. In chemistry it is placed in a group of metal elements named the transition metals. It is also part of the platinum group. Rhodium is found in platinum ores.
Rhodium is used as a catalyst in some platinum alloys. It is the most expensive precious metal.
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Tellurium
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Tellurium is a chemical element. It has the chemical symbol Te and the atomic number 52. It has 52 protons and 52 electrons. Its mass number is 127.6. It has 8 natural isotopes. 4 are stable and 4 are radioactive. One of the radioactive ones lasts longer than any other isotope. It has a half life of 2.2 x 1024 years (2.2 septillion years).
Properties.
Physical properties.
It is a brittle silver-white metalloid. When it is pure it has a metallic shine. It is ground easily. It can be made in an amorphous form. It is a semiconductor. It changes conductivity a little when light shines on it, similar to selenium. It is corrosive to many metals when molten.
Chemical properties.
It can react with reactive metals to make tellurides. It can burn in air to make tellurium dioxide. It can be oxidized even more to tellurium trioxide. It does not corrode. The chemistry of tellurium is similar to some chemistry of selenium and sulfur, although its compounds are more reactive and the element is less reactive. It does not dissolve in most acids, although it dissolves in concentrated sulfuric acid to make a special red tellurium cation.
Chemical compounds.
Tellurium makes chemical compounds in several oxidation states: -2, +2, +4, and +6. -2 compounds are normally found in tellurides. They are strong reducing agents. Tellurides are normally the main ore of tellurium. Most natural tellurides are not pure, so they are much less reactive. +2 compounds are found in some tellurium halides, like tellurium(II) chloride and tellurium(II) bromide. They are the rarest oxidation state. +4 compounds are found in tellurites and tellurous acid. They are weak oxidizing agents, that can be reduced to tellurium. Tellurites are made by reacting tellurium dioxide with a metal oxide. +6 compounds are found in tellurates and telluric acid. They are powerful oxidizing agents. Tellurates are made by reacting telluric acid with metal oxides.
Occurrence.
Tellurium is a very rare mineral. There is 14 times more silver in the earth than there is tellurium. Tellurium is sometimes found as an element, but most of the times is found as tellurides. Gold tellurides (Calaverite) are found in the earth. They are valuable ores of both tellurium and gold. This gold ore was not recognized as gold during one gold rush and was used as a filler. It was then discovered that it was gold telluride, making another gold rush. Telluride cannot replace sulfide in elements like selenide does.
Preparation.
Tellurium can be taken from gold telluride by dissolving the gold telluride in concentrated sulfuric acid. The tellurium dissolves to make a red solution, while the gold sinks to the bottom.
A more common way of extracting tellurium from tellurides is to heat the tellurides. The tellurides are heated with sodium carbonate and air. This makes sodium tellurite. Selenites are normally found as an impurity. They are separated by reacting them with sulfuric acid. The selenites stay in solution. The tellurites turn into tellurium dioxide. Then the tellurium dioxide is reacted with sulfur dioxide dissolved in sulfuric acid to make tellurium metal. The tellurium can be melted and reformed to make bars of tellurium metal.
Uses.
The main use of tellurium is in alloys. It is used in iron, copper, and lead alloys. It makes the metals more easily machinable (able to be shaped by a machine). It improves strength and durability of lead and makes it more resistant to corrosion by sulfuric acid.
Tellurium is also used in cadmium telluride solar cells. These are very efficient. It can be alloyed with both cadmium and mercury to make mercury cadmium telluride, an infrared sensitive semiconductor. It is used in some rewritable (able to be erased and written again) optical discs. Lead telluride is used in another type of infrared sensor.
It is also used to color ceramics. It is used to make fiberglass that is used in telecommunications (telephones, internet, etc.). It helps increase the refraction. It is also used in delay blasting caps. Rubber can be hardened.
In biology.
Tellurium is not really used in any living things. Some fungi, though, can use tellurium instead of selenium or sulfur. Most organisms can metabolize tellurium to make dimethyl telluride, which is a garlic-smelling chemical. If someone eats a tellurium compound, it gives them garlic breath.
Safety.
Tellurium is very toxic to humans. If a person touches tellurium, it can irritate their skin and nose.
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Indium
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Indium is a chemical element. It has the chemical symbol In. It has the atomic number 49. It is a rare metal which is soft, malleable, and poor (post-transition). Indium looks like zinc. Pieces of indium can easily be joined by pushing one piece into another. The chemistry of indium is quite like aluminium or gallium. Zinc ores are the main source of indium.
Uses.
The main use of indium is in the chemical compound indium tin oxide in liquid crystal displays. It is also used in very thin layers as a lubricant. In World War II it was used to coat bearings in aircraft.
Like other group 13 elements, indium is used to make III-V semiconductors. Indium phosphide and indium arsenide are binary (two-element) semiconductors made with indium. It is also used as a dopant for other semiconductors like boron nitride and silicon.
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Francium
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Francium is a chemical element with the chemical symbol Fr and an atomic number of 87. It is a metal. In chemistry it is placed in a group of metal elements named the alkali metals. Francium is very radioactive. It is in very small amounts in uranium and thorium ores. It has the lowest electronegativity and electron affinity of all the chemical elements.
Francium reacts violently with water, as do all of the elements in group 1 on the periodic table.
Francium is one of the hardest to find elements on the planet Earth. It is estimated that there are only about 15 grams or half an ounce in the Earth's crust at a single time.
Although chemists knew the element number 87 in the periodic table should exist, it was a long time before it was discovered. In the early 1900s, nearly all boxes on the periodic table had been filled. Chemists knew that one element had been found to fit into each box. Francium was discovered in 1939 by a French chemist called Marguerite Perey. She named it after her home country, France.
Isotopes.
There are 34 known isotopes of francium ranging in atomic mass from 199 to 232. Francium-223 and francium-221 are the only isotopes that occur in nature.
Francium-223 is the most stable isotope, with a half-life of 21.8 minutes. Francium-223 is the fifth product of the actinium decay series as the daughter isotope of actinium-227. Francium-223 then decays into radium-223 by beta decay (1.149 MeV decay energy), with a minor (0.006%) alpha decay path to astatine-219 (5.4 MeV decay energy).
Francium-221 has a half-life of 4.8 minutes. It is the ninth product of the neptunium decay series as a daughter isotope of actinium-225. Francium-221 then decays into astatine-217 by alpha decay (6.457 MeV decay energy).
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Rhenium
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Rhenium is a chemical element. It has the chemical symbol Re. It has the atomic number 75. It is a rare noble metal. It is silver white. In chemistry it is placed in a group of metal elements called the transition metals. The chemistry of rhenium is similar to manganese. Discovered in 1908, rhenium was the second-last stable element to be discovered ('stable' meaning not radioactive). It was named after the river Rhine in Europe.
Nickel-based superalloys of rhenium are used in the combustion chambers, turbine blades, and exhaust nozzles of jet engines. These alloys contain up to 6% rhenium, making jet engine construction the largest single use for the element. The second-most important use is as a catalyst: rhenium is an excellent catalyst for hydrogenation and isomerization.
Rhenium found as a by-product of molybdenum refinement.
Rhenium is used in some manganese alloys. Rhenium-molybdenum alloys are superconductors.
History.
Rhenium was discovered by Walter Noddack, Ida Noddack, and Otto Berg in Germany. In 1925, they reported that they detected the element in a platinum ore and in the mineral columbite. They also found rhenium in gadolinite and molybdenite. In 1928, they were able to remove 1 g of the element from 660 kg of molybdenite.
Characteristics.
Rhenium is a silvery-white metal. It has the third highest melting points of all elements. It is also the third densest element.
Isotopes.
Rhenium has one stable isotope which is rhenium-185. Rhenium that is found in nature is made up of 37.4% rhenium-185 and 62.6% rhenium-187. Rhenium has 33 known radioisotopes. They range from rhenium-160 to rhenium-194. The longest-lived radioisotope of rhenium is rhenium-183 which have a half-life of 70 days.
Occurence.
Rhenium is one of the rarest elements in Earth's crust. It the 77th most abundant element in the Earth's crust. Rhenium may not be found free in nature. It is found in small amounts in the mineral molybdenite.
Production.
Commercial rhenium is gotten from molybdenum roaster-flue gas. Some molybdenum ores contain 0.001% to 0.2% rhenium. Rhenium metal is made by reducing ammonium perrhenate with hydrogen at high temperatures.
Uses.
Nickel-based superalloys of rhenium are used in the combustion chambers, turbine blades, and exhaust nozzles of jet engines. Rhenium is used in superalloys, such as CMSX-4 (2nd generation) and CMSX-10 (3rd generation). These superalloys are used in industrial gas turbine engines like the GE 7FA. Rhenium filaments are used in mass spectrometers, ion gauges and photoflash lamps in photography. Rhenium-platinum alloys are used as a catalyst for catalytic reforming. Rhenium-188 and Rhenium-186 are used to treat of liver cancer.
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Thallium
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Thallium is at chemical element, it has symbol Tl and atomic number 81. Its standard atomic weight is 204.4. It is found in Group 15 of the periodic table. Thallium is a soft, heavy and gray metal, but can look red due to oxidation. Thallium and its compounds are extremely toxic, even more than cyanide and arsenic.
Properties.
Physical properties.
Thallium is a soft, malleable, grayish post-transition metal. It can be cut with a knife at room temperature. It melts at a low temperature, 304 °C., which is typical of a post-transition metal. Thallium has 25 known isotopes and two stable (nonradioactive) ones. It is extremely toxic.
Chemical properties.
Thallium is a moderately reactive metal. It corrodes easily in air with a color similar to lead. If it is kept in air for a long time, a large amount of thallium(I) oxide will build up. It corrodes in the presence of water to make the hydroxide. It burns with a greenish flame. It reacts with most acids.
Chemical compounds.
Thallium makes chemical compounds in two oxidation states: +1 and +3. The +1 state is more common and less reactive. Its chemical compounds are very similar to potassium or silver compounds. It makes a hydroxide that in a strong base when dissolved in water. Most other transition metal and post-tranansition metal hydroxides do not dissolve in water. This reacts with carbon dioxide to make thallium(I) carbonate, which is also water-soluble and very heavy. It is the only heavy metal carbonate that can dissolve in water. Other compounds are similar to silver compounds. Thallium(I) bromide turns yellow when exposed to light, similar to silver(I) bromide. Thallium(I) sulfide is black, similar to silver(I) sulfide. The +3 state compounds are oxidizing agents. The black oxide, thallium(III) oxide and the hydroxide, thallium(III) hydroxide, are the only stable +3 compounds. They break down to oxygen and thallium(I) oxide when heated. Thallium and its compounds are rare because they are toxic and polluting.
+1 compounds.
+1 compounds are quite unreactive. It is the more common oxidation state. They are made when thallium dissolves in acids or corrodes in air.
+3 compounds.
+3 compounds are oxidizing agents. They are quite rare.
History.
Thallium was found by spectroscopy in 1861 by a bright green line in its spectrum. The main use for thallium, rat poison, was banned in many countries in the 1970s. Thallium was also used to poison people, similar to the more popular arsenic.
Occurrence.
Thallium is found most in certain clays and granites. It cannot be gotten easily from these, though. Thallium is normally gotten from the waste after other ores like galena are processed. Hutchinsonite is another mineral that has thallium in it.
Preparation.
When lead and zinc are taken from their ores, many impurities are left behind. Sulfuric acid is used to dissolve the thallium from it as thallium(I) sulfate. Then the thallium(I) sulfate is electrolyzed to make thallium metal.
Uses.
It is used in rat poisons and insecticides. The use of thallium as a poison has been reduced or banned in many countries because these countries think that thallium might cause cancers. It is also used in infrared detectors. It has been used in some murders. Like arsenic, the use of thallium in murders has given it the name "inheritance powder". Thallium compounds are used in glass for infrared light. Thallium was also used to kill skin infections, but it is too toxic to be used for that now. A superconductor that can work at higher temperatures than normal ones do uses thallium. A radioactive thallium isotope was used for nuclear scans. An alloy of thallium and mercury has a low freezing temperature and is a liquid. A very dense solution of a thallium compound was used to test minerals for specific gravity, but it is too toxic for use.
Safety.
Thallium is extremely toxic, even touching it is dangerous. Many of its salts easily dissolve. Some are colorless, tasteless, and odorless, but are very toxic. Some think that it is a carcinogen. Thallium can be a pollutant if the thallium waste from metal processing is washed away.
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Néstor Kirchner
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Néstor Kirchner (born Néstor Carlos Kirchner Ostoić, 25 February 1950 – 27 October 2010) was an Argentine lawyer and politician who was the 54th President of Argentina from 2003 to 2007. Previously, he was the acting president of Argentina from May to December 2003. After his presidency, Kirchner became the First Gentleman of Argentina from 2007 until his death in 2010. As member of the Justicialist Party, he previously served as Governor of Santa Cruz Province from 1991 to 2003, and mayor of Río Gallegos from 1987 to 1991. He later served as the first ever (and still only) First Gentleman of Argentina during the first tenure of his wife, Cristina Fernández de Kirchner. Ideologically, he identified himself as a Peronist and a progressive, with his political approach called Kirchnerism.
During his presidency, Kirchner was considered Argentina's fixer as he led Argentina out of instability and violence following the December 2001 Argentine Riots. He made many Argentine's experience, stability and prosperity. Corruption and Inflation lowered as well.
In 2007, Kirchner handed over the presidency to his wife, Cristina Fernández de Kirchner. This was the second time a male Argentine presidnet handed over power to his wife, after Juan Perón and Isabel Peron in 1974 where Isabsl took power after Juan died.
After handing power to his wife, Kirchner became the First Gentleman of Argentina. On 27 October 2010, Kirchner died of a heart attack in El Calafate, Santa Cruz at the age of 60.
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The Cunning Little Vixen
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The Cunning Little Vixen (original title: "Příhody lišky bystroušky", literally translates to "The Adventures of Vixen Sharp-Ears") is an opera by the Czech composer Leoš Janáček. Janáček loved animals, and in this opera some of the characters are humans but some are animals. Some of the little animals, (like the grasshopper, frog and cricket) are usually sung by children.
Janáček got the idea of this opera from a cartoon strip called “Sharp-ears” (in Czech: "Bystrouška"). The cartoon was published in a popular daily newspaper Lidové noviny. It was about a vixen (a female fox) and her adventures in the forest. He thought that the story would make a good opera. He made a few changes to the story: he left out a some characters, changed the order of the story a little, and made the humans and the animals behave in a similar way. It was first performed in Brno on 6 November 1924.
When Janáček died in 1928 the last part of the opera was played at his funeral.
The Story of the opera.
A forester is sleeping under a tree. Nearby a young vixen (here, vixen means baby fox) is playing. She nearly catches a frog, but the frog jumps away and lands on the forester’s nose. He wakes up and sees the little vixen playing. He catches the vixen and take her home with him. He gave her a name: “Sharp-ears”.
Sharp-ears is unhappy at the forester’s cottage. She is tied up with a rope in the yard. The hens keep teasing her and the dog is boring. One day she tells the hens that they are silly to stay in the farmyard being bossed about by the rooster. She tells them they ought to fly away to freedom. She pretends to die, then jumps up and starts to catch them. When the forester’s wife comes out Sharp-ears bites through the rope and disappears into the forest.
She finds a nice sett (badger's hole) where a badger lives. She wants to live there herself so she chases the badger out of his home. One winter’s night the forester is drinking in the inn. He teases the priest and the schoolmaster for not having found someone to love. They in turn tease the forester for having let the vixen go. The schoolmaster starts to go home. He is drunk. He sees the vixen who reminds him of his former lover, but he is too drunk to catch hold of her.
Sharp-ears meets a handsome young male fox called Goldskin. The two fall in love. When she realizes she is pregnant the fox and vixen get married. The woodpecker is the priest who marries them. The cubs (baby foxes) are born in the spring.
The forester is still searching the forest for Sharp-ears. One day he finds a dead hare. The poacher persuades the forester to make a trap, because he thinks that Sharp-ears will come back to eat the hare. The cubs arrive and play near the trap. Sharp-ears realizes the poacher is trying to catch her. She teases him cruelly and dares him to kill her. He shoots her with his rifle, then he is very sad.
Some time later the forester is sleeping under a tree. He wakes up when a frog lands on his hand. He sees a young vixen playing in front of him. He tells the young cub that she looks just like her mother. He reaches out for her but catches a frog instead. He lets it go. He realizes that life must go on.
Meaning of the story.
Janáček made some changes to the story in the cartoon. This made it more suitable for an opera. He did not have all the characters that are in the cartoon, and he changed the order of the story to make it more dramatic. He compares the human beings with the animals. For example: we see vixen Sharp-ears falling in love and having a family. But the forester’s friends: the school master and the priest, have not been so lucky with their love-life. The priest looks like the badger, the woodpecker is like the priest. When the opera is performed the same singer sometimes sings both parts. The end of the opera is like the beginning. This shows that life carries on and one generation follows another.
The Music.
The music matches the story beautifully. There are a lot of tunes with very exciting harmonies. Sometimes he uses modes and whole-tone scales. Janáček often makes his music sound like folk music of his country.
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Guaraní alphabet
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The Guaraní alphabet is a system used to write the Guaraní language. The Guaraní language is used in Paraguay and some countries near it. The alphabet has 35 letters. These are:
"A", "E", "I", "O", "U", "Y" are vowels, just like English. Those letters with tildes on top make the same sound, except more nasal sounding. The apostrophe sounds like a glottal stop. The other letters are consonants.
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Consonants
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Lake Victoria
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Lake Victoria or Victoria Nyanza (also known as Ukerewe and Nnalubaale) is a lake in Africa. It is bordered and governed by the countries of Tanzania, Uganda and Kenya. The lake is in the western part of Africa's Great Rift Valley.
Lake Victoria is 68,800 square kilometres (26,560 mi²) in size. It is Africa's largest lake, and the second largest fresh water lake in the world. It was named for Queen Victoria. The White Nile flows out of the lake.
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Tonsillitis
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Tonsillitis is a disease. It is also known as pharyngitis, laryngitis and Tonsillar infection. Tonsillitis is caused by either a virus or bacteria. It is the inflammation and infection of the tonsils. The tonsils are in the back of the throat. The tonsils get inflamed and red. Other symptoms include headaches, fevers, back and neck aches, chills, bad breath, weak voice, fatigue, having trouble swallowing, and more. There are treatments for tonsillitis. One treatment is antibiotics. Medicines to relieve pain like Tylenol and Advil are also suggested. The tonsils may be removed surgically if it is medically necessary. This operation is called a "tonsillectomy". It is the most effective way to get rid of the infection. All kinds of tonsillitis are contagious. Tonsillitis is spread by human contact.
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Encephalitis
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Encephalitis is sudden inflammation (swelling) in the brain. It is usually caused by viruses, bacteria, or other pathogens. As the brain swells, it can get damaged when it gets crushed against the skull. Encephalitis can cause serious symptoms, like seizures and strokes, and can be fatal. In 2013, encephalitis killed about 77,000 people in the world.
Signs and symptoms.
Usually, adults with encephalitis have a fever that starts suddenly, a headache, confusion, and sometimes seizures. Younger children or infants may be irritable (easily upset), not want to eat, and have a fever. Usually, patients are either very tired or confused.
A stiff neck is a sign that the person has either meningitis (inflammation of the meninges, which cover the brain) or meningoencephalitis (swelling of both the meninges and the brain) but not chronic meningitis.
Causes.
Viruses.
Viral encephalitis can happen when a virus infects the brain. The most common causes are the rabies virus, herpes simplex virus (HSV), the polio virus, and the measles virus. Viral encephalitis can also be caused by a "latent" virus - a virus that hides from the body's immune system the brain's nerve cells. Two examples of viruses that cause latent infection are the varicella-zoster viruses, which can hide in the brain after causing chicken pox, and the herpes simplex virus.
About 100 different viruses can infect the brain. Other examples include West Nile virus, Chikungunya virus, and Japanese encephalitis virus.
Bacteria.
Encephalitis can happen when a person gets a bacterial infection, like bacterial meningitis. It can also be a complication of an infectious disease that a person already has, like syphilis. This is called "secondary encephalitis."
Examples of other bacteria which can cause encephalitis are "Staphylococcus aureus", which causes toxic shock syndrome; "Bordetella pertussis", which causes pertussis (whooping cough); and types of "Borellia" bacteria, which cause Lyme disease.
Parasites.
Some parasites can infect the brain, especially in people who have weak immune systems. Examples include "Toxoplasma gondii", which causes toxoplasmosis; two parasites from the species "Trypanosoma" "brucei", which cause African trypanosomiasis (African sleeping sickness); and "Plasmodium" parasites, which cause malaria.
Autoimmune diseases.
Autoimmune diseases can cause encephalitis if the body's immune system attacks the brain, the spinal cord, and their nerves. Two examples are autoimmune encephalitis and acute disseminated encephalitis.
Diagnosis.
Encephalitis can be diagnosed in a few different ways:
Treatment.
Some treatments for encephalitis depend on the cause:
Other treatments are "supportive" - they treat the symptoms of encephalitis. For example:
Prevention.
Vaccines have made encephalitis from some diseases much less common. These diseases include measles, mumps, rubella (German measles), polio, varicella (chicken pox), and pertussis (whooping cough). There are also vaccines for rabies, bacterial meningitis, Japanese encephalitis, Human Papillomavirus (HPV), and some other diseases that can cause encephalitis.
People can protect themselves from diseases that are spread by insects, like Lyme disease and malaria, by avoiding insect bites. For example, they can use bug spray; wear long sleeves and long pants; sleep under a mosquito net; and make sure they have good window and door screens.
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Mitosis
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Mitosis is part of the cycle of cell division. During this process, the chromosomes of a cell are copied to produce two identical sets of chromosomes, and the cell's nucleus divides to form two identical nuclei.
Before mitosis begins, the cell creates an identical copy of its genetic material — a process known as replication. The genetic information is contained in the DNA of the chromosomes. At the start of mitosis, the chromosomes coil and become visible under a light microscope. Each chromosome then consists of two identical chromatids joined at a centromere. These identical chromatids are called "sister" chromatids.
Mitosis occurs in all types of dividing cells in the human body, except in sperm and ova, which are gametes or sex cells. Gametes are produced through a different type of cell division called meiosis.
Phases of mitosis.
There are five phases of mitosis. Each phase is used to describe what kind of change the cell is going through. The phases are prophase, prometaphase, metaphase, anaphase and telophase.
Prophase.
During prophase, chromatin (tangled-up DNA) in the nucleus condense into chromosomes (bunched-up DNA). Pairs of centrioles move to opposite sides of the nucleus. Spindle fibers begin to form a bridge between the ends of the cell.
Prometaphase.
During prometaphase, the nuclear envelope around the chromosomes breaks down. Now there is no nucleus and the sister chromatids are free. A protein called a kinetochore forms at each centromere. Long thin proteins reach across from opposite poles of the cell and attach to each kinetochore.
Metaphase.
During metaphase, the pair of chromatids are aligned by the pushing and pulling of the attached kinetochore microtubules, similar to a game of "tug of war". Both sister chromatids stay attached to each other at the centromere. The chromosomes line up on the cell's equator, or center line, and are prepared for division. This is the longest phase of mitosis.
Anaphase.
During anaphase, the sister chromatids split apart and move from the cell's equator (metaphase plate) to the poles of the cell. The kinetochore is attached to the centromere. The microtubules hold on to kinetochore and shorten in length. Another group of microtubules, the non-kinetochore microtubules, do the opposite. They become longer. The cell begins to stretch out as the opposite ends are pushed apart.
Telophase.
Telophase is the final stage in mitosis: the cell itself is ready to divide. One set of chromosomes is now at each pole of the cell. Each set is identical. The spindle fibers begin to disappear, and a nuclear membrane forms around each set of chromosomes. Also, a nucleolus appears within each new nucleus and single stranded chromosomes uncoil into invisible strands of chromatin.
Cytokinesis.
Cytokinesis, even though it is very important to cell division, is not considered a stage of mitosis. During cytokinesis, the cell physically splits. This occurs just after anaphase and during telophase. The cleavage furrow, which is the pinch caused by the ring of proteins, pinches off completely, closing off the cell.
The cell now has reproduced itself successfully. After cytokinesis, the cell goes back into interphase, where the cycle is repeated. If cytokinesis were to occur to a cell that had not gone through mitosis, then the daughter cells would be different or not function properly. One would still have the nucleus and the other would lack a nucleus. Cytokinesis is different in both animals and plant cells. In plant cells, instead of splitting into two halves, it forms a cell plate. This is a cell wall that forms between the two nuclei after they have split apart. This must happen because the cells have a rigid shape, and must be completely covered in the cell wall to function.
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Inflammation
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Inflammation is the first reaction of the immune system to an infection or irritation. It is an attempt of the immune system to dispel invaders and repair the body. It can happen in many parts of the body and often involves the following five steps:
The first four of these reactions have been known for a long time, since antiquity. Finding them is attributed to Celsus. The last one was added by Rudolf Virchow in 1858.
There are two types of inflammation: acute and chronic. Acute inflammations are more intense but short-lived, while chronic inflammations are less intense but long-lived. Examples of acute inflammation include skin disorders (e.g., psoriasis, dandruff) and arthritis, while chronic inflammation can be responsible for diseases such as cancer, heart disease, type 2 diabetes and Alzheimer's disease. Adoption of healthy diet, physical exercise and rest are some of the ways to reduce Inflammations.
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Car rental
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Car hire is the act or procedure of hiring (renting) a car, usually for a fee.
The business that provides the car becomes the car hire service provider, and the party who hires the car becomes the car hirer.
A car hire company is usually the business that hires out automobiles for fixed periods of time (ranging from as little as hours up to weeks or longer).
Location.
They can be found primarily located near airports or busy city areas. The internet is changing the car rental industry with companies that are now called online car rental companies. Travelers can pre-book their rental car online anywhere across the globe directly from the service providers like Hertz, Budget, Alamo, , Thrifty, Travelauto.com, Dollar, Enterprise Rent-A-Car and Europcar.
Purpose.
Car rental agencies are mainly for people who need a car for a short period of time, for example travellers who are out of town, people whose cars were damaged or destroyed. Car rental agencies may also rent trucks for self-moving industry
Conditions.
Car rentals are subject to many conditions which vary from one brand to another. The vehicle must be returned in a good condition and must not exceed a maximum driven distance, otherwise extra fees may be incurred. Additionally, some companies set up a minimum age for the vehicle driver, which in some cases is as high as 25, even in countries where the minimum legal age to hold a driver's license is much lower. Recent conditions have used GPS technology to limit maximum speeds or driving to specific regions.
Global market.
North America and Europe are leading the car rental market, followed by Asia-Pacific. North America is dominating the car rental market, owing to the high usage rate of car rental services by daily commuters, office-goers, and tourists in the country. Also, the growing trend of car sharing also boosts the usage of car rental in this region.
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Mechanical engineering
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Mechanical engineering is a branch of engineering that applies the principles of Mechanics and Materials science for analysis, design, manufacturing, and maintenance of mechanical systems. It involves the production and usage of heat and mechanical power for the design, production, and operation of machines and tools. They can range from building a rocket ship down to things as small as an integrated circuit. It is one of the oldest and broadest engineering disciplines.
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Paul Newman
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Paul Leonard Newman (January 26, 1925 – September 26, 2008) was an American actor, movie director, race car driver, philanthropist, and entrepreneur. He was born in Cleveland Heights, Ohio. His mother was a Slovak; his father was a Jew who had one parent from Hungary and the other from Poland. He considered himself Jewish and would have been accepted as one by other Jewish movements.
He was known especially for the 1969 movie "Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid". He played Butch Cassidy in the movie. He was married to actress Joanne Woodward. He died of lung cancer in 2008.
Retirement.
Newman retired from acting in May 2007. He said "You start to lose your memory, you start to lose your confidence, you start to lose your invention. So I think that's pretty much a closed book for me."
He came out of retirement to narrate the 2007 documentary movie "Dale", about the life of NASCAR driver Dale Earnhardt. He also narrated the 2008 BBC documentary "Meerkats: The Movie". It was recorded at a studio near his home shortly before his death. "The Meerkats" was the last movie credit of Newman's long career.
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IRA
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IRA may mean:
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Piccadilly line
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The Piccadilly line is a line of the London Underground. It is coloured dark blue on the Tube map. It is the fifth busiest line on the Underground network judged by the number of passengers transported per year. It is mainly a deep-level line, running from the north to the west of London via all different 6 zones on the London railway fare system. However, there are a number of surface sections mostly in its westernmost parts. Out of the 53 stations served, 25 are underground. It is the second longest line on the system, after the Central Line.
Infrastructure.
Rolling stock.
Like all Underground lines, the Piccadilly line is operated by a single type of rolling stock. In this case it is the 1973 tube stock. The trains are painted in the standard London Underground livery of blue, white and red. Seventy-six trains out of a fleet of 88 are needed to run the line's peak service. One unit (166-566-366) was severely damaged by the terrorist attacks on 7 July 2005. The stock was recently refurbished, and was due for replacement by 2014, but the order for new trains was cancelled in July 2010.
The line was previously worked by 1959 stock, 1956 stock, 1938 stock, standard tube stock and 1906 gate stock.
The line has two depots, at Northfields and Cockfosters. There are sidings at Oakwood, South Harrow, Arnos Grove, Rayners Lane, Down Street, Wood Green, Barons Court, Acton Town, Ruislip and Uxbridge.
Signalling.
The line is controlled from the control centre at Earl's Court, which it used to share with the District line. It is in need of resignalling, and this work is planned to be carried out by 2014.
Service pattern.
The current off-peak service pattern is:
Often late evening services terminate at instead of Cockfosters.
Trains will also make an additional stop at during early mornings and late evenings but will not stop at the station during the main part of the day.
Other services operate at times, especially at the start and towards the end of the traffic day.
Map.
Easier Versions can be found http://www.tfl.gov.uk/assets/downloads/standard-tube-map.gif
Stations.
"(In order from east to west.)"
Future.
The Piccadilly line was to be upgraded in 2014–15 and would have had new trains as well as new signalling. This would have increased the line's capacity by some 24%. Bids for the rolling-stock order were submitted in 2008. However, after the acquisition of Tube Lines by Transport for London in June 2010, this order was cancelled.
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European Football Championship
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List of Ligue 1 champions
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Olympiastadion Berlin
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The Olympiastadion is a sports stadium in Berlin, Germany. It was built for the 1936 Olympic Games.
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Olympic Stadium (Berlin)
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Olympic Stadium (Athens)
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The Athens Olympic Stadium () is a sports stadium in Athens, Greece.
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2000 Summer Olympics
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The 2000 Summer Olympics, officially known as the Games of the XXVII Olympiad, took place in Sydney, New South Wales, Australia from September 15, 2000 until October 1, 2000.
199 National Olympic Committees (NOCs) were in the Sydney Games. Four were in the Olympics for the first time. These were Timor-Leste, Eritrea, Micronesia and Palau.
Returned medals.
Marion Jones, winner of three gold and two bronze medals for the United States, gave back her medals in October 2007. She said she took tetrahydrogestrinone (THG), a drug that could make her run faster, from September 2000 through July 2001.
On 2 August 2008, the International Olympic Committee took the gold medal from the U.S. men's 4x400-meter relay team. Antonio Pettigrew said he used a banned substance. Besides Pettigrew other athletes used performance-enhancing drugs. These are twins Alvin and Calvin Harrison, and Jerome Young.
On 28 April 2010, the IOC took China's bronze medal from Gymnastics. This was for using an underage gymnast.
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2002 Winter Olympics
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The 2002 Winter Olympics, officially known as the XIX Olympic Winter Games, were held in Salt Lake City, Utah, United States from February 8 2002 to February 24 2002. There were about 2,400 athletes from 77 nations. They were in 78 events. Utah was the fifth state in the United States to host the Olympic Games.
78 National Olympic Committees sent athletes to the Salt Lake City games. Cameroon, Hong Kong (China), Nepal, Tajikistan, and Thailand were in their first Winter Olympic games.
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Stradivarius
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A Stradivarius is a string instrument (such as a violin) built by the 17th century Italian luthier Stradivari family (especially by Antonio Stradivari) that was famous for making them.
Violins have been sold (at auction) for as high as US dollars [11 million] or 11.25 million; That violin is from 1714; It is called the "Joachim-Ma Stradivarius violin"; Two of its previous owners, were "Joachim" and "Ma".
Stradivarii are known for their high quality sound and ability to last a long time without tuning. Most of these instruments survive to this day, though few have been stolen. They are some of the best and most expensive instruments, and even each string instrument created has a name. So many people have wanted Stradivarii, and some have sold for more than a million dollars. Famous violinists, such as Midori Goto or Joshua Bell have Stradivarii.
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Gadolinium
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Gadolinium is a chemical element. It has the chemical symbol Gd. It has the atomic number 64. It is part of a group of chemical elements in the periodic table named the Lanthanides. It is a rare earth element. It is silvery white, malleable and ductile.
Its main uses are as chemical compounds in color televisions and nuclear magnetic resonance radio contrast agents. In color cathode ray tube televisions (the type first produced, not flat televisions) some of the pixels are dots of gadolinium compounds. When the electrons from the cathode ray tube hit the pixels and transfer energy to the gadolinium compounds they give out light as energy. Nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) imaging is used in medicine where it is named MRI (Magnetic resonance imaging). It is used to take picture of inside the body. How the pictures look is changed by the gadolinium compounds and how much water is around. It makes the images clearer because it makes the difference in the concentration of water in different parts of the body look more clear (more contrast) in the picture that is made.
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Grand coalition
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The "Grand coalition" refers to if the two biggest political parties in Germany (the CDU, CSU and the SPD) join forces together ("form a coalition").
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Persephone
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Persephone (, "Persephonē") is the goddess of the dead and queen of the underworld in ancient Greek religion and myth. She is the daughter of Zeus and Demeter and is married to the god Hades, with whom she rules over the souls of the dead. As a vegetation goddess, she presided over the bounty of the harvest as it emerged during the season of spring.
Persephone and her mother Demeter were the central figures of the Eleusinian Mysteries, which promised initiates a reward in the afterlife. The tale of her being abducted by Hades, during which she was tricked into eating seeds from a pomegranate (the food of the dead), served to explain the cause of the seasons, and is one prominently featured in ancient Greek literature. Her symbols included the pomegranate, flowers and seeds of grain. During the summer she would rise up from the underworld to be with her mother Demeter. The goddess Proserpina is her Roman counterpart.
Birth and Early Life.
Persephone is the daughter of two powerful gods in Greek mythology. Zeus, was the king of all gods. Demeter, her mother, was goddess of the harvest, agriculture and fertility. Her mother was affectionately known as 'Mother Nature'. Persephone was born as a result of one of father's numerous affairs. Being born to a goddess of agriculture, it would come as no supride that Persephone is a goddess of spring and new life.
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German Bundestag
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The German Bundestag (commonly referred to as "Bundestag") is the legislature of Germany. It meets in Berlin, in the Reichstag building, which was specially rebuilt ready for the Bundestag to move from Bonn.
The Bundestag has at least 598 members. Every 4 years the German people vote. After the 2017 election there were 709 members. In the election of 26 September 2021, 736 members were assigned - the base 598 seats plus 138 overhang and leveling seats. After the 2025 election, this was reduced to 630. The next election is expected in 2029.
A party gets seats when it gets at least 5% of the votes or 3 direct mandates. Every voter has two votes, one for a person and one for a party. 299 members each represent a constituency, just as in the British House of Commons or the US House of Representatives. The other half are elected from a party list in each Land. The total number of seats a party gets depends on the number of the second "party votes" it gets.
But if a party wins more constituency seats than its share of the party votes, then it keeps those extra seats. These extra seats, or "extra mandates", are the reason the Bundestag sometimes has more than 598 members. If a party gets extra mandates, the other parties get some extra seats too to make sure every party gets exactly its share of party seats. This system of giving extra mandates was changed in 2013. Before 2013, if a party won extra mandates, then it got to put more members in the Bundestag, which gave the party more influence over the Bundestag than it won in the elections.
The Bundestag president is named Bärbel Bas. She oversees the sessions of the body.
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1. FC Nuremberg
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The 1. F.C Nürnberg is a football club from Nuremberg, Germany. It was founded on May 4, 1900.
The manager are Andreas Bornemann (Sports) and Michael Meeske (Finance). The coach is Miroslav Klose.
The players in the season 2012/13.
Goalkeepers:
Defenders:
Midfielders:
Forwards:
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Human history
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Human history is the study of what the entire human race did in the past. It includes the time from prehistory to the present day. It is different from natural history.
Development of the human species.
Modern human beings are called "Homo sapiens" ('wise man'). They have existed for about 250,000 years. Biologists believe that "Homo sapiens" evolved in Africa.
"Homo sapiens", lived at the same time as other "species" of human. These included "Homo erectus" ('standing man') and "Homo neanderthalensis" ('man from Neanderthal'). The theory of human evolution says that modern humans, Neanderthals, and "Homo erectus" slowly developed from other earlier species of human-like creatures.
"Homo neanderthalensis" are the first humans scientists discovered which were not "Homo sapiens". "Homo neanderthalensis" are usually called Neanderthal Man. They were discovered when the cranium of a skull was found in the Neanderthal Valley in 1856. It was different from a modern human skull so scientists believed it was from a new species. Entire Neanderthal skeletons have been found in other places since then. When ancient stone tools are found, their style often shows whether they were made by "Homo sapiens" or Neanderthals (see Palaeolithic). Neanderthals existed before modern humans. They knew how to use tools and fire.
Scientists believe that "Homo sapiens" spread from Africa to all other parts of the world, replacing "Homo neanderthalensis" in Europe and "Homo erectus" in Asia. By the end of the Stone Age, it is believed that "Homo sapiens" were the only type of humans left.
Influence of climate.
Climate is the normal weather in a place. It changes from one part of the world to another. Some areas are hot all year, and some are cold all year. Some areas are dry all year, and others are wet all year. Most areas have climates that are warmer in the summer and cooler in the winter. Most parts of the world get rain at some times of the year and do not get rain at other times of the year. Some parts of the world have oceanic climates and others have alpine climates.
Climate affects what food people eat. This is because climate affects what foods can grow. If one food is easier to grow, people usually eat that food more often than other foods. Foods that people eat more of than other foods are called staple foods. Staple foods are usually grains or vegetables because they are easy to grow. Wheat, maize, millet, rice, oats, rye, potatoes, yams, breadfruit and beans are examples of different staple foods from around the world.
Climate can affect the way people live in many other ways. It affects the types of animals that can live in any area, which affect the types of meats that are available to eat.
Climate also affects the buildings that people make, the clothes that they wear and the way that they travel.
Climate change.
The climate on earth has not stayed the same through human history. There are long periods of time when it is generally warmer, and there are long periods of time when it is generally colder. When it is generally colder, there is more ice on the poles of the planet. A cold period is called an ice age. There have been many ice ages in the history of the earth. Two have affected humans.
From 70,000 to around 10,000 years ago there was a big ice age which affected humans and the way that they lived. Between 1600 AD and 1900 AD there was a period called the Little Ice Age when the climate was a little bit colder than usual.
Prehistory.
The word "Prehistory" means "before history". It is used for the long period of time before humans began to write about their lives. This time is divided into two main ages: the Paleolithic Age (or Early Stone Age) and the Neolithic Age (or late Stone Age). The two ages did not start and end at the same time everywhere.
The end of prehistory varies from one place to another. It depends on the date when that place began to use writing. In Egypt the first written documents date from around 3200 BC. In Australia the first written records date from 1788 and in New Guinea from about 1900.
Paleolithic Era.
The Paleolithic Era is by far the longest age of humanity's time, about 99% of human history. The Paleolithic Age started about 2.6 million years ago and ended around 10,000 BC. The age began when hominids (early humans) started to use stones as tools for bashing, cutting and scraping. The age ended when humans began to plant crops and have other types of agriculture. In some areas, such as Western Europe, the way that people lived was affected by the Ice Age. In these places, people moved towards agriculture quicker than in warmer places where there was always lots of food to gather. Their culture is sometimes called the Mesolithic Era (Middle Stone Age).
Human beings are social animals. During the Paleolithic Era they grouped together in small bands. They lived by gathering plants and hunting wild animals. This way of living is called a "hunter-gatherer society". People hunted small burrowing animals like rabbits, as well as birds and herds of animals like deer and cattle. They also gathered plants to eat, including grains. Grain often grows on grasslands where herds of grass-eating animals are found. People also gathered root vegetables, green vegetables, beans, fruit, seeds, berries, nuts, eggs, insects and small reptiles.
Many Paleolithic bands were nomadic. They moved from place to place as the weather changed. They followed herds of animals that they hunted from their winter feeding places to their summer feeding places. If there was a drought, flood, or some other disaster, the herds and the people may have moved a long distance, looking for food. During the "Ice Age" a lot of the water on Earth turned to ice. This made sea much lower than it is now. People were able to walk through Beringia from Siberia to Alaska. Bands of "Homo sapiens" travelled to that area from Asia. At that time there were rich grasslands with many large animals that are now extinct. It is believed that many groups of people travelled there over a long time and later spread to other parts of America, as the weather got warmer.
Palaeolithic people used stone tools. Sometimes a stone tool was just a rock. It might have been useful for smashing a shell or an animal's skull, or for grinding grain on another rock. Other tools were made by breaking rocks to make a sharp edge. The next development in stone tool making was to chip all the edges of a rock so that it made a pointed shape, useful for a spearhead, or arrow tip. Some stone tools are carefully "flaked" at the edges to make them sharp, and symmetrically shaped. Palaeolithic people also used tools of wood and bone. They probably also used leather and vegetable fibers but these have not lasted from that time. Palaeolithic people also knew how to make fire which they used for warmth and cooking.
Settling down.
In the "Paleolithic Era" there were many different human species. According to current research, only the modern human reached the "Neolithic Era".
The Neolithic era was marked by changes in society. During the Neolithic era, people started to settle down. They developed agriculture and domesticated animals, both of which took a long time. Because of these two things, people did not have to migrate as much any more. Villages could grow to much larger sizes than before. Over time, villages fought and spread their control over larger areas and some became civilisations. During this time, humankind also developed further intellectually, militarily and spiritually.
When humans started to grow crops and domesticate certain animals such as dogs, goats, sheep, and cattle; their societies changed. Because people now grew crops and raised livestock, they started to stay in the same place and build permanent settlements. In most places, this happened between 10,000 and 12,000 years ago. Their diet also changed. People ate more cereals and vegetables. They started to keep extra foods and seeds for later. In some years there were surpluses (extras) that could be traded for other goods. People who could tolerate milk had an advantage. Originally, milk drinking could only be done by babies. Farming societies gave a great advantage to the few people who could tolerate milk. This tolerance eventually became almost universal.
These changes happened independently in many parts of the world. They did not happen in the same order though. For example, the earliest farming societies in the Near East did not use pottery. No one is sure if Britain had agriculture, or if permanent villages existed there at all. Early Japanese societies used pottery "before" developing agriculture.
Vere Gordon Childe gave the name "Neolithic Revolution" to this process in the 1920s. He thought that it was as important as the Industrial Revolution (which happened in the 18th and 19th century).
Ancient history – the early civilizations.
Ancient history was the time from the development of writing in the Middle East to the fall of the Roman Empire. The fall of the Roman Empire caused chaos in Europe, leading to the Middle Ages (also called the Dark Ages or the Age of Faith).
The first civilizations were built along major river systems. These civilizations are called river valley civilizations. River valley civilizations were the most powerful civilizations in this time period because water was needed to have an agricultural society.
These civilizations were similar in that:
Middle East and North Africa.
Sumer.
Sumer was the world's first known ancient civilization. The Sumerians took over the fertile crescent region of Mesopotamia around 3300 BC. They grew crops on the Tigris and Euphrates rivers. By 3000 BC, many cities had been built in parts of Sumerian Mesopotamia. They formed independently and each had their own government. They were called city-states and often fought with each other.
A surplus in food led to a Division of labour. This means that some people were able to stop growing crops and do other jobs, since enough crops were already grown. This brought a split in society. Today, such a split is called "social pyramid". In a social pyramid, people are grouped into social classes based on their wealth and power. In Sumer, the king, priests, and government officials were at the top of the social pyramid. Below them were the artisans, merchants, farmers, and fishers. At the bottom of the pyramid were slaves. Slaves were often prisoners of war, criminals, or people working to pay off debt.
The Sumerians created the world's first system of writing; it was called cuneiform. The oldest versions of one of the world's first literary works, the "Epic of Gilgamesh", go back to this time. In Sumer, only the sons of the rich and powerful learned how to read and write. They went to a school called "edubba". Only the boys who went to "edubba" could become scribes.
The Sumerians also invented sun-dried bricks, the wheel, the ox plow, and were skilled at making pottery. They are also thought to have invented the sailboat.
After the Sumerians, the civilizations of Babylonia and then Assyria rose to power in Mesopotamia. Babylonia had a king named Hammurabi. He is famous for the Codex Hammurabi. Just to the East was the long-lasting civilization of Elam.
Ancient Egypt.
Ancient Egypt grew along the Nile river. It was created around 3500 BC. It was most powerful in the second millennium BC. When it was its biggest, it went all the way from the Nile delta to a mountain called Jebel Barkal in Sudan. It probably ended at about 30 BC when the country was invaded by the Roman Empire.
The society of ancient Egypt depended on a balance of natural and human resources, especially the irrigation of the Nile Valley so that Egyptians could grow crops.
There was a great difference between classes in this society, as there is today. Most of the people were farmers but they did not own the agricultural products they produced. These were property of the state, temple, or noble family that owned the land. There was slavery, but it is not clear how it was practiced.
The Religion of Ancient Egypt encouraged people to respect their rulers and their past. The Egyptians are known for writing in hieroglyphs, building the famous pyramids, and their successful agriculture.
The religion of Judaism formed about 1500 BC.
Mid and Eastern Asia.
Ancient China.
China began as city-states in the Yellow River valley. The Shang Dynasty (商朝) was the first dynasty of Ancient China. Turtle shells with writing on them have been carbon dated to about 1500 BC.
The Zhou Dynasty came after the Shang Dynasty. "Kong Fuzi" and Laozi lived at the end of the Zhou Dynasty. They were the greatest Chinese philosophers. They founded new philosophies, or ways of thinking. Confucius founded Confucianism and Laozi founded Daoism.
After the Zhou Dynasty came the Warring States Period.
The Qin (秦) dynasty came after the Warring States Period. The Qin emperor Qin Shi Huang created the first centralized state in China in 221 BC. It was based on his based on his political philosophy of legalism. He made everyone write the same way. He fought against "Confucianism". He also started building what would later become the Great Wall.
In 202 BC the Han Dynasty took over. It was about as strong as the Roman Empire. Towards the end of the Han Dynasty, Buddhism became influential in China.
Ancient South Asia.
The Indus Valley Civilization lasted from about 2600 BC to 1900 BC. It was the first urban civilization in the subcontinent. It was centered on the Indus River and its tributaries in what is now Pakistan. It also had sites in modern-day India and Afghanistan. The civilization is famous for its brick cities that had road-side drainage systems and multi-storied houses.
The Maurya dynasty started in 321 BCE. This was the first time most of the Indian subcontinent was united under a single government. Ashoka the Great was a famous Mauryan emperor. When he started ruling, he sought to expand his empire, but then followed a policy of ahimsa (non-violence) after converting to Buddhism. He wrote about this in the Edicts of Ashoka. The Edicts of Ashoka are the oldest historical documents from India that still exist. During the peak of the Gandhara civilizationin Pakistan, Buddhist ideals spread across all of East Asia and South-East Asia.
The Gupta dynasty ruled from around 320 to 550 AD. The Gupta Empire included only Central India, and the area east of current day Bangladesh. Gupta society was ordered in accordance with Hindu beliefs. Historians place the Gupta dynasty alongside with the Han Dynasty, Tang Dynasty and Roman Empire as a model of a classical civilization.
The Americas.
Ancient Maya.
The Maya civilization is a civilization that started in Central America. They lived mostly on the Yucatán Peninsula in what is now known as Mexico, but also Honduras, Belize and Guatemala. They were the only known civilization of pre-Columbian America to have a fully developed written language. They also made great achievements in art and architecture and had a very advanced system of mathematics and astronomy.
The area where the Maya civilization developed was inhabited from around the 10th millennium BC. The first Maya settlements were built there in about 1800 BC, in the Soconusco region. This is in the modern-day state of Chiapas in Mexico, on the Pacific Ocean. Today, this is called the "Early Preclassic period". At the time, humans began to settle down permanently. They started to grow livestock. Pottery and small clay figures were made. They constructed simple burial mounds. Later they developed these mounds into step pyramids. There were other civilizations around, especially in the north, such as the Olmec, the Mixe-Zoque, and Zapotec civilizations. These people mostly lived in the area of the modern-day state Oaxaca. The exact borders of the Maya empire in the north are unclear. There were probably areas where Maya culture overlapped with other cultures. Many of the earliest significant inscriptions and buildings appeared in this overlapping zone. These cultures and the Maya probably influenced one another.
Australia.
There has been a long history of contact between Papuan peoples of the Papua New Guinea and the Aboriginal people. Aboriginal people seem to have lived a long time in the same environment as the now extinct Australian megafauna. Stories about that are told in the oral culture of many Aboriginal groups.
Ancient Europe.
Hallstatt culture.
The Hallstatt era is named after the city Hallstatt in Austria, where the first artifacts were found. It lasted from about 1200 BC to about 275 BC. There were different periods, which today are mainly told apart by the kinds of brooches used at the time. These brooches changed rather rapidly, and can therefore give us good guesses at to what time they came from. Hallstatt culture sites have been found in the east of France, in Switzerland, in the south of Germany, in Austria, in Slovenia and Croatia, northwestern Hungary, southwestern Slovakia and southern Moravia. The culture can be divided into an eastern and a western one quite easily; the dividing line runs through the Czech Republic, and Austria, between longitudes 14 and 15 degrees east.
In this time, the social structure developed into a hierarchy. This can be documented by various things that were added to graves. In the Bronze Age, people used to live in big settlements. As iron became available, trade routes changed. A new richer class evolved. Unlike before, these richer class people liked to live in big houses in the countryside, as a demonstration of their wealth. Funerals also changed, from cremation burials, to burials with stone coffins. The new upper class used their wealth for import goods, mostly from the Mediterranean.
La Tène culture.
The La Tène culture is a culture that lasted from about 500 BC to about 100 AD. It is named after the city of "La Tène" (today, Marin-Epagnier, next to Neuchâtel). It was influenced a lot by the Roman and Greek cultures. There are two sources for this:
The Celts basically lived in clans. Each clan was headed by a leader, which came from the Druids or the Bards. Women were much better off than with the Romans, they were almost equal to men. There was polygamy and polyandry (A man could have several women, a woman could have several men).
Illyria.
Illyria is the part of west-south Balkan Peninsula populated by Illyrians whose descendants are Albanians.
Illyrians lived in tribunes such as Epirus, Dardania, Taulantia etc.
They had their own language, the Illyrian language that was different from the Greek language and Latin.
At the year 1000 BC the population of Illyria is estimated to be around 500,000.
Ancient Greece.
What is known today as "Ancient Greece" is a very important period in history. Most people agree that it came after the Minoan and Mycenaean civilizations. It ended when the Romans invaded Greece, in 146 BC. Greek culture had a very powerful influence on later civilizations, especially the Romans. The Greeks developed what is now called a city-state, or a polis. There were many polises. Some of the more important ones were Athens, Sparta, Corinth and Thebes. The word "politics" comes from there. It literally means: things that are about the polis. Greek cities did not have much contact with each other, because of the mountains and many islands Greece is made up of. When a city no longer had enough food to care for all its citizens, some people were sent out to set up a new city. This was called a "colony". Each city was independent, and ruled by someone within that city. Colonies also looked to the city where they originally came from for guidance.
When Greece went to war (for example against the Persian Empire), there was an alliance of such city states, against the Persians. There were also many wars between different city states.
There were many artists and philosophers who lived in that period. Most of them are still important for philosophy today. A well-known artist was Homer. He wrote epics about the war against the Trojans, and the early history of Greece. Other well-known artists were Aristophanes and Sappho. Well-known philosophers include Socrates, Plato, and Aristotle. A well known mathematician of the time was Euclid. Statesmen of the time were Pericles and Alexander the Great.
Ancient Rome.
Ancient Rome was a civilization that started in modern-day Italy, in the 8th Century before Christ. The civilization lasted for 12 centuries. It ended, when Mehmed II conquered Constantinople, on May 29, 1453. According to legend, the Roman civilization was founded by Romulus and Remus, in the year 753 BC. The Roman Empire developed in wars against Carthage and the Seleucid Empire. Julius Caesar conquered Gaul, modern France, and Augustus ended the Roman republic by becoming emperor. At its biggest extent, the empire covered all of the Mediterranean. Rome became so big, because it led war against other nations and then assimilated their culture.
Split of the Empire into East and West.
In 293, Diocletian organized a separate administration of the western and the eastern part of the empire. The capital of the western part was Rome, the capital of the eastern part was Constantinople. Constantine I was the first to stop discrimination against Christians (313). Christianity became state religion under the reign of Theodosius I.
The western part of the empire had many problems with barbarians. In the 5th century, the Huns migrated westwards. This meant that the Visigoths moved into the empire, to seek protection. Rome was sacked by barbarians multiple times. On September 4, 476, the Germanic chief Odoacer forced the last Roman emperor in the west, Romulus Augustus, to quit. After about 1200 years, the rule of Rome in the West came to an end.
The eastern part had similar problems. Justinian I managed to conquer parts of North Africa and Italy. Shortly after he died, all that was left were parts of Southern Italy, and Sicily. In the east, the empire was threatened by the Sassanid Empire.
New departures and continuity.
After the fall of Western Rome, the Germanic tribes that took over tried to learn from Roman civilization, but much was forgotten and up to the Renaissance not many achievements happened in Europe. But with the rise of Islam, many changes happened during the Islamic Golden Age. The Greek and Roman traditions were kept and further development took place. The Chinese civilization had a Golden Age during the Tang period, when their capital was the biggest in the world. During the Renaissance, Europe developed and made great advancements in many areas as well.
Asia.
Middle East – Islamic rise, Byzantine decline.
In Arabia, Muhammad founded Islam in 632. His followers rapidly conquered territories in Syria and Egypt. They soon were a danger to the Byzantine Empire. In the 8th and 9th centuries, the Byzantine Empire stopped Islamic expansion and reconquered some lost territories. In 1000 A.D. the eastern Empire was at its height: Basileios II reconquered Bulgaria and Armenia. Culture and trade flourished. In 1071 the Battle of Manzikert led the empire into a dramatic decline. For the Byzantine Empire this meant centuries of civil wars and Turkic invasions. The Muslim caliphate had an Golden Age under the Abbasids.
Their power forced Emperor Alexius I Comnenus of the Byzantine Empire to send a call for help to the West in 1095. The West sent the Crusades. These eventually led to the "Sack of Constantinople" in the Fourth Crusade in 1204. Because of this, what was left of the Empire broke into successor states. The winner of these disputes was that of Nicaea. After Constantinople was again conquered by imperial forces, the empire was little more than a Greek state on the Aegean coast. The Eastern Empire came to an end when Mehmed II conquered Constantinople on May 29, 1453. The Ottoman Empire took its place and from 1400 to 1600 was the most powerful empire in the Middle East and ruled at the southern and eastern coast of the Mediterranean Sea.
China.
The Tang Dynasty (618–907), with its capital at Chang'an (today Xi'an), was the biggest city in the world at the time and is considered by historians as a high point in Chinese civilization as well as a golden age of cosmopolitan culture. The Ming Dynasty ruled from 1368 to 1644. The Ming built a vast army and navy.
India.
From around the 6th–7th century. In South India, Chola kings ruled Tamil Nadu, and Chera kings ruled Kerala. They had trading relationships with the Roman Empire to the west and Southeast Asia to the east. In north India, Rajputs ruled in many kingdoms.
In 1336, two brothers named Harihara I and Bukka founded the Vijayanagara Empire in an area which is now in the Karnataka state of India. The most famous king of this empire was Krishnadevaraya. In 1565, rulers of this empire were defeated in a battle. But the empire continued for about the next one hundred years.
Northern India was ruled by Islamic sultans.
Japan.
The Heian period in Japan is famous for its art, poetry and literature. The writing system, Kana, was developed. It was followed by the feudal period (1185–1853) during which samurai and daimyos were the leading figures and the shogun the real monarch whereas the tennō had only a role as religious head. Between the years 1272 and 1281 the Mongols tried to invade but were driven out by the Japanese.
In 1542, a Portuguese ship reached Japan. Japanese learned about guns and firearms from them.
Mongols.
Genghis Khan in 1209 brought together the Mongol tribes and founded the Mongol Empire, one of the largest land empires in history. Later Kublai Khan would go on to expand the empire and found the Mongol-ruled Yuan Dynasty of China. The empire later broke into several empires, all of which were later destroyed.
European Middle Ages.
The Middle Ages was the time from the fall of the Roman empire until the middle of the 15th century. From 500 to about 800 there was some decline compared with the Roman civilization. European villages were often destroyed and looted by barbarians such as the Vikings. During the High Middle Ages magnificent castles and large churches called cathedrals were built and important works of literature were written. In the later Middle Ages, there was a plague called the Black Death. The Black Death killed one-third to one-half of Europe's population.
A system called feudalism was a very important part of the Middle Ages. In this system, the king was at the top of the social pyramid. The king gave land to the lord in exchange for loyalty. The lords were the next in the pyramid. The lords gave land (called a fief) to knights in exchange for loyalty and protection. The knights came next in the pyramid. Peasants were not part of the feudal system because they did not give or receive land. They worked on a lord's manor in exchange for protection.
The Crusades were also fought during the Middle Ages. There is a theory that says the Crusades helped end the Middle Ages along with the Black Death, increased trade and better farming technology.
Renaissance.
The Renaissance started in Italy. "Renaissance" is a French word meaning "rebirth". The Renaissance meant that people learned from the ancient Greek and Roman or "classical" cultures that had been forgotten for some time. Artists learned from classical paintings and sculptures. So they reinvented perspective and the art of free standing realistic sculptures that had been characteristic in Greek and Roman art. Some famous Renaissance artists are Leonardo da Vinci, Michelangelo, and Raphael. The Gutenberg printing press, invented by Johannes Gutenberg, was also developed during this time.
The Renaissance was also a time of great achievements in science (Galileo Galilei, Francis Bacon), philosophy (Thomas More) and literature (Dante Alighieri, William Shakespeare).
America.
Maya civilization (classical period).
What is known as the classical period lasted from about 250 to about 900. During this time, many monuments were constructed. There are also many big inscriptions from then. In this period, the Maya moved to building large cities. This is known as urbanism. Many important intellectual and artistic developments happened in an area that is known as the "southern lowlands".
Like the Ancient Greek, the Maya civilization was made of many independent city-states. Agriculture was important around these city states like Tikal and Copán.
The most important monuments are the pyramids they built in their religious centers and the palaces of their rulers. The palace at Cancuén is the largest in the Maya area. There are no pyramids in the area of the palace. Other important things the archaeologists found include the carved stone slabs usually called "stelae" (the Maya called them "tetun", or "tree-stones"). These slabs show rulers along with hieroglyphic texts describing their genealogy, military victories, and other accomplishments. In North America, they made Mississippian culture with the largest land field from around 800 CE to 1600.
Trade with other civilizations.
The Maya also had trade routes that ran over long distances. They traded with many of the other Mesoamerican cultures, such as Teotihuacan, the Zapotec, and other groups in central and gulf-coast Mexico. They also traded with non-Mesoamerican groups, that were farther away. Archaeologists have found gold from Panama in the Sacred Cenote of Chichen Itza.
Important trade goods were cacao, salt, sea shells, jade and obsidian.
Sudden collapse.
In the 8th and 9th century, the cities in the southern lowlands had problems, and declined. At the same time, the Maya stopped making big monuments and inscriptions. Shortly afterwards, these cities were abandoned. Currently, archaeologists are not sure why this happened. There are different theories. Either ecological factors played a role in this, or the cause of this abandonment was not related to the environment.
Post-classical period and decline.
In the north, development went on, form the 10th to about the 16th century. The influences from the outside left more traces in the Maya culture at that time. Some of the important sites in this era were Chichen Itza, Uxmal, and Coba. At some point, the ruling dynasties of Chichen and Uxmal declined. Afterwards, Mayapan ruled all of Yucatán until a revolt in 1450. The area then degenerated into competing city-states until the Yucatán was conquered by the Spanish.
By 1250, there developed other city-states. The Itza maintained their capital at Tayasal. It ruled over an area extending across the Peten Lakes region, including the community of Ekckixil on Lake Quexil. Postclassic Maya states also survived in the southern highlands. One of the Maya kingdoms in this area is responsible for the best-known Maya work of historiography and mythology, the Popol Vuh.
The Spanish started to conquer Maya lands. This took them much longer than with the Inca or Aztecs, because there was no capital city. This meant that when they had conquered one city, this had little influence on the whole empire. The last Maya states were finally subdued in 1697.
The Maya people did not disappear though. There are still about 6 million of them. Some are well-integrated, others continue speak one of the Maya languages and uphold their cultural heritage.
The Aztecs.
The Aztecs built an empire in Central America, mainly in Mexico. The empire lasted from the 14th to the 16th century. They spoke the Nahuatl language. Their capital was Tenochtitlan. It was built on islands in a lake. Tenochtitlan was one of the greatest cities of the world in that time.
The Aztecs believed in polytheism. Quetzalcoatl (feathered snake), Huitzilopochtli (hummingbird of the south) and Tezcatlipoca (smoking mirror) were the most important Gods. Sometimes the Aztecs killed humans to please their gods. Between 1519 and 1521 the Spanish leader Hernán Cortés defeated the Aztecs and took their empire. Some Aztecs did not want to fight against the soldiers of Cortés, because they thought they were Gods.
Today many Mexicans have Aztec and other Native American forefathers. People still use Aztec symbols in Mexico. On the Mexican flag there is a picture of an eagle on a cactus with a snake in its mouth. This was an Aztec symbol. Also the name "Mexico" is an Aztec word.
The Aztecs ate a lot of plants and vegetables that could be grown easily in the Mexico area. The main food that they ate was corn, which they called maize. Another food that they ate was squash.
Aztecs also had a lot of harsh punishments for certain crimes. For the following crimes the punishment was death: adultery, wearing cotton clothes (cotton clothes were only for the nobles), cutting down a living tree, moving a field boundary making your land bigger, making someone else's smaller, major theft and treason.
The Incas.
The Incas were a civilized empire in western South America. The Incas are called a "pre-Columbian" empire. This means that their country was here before Christopher Columbus. They ruled parts of South America around what is now Peru for a little over 100 years, until the Spanish invasion in the 16th century.
The Incan empire or , meaning "four regions" in Quechua, only lasted for about 100 years as the arrival of the Spaniards in 1532 conquered them. Their main language was Quechua, but as the Incas were basically made up of many different groups there were probably many other different languages.
Their capital was in the city of Cusco, or Qosqo, in what is now southern Peru.
Manco Capac founded the first Inca state around 1200. It covered the area around Cusco. In the 1400s, Pachacuti began to absorb other people in the Andes. The expansion of the Inca Empire had started. The Inca Empire would become the biggest empire in the Americas before Columbus.
In 1532, the civil war ended. The brothers Huascar and Atahualpa, fought for who would succeed their father. During this time, the Spanish conquerors took possession of the Inca territory. They were led by Francisco Pizarro. In the following years the conquistadors managed to extend their power over the whole Andean region. They suppressed successive Inca rebellions until the establishment of the Viceroyalty of Perú in 1542 and the fall of the resistance of the last Incas of Vilcabamba in 1572. The Inca civilization ends at that time, but many cultural traditions remain in some ethnic groups as Quechuas and Aymara people.
Africa.
Ancient Egypt and Carthage are well known civilizations of ancient Africa. But because there are not many written sources in large parts of Sub-Saharan Africa, the history of Africa is not easy to write about. But with new techniques such as the recording of oral history, historical linguistics and archeology knowledge has improved, not only for the empires and kingdoms of Ethiopia, Ghana, Mali, Nubia, Kush and Kerma.
Globalization.
From colonialization to imperialism.
The rise of Europe.
Colonization.
Colonization happened after Christopher Columbus came to the Americas. European countries such as England, France, and Spain built colonies in the Americas. These settlers fought the Native Americans to take over their land. The colonisation of the Americas was the beginning of modern times.
An important part about contact with the Americas was the Columbian Exchange The Columbian Exchange brought new foods, ideas, and diseases to the Old World and New World, changing the way people lived. Historians believe that almost everyone as far as Asia was affected in some way by the Columbian Exchange.
Reformation and Counter-Reformation.
Protestant Reformation started with Martin Luther and the posting of the 95 theses on the door of the castle church in Wittenberg, Germany. At first he protested against corruption such as simony or the sale of indulgences. But then it became clear that he had different ideas about the church doctrine. He thought that Christians should only read the Bible to find out what God wants from them. That meant that they did not need priests (see: Five solas). The three most important traditions that came directly from the Protestant Reformation were the Lutheran, Reformed (Calvinist, Presbyterian, etc.), and Anglican traditions.
The Counter-Reformation, or Catholic Reformation, was the Catholic Church fighting the Protestant Reformation. New religious orders, such as the Jesuits were founded and missionaries sent around the world. Decisions were taken at the Council of Trent (1545–1563).
Industrial revolution.
The Industrial Revolution started in Great Britain. It brought many advances in the way goods were produced. These advances allowed people to produce much more than they needed for living. The early British Empire split as its colonies in America revolted to establish a representative government.
From nationalism to imperialism.
The French Revolution lead to massive political change in continental Europe, as people following the ideas of Enlightenment asked for human rights with the slogan "liberté, egalité, fraternité" (liberty, equality, fraternity). That led to the Declaration of the Rights of Man and of the Citizen, but also to terror and the execution of King Louis XVI. The French leader, Napoleon Bonaparte, conquered and changed Europe through war up to 1815. As more and more small property holders were granted the vote, in France and the UK, socialist and trade union activity developed and revolution gripped Europe in 1848. The last vestiges of serfdom were abolished in Austria-Hungary in 1848. Russian serfdom was abolished in 1861. The Balkan nations began to regain their independence from the Ottoman Empire. After the Franco-Prussian War, Italy and Germany became unified in 1870 and 1871. Conflict spread across the globe, in a chase for empires. The search for a "place in the sun" ended with the outbreak of World War I. In the desperation of war, the Russian Revolution promised the people "peace, bread and land". The defeat of Germany came at the price of economic destruction, which was written down in the Treaty of Versailles.
Asia.
China – continuity.
From 1644 to 1912 the Qing or "Manchu Dynasty" ruled China. The dynasty was founded by the Manchu clan in northeast China (Manchuria). It expanded into China proper and its surrounding territories, establishing the "Empire of the Great Qing".
Its military power weakened during the 1800s, and faced with international pressure, massive rebellions and defeats in wars, the Qing Dynasty declined after the mid-19th century. It was overthrown in 1912.
Japan.
During the Edo period, Japan had many small rulers. There were about 200 of them, called the daimyo. Out of them, the Tokugawa clan was most powerful. They ruled from a place called Edo. This place was around the present day’s Tokyo. For fifteen generations they were the most powerful clan in Japan.
Beginning from the early 17th century, the rulers (known as shogunate) started a policy of seclusion (stopping some people coming in), known as sakoku in Japanese language. They suspected that traders, merchants and missionaries wanted to bring Japan under the control of European powers. Except the Dutch and the Chinese, all foreigners, traders and merchants from other countries, missionaries were no longer allowed into Japan.
Still even during the period of seclusion, Japanese continued to gain information and knowledge about other parts of the world.
This policy of seclusion lasted for about 200 years. It ended 1868 with Meiji Restoration, when the emperor took over again and started a lot of reforms.
India – Mughal Empire.
The Mughal Empire existed from 1526 to 1857. When it was biggest it ruled most of the Indian subcontinent, then known as Hindustan, and parts of what is now Afghanistan. It was founded by Babur in 1526 and ruled until 1530. Its most important ruler was Akbar (1556–1605). After the death of Aurangjeb (1658–1707), the Mughal Empire became weak. It continued until 1857. By that time, India came under the British Raj.
America.
Settlement by the Spanish started the European colonization of the Americas, it meant genocide of the native Indians. The Spanish gained control of most of the Caribbean and conquered the Aztecs. So they founded the Spanish Empire in the New World.
The first successful English settlements were in North America at Jamestown (Virginia), 1607 (along with its satellite, Bermuda in 1609) and Plymouth (Massachusetts), 1620. The first French settlements were Port Royal (1604) and Quebec City (1608). The Fur Trade soon became the primary business on the continent and as a result transformed the Native Americans lifestyle. Plantation slavery of the West Indies lead to the beginning of the Atlantic slave trade.
Rivalry between the European powers created a series of wars on the North American landmass. The American Revolution led to the creation of the United States of America. Spain's hold on its colonies weakened till it had to give them independence.
The United States expanded quickly to the west. At the same time, British built more in Canada.
Africa.
During the 15th century the Portuguese began exploring Africa. At the Guinea coast they built their first fort in 1482. They started slave trade after the first European contact with America in 1492 to supply settlers from there with workers. Soon English, Spanish, Dutch, French and Danish merchants also built forts. But their influence on the inland was minor (except from decimation of population by slave trade) till during the 19th century larger colonies were founded.
Twentieth Century onward.
The 20th century was a very important time in history. New technology and different ideas led to many worldwide changes in the time of just 100 years.
World Wars.
The First World War.
World War I was a war fought from 1914 to 1918. During the time of the war, it was called "The Great War", or "The War to End All Wars". Chemical poisons, tanks, aeroplanes, and bombs were used for the first time.
There were four main causes of the war:
These were causes that made it likely that a war would start in Europe. The "spark" that started the war was the assassination of the heir to the throne in Austria-Hungary: Archduke Franz Ferdinand by a group of young Serbians. Austria-Hungary declared war on Serbia and each country's allies then joined the war. This created a bigger conflict which turned into World War I.
Europe divided into two groups of allies: the Central Powers and the Allied Powers (the "Allies"). The Central Powers were made up of Germany, Austria-Hungary, the Ottoman Empire and Bulgaria. The Allies were made up of Britain, France, Russia, Italy and the United States.
World War I was fought on two fronts; the Eastern Front and the Western Front. Trench warfare was commonly used on the Eastern Front.
Because of a British blockade, Germany began using U-boats, or submarines, to sink British ships. After the sinking of two ships with Americans on board, and the public release of the Zimmermann Note, The U.S. declared war on Germany, joining the Allies.
On November 11, 1918, Germany signed the armistice, meaning "the laying down of arms", to end the war. After the war ended, the Treaty of Versailles was written and Germany was made to sign it. They had to pay $33 million in reparations (payment for damage). The influenza pandemic of 1918 spread around the world, killing millions.
After the First War.
After the war the German Empire, the Russian Empire, the Ottoman Empire and Austrian Empire ended and France and Britain got weaker.
The 1920s and 1930s had military-related fascist dictators take control of Italy, Germany, Japan and Spain. They were helped by the Great Depression starting in 1929. When Hitler in 1933 had gained power in Germany he prepared World War II.
The Second World War.
Of all the wars ever fought, World War II involved the most countries and killed the most people. More than 60 million people died, making it the worst disaster of all time. It lasted six years in Europe, from 1939 to 1945.
It was fought between the Axis Powers (Germany, Italy and Japan) and the Allied Powers. At first the Axis Powers were successful, but that ended in Europe with the Battle of Stalingrad in 1943 and the invasion in Normandy in 1944. But Hitler was able to pursue his plan to annihilate Jews nearly all over Europe. Today, this plan is called the Holocaust.
In the Pacific it ended with the battles of Midway and Guadalcanal. Germany surrendered on May 8. The Empire of Japan surrendered on August 15, 1945.
After World War II.
After World War II the United Nations was founded in the hope that it could solve arguments among nations and keep wars from happening. Communism spread to Central and Eastern Europe, Yugoslavia, Bulgaria, Romania, Albania, North Vietnam and North Korea. In 1949, China became communist. During the 1950s and 1960s, many third world countries became communist.
This led to the Cold War, a forty-year argument between the United States, the Soviet Union, and their allies (mainly countries that were members of NATO or the Warsaw Pact). Each country wanted to promote their type of government. The Soviet Union wanted to spread communism, and the United States wanted to spread democracy. People across the world feared a nuclear war because of the tension.
Communism became less popular when it became clear that it could not promote economic growth as well as Western states and that it was not suited for a reform that allowed freedom of speech for everybody. Therefore, the Soviet Union forced Hungary to give up its reform in 1956, it favored the building of the Berlin Wall in 1961 and it stopped reform in Czechoslovakia in 1968. When in 1988/89 Gorbachev made clear that he would not force the countries of the East block to stick to Communism the Berlin Wall was torn down in 1989 and the Soviet Union collapsed (1991). Then the United States was the only superpower left.
Malaysia, under Mahathir Mohamad's leadership, saw significant economic growth and modernization during the late 20th century. Mahathir's policies focused on industrialization and infrastructure development, shaping Malaysia into a key player in Southeast Asia.
As the 20th century ended, the European Union began to rise and included former satellite states and even parts of the Soviet Union. States in Asia, Africa and South America tried to copy the European Union.
The twentieth century was a time of great progress in terms of technology. People began to live longer because of better medicine and medical technology. New communications and transportation technologies connected the world. But these advances also helped cause problems with the environment.
The last half of the century had smaller wars. Improved information technology and globalization increased trade and cultural exchange. Space exploration expanded through the solar system. The structure of DNA was discovered.
The same period also raised questions about the end of human history because of global dangers: nuclear weapons, greenhouse effect and other problems in the environment.
21st century.
During this period, communications with mobile phones and the Internet expanded. This led to social changes in corporation, political, and individuals' personal lives. Because of population growth and industrialization, worldwide resource competition became increasingly high. The increasing demand affected environmental degradation and global warming, as well the globalization has continued.
A new Great Recession affected the world in the late 2000s and the early 2010s. The COVID-19 pandemic in 2020 caused further global economic and political disruption. Some scientists referred to this as a "Planetary Phase of Civilization".
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Ur
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Ur was the one of the world's first cities, in Mesopotamia. It was a Sumerian city-state, founded around 3,800 BC. There are written records dating from the 26th century. Ur was once a coastal city near the mouth of the River Euphrates on the Persian Gulf. It is now well inland, south of the Euphrates on its right bank, from Nasiriyah, Iraq.
Ziggurat.
In the Sumerian city, the Ziggurat of Ur was a skyscraper over the city. It was about 20 metres (66 feet) tall. The only level that remains today is the bottom. There were big staircases to get up and down. They tell a lot about the people who built them. Sumerians had no tools and machinery like us. They were careful brick builders. Brickmakers formed mud bricks that were perfect. After drying they took them to the site and set them in place with bitumen. Bitumen is similar to asphalt, a thick sticky black stuff. It's like asphalt, the stuff they use to pave roads. They braided reeds so they would be stronger, and hooked them up like steel cables. Later the Ziggurat became more than a place for gods. There were workshops for craftworkers. For the priests, there were temples to do worship.
Social classes.
Ur had four social classes. The richer, like government officials, priests, and soldiers, were at the top. The second level was for merchants, teachers, laborers, farmers and craftmakers. The bottom were for slaves captured in battle. The level above all was the singular Owen Ramm Steffen, ruler of all people of Ziggurat. He was the most importante y gracioso and believed in member of Ur, even writing on the walls, "I hope Carter Mikolay burns in hell." Burials at Ur give insight into people's social standing. Kings and queens were buried with treasure. Since irrigation gave Ur abundant crops, not everybody needed to work on farms. People learned other skills. Sir Leonard Woolley found a tablet that listed Ur's specialized workers. The chisel workers made sculptures, the gem cutters made gems, and the fullers stomped on woven wools to make them soft. The metal workers made weapons.
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Odenwald
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The Odenwald is a mountain chain in the south of Hesse, in the north of Bavaria and the north of Baden-Württemberg.
Geography.
In the south of the Odenwald there is the Neckar River. In the east there is the Main River . In the west there is the valley of the Rhine River. The highest mountain is the Katzenbuckel (literally "cat's hump", 626 m).
Neighboring cities.
The big cities Mannheim and Frankfurt am Main are near to the Odenwald. People of these cities like to go there at holidays. It is known for its clean thin air. There are many marked hiking paths. You can find wild blueberries, strawberries and mushrooms in the forests.
Several small towns are very beautiful like Weinheim on the Bergstraße and Michelstadt. The mild climate of the area is well known.
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The Worlds History
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Sviatoslav I, Prince of Kiev
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Sviatoslav I was an early ruler of the Kievan Rus', a nation that evolved into modern Ukraine. He was the son of Igor I of Kiev and Olga of Kiev. He ruled from 962 until 972. During his reign he destroyed the Khazar Empire and for a short time conquered what is now Bulgaria.
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List of citrus fruits
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Citrus is a common term and genus of flowering plants in the family Rutaceae. It originated in tropical and subtropical southeast Asia. The name comes from the citron.
Citrus fruits usually have a sour taste but farmers grow more of the sweet ones. There are many types of citrus fruits in the world.
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Citrus fruits
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Daylight saving time
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Daylight saving time (DST) or summer time (ST) is a time to keep during summer. During the summer months, the sun stays visible for a longer time, and sunset happens late in the day. For this reason, certain countries advance the time by one hour near the start of summer, and put it back one hour during autumn.
DST helps stores that sell to people after they get off work, and it does not hurt farmers and others whose hours are set by the sun. It cuts traffic accident rates. Sometimes it can reduce energy costs, but it can also increase them.
Most of the world's countries do not use DST, but it is common in Europe and North America.
The United States, Australia, the United Kingdom, Canada and many other countries have DST. These countries also have regions that do not have DST:
Iceland, Russia, Belarus, and some parts of Ukraine are countries in Europe without DST.
, the following places plan to start and end DST at the following times:
In the table above, the DST times show the time before being moved forward or back. The shift is how much time is added at the DST start time and subtracted at the DST end time. For example, in Canada and the United States, the local time changes from 02:00 to 03:00 when DST starts and from 02:00 to 01:00 when DST ends. If a time zone is listed (e.g., ), all time zones in a country move forward and backward simultaneously; otherwise, time zones change in their local time. Areas shown in the same color start and end DST within less than a week of each other.
Europe.
European Union.
Since 1971 all clocks in the European Union have changed on same dates and at the same time, 06:00 GMT.
European Summer Time begins (clocks go forward) at 01:00 UTC on the last Sunday in March, and ends (clocks go back) at 01:00 UTC on the last Sunday in October:
United Kingdom.
Permanent Summer Time has support in some northerly countries such as the UK. It was tried in the British Standard Time experiment, with Britain remaining on GMT+1 throughout the year. This took place between 27 October 1968 and 31 October 1971.
There are proposals for GMT+1 in the winter, and DST summer time (GMT+2) in the summer. In favour are most city dwellers: children do not have to come home after school in the dark, and late afternoon and early evening activities benefit. In favour also were those concerned with accidents, because both accidents and fuel consumption go down.RoSPA suggests this would reduce the number of accidents over this period as a result of the lighter evenings.
Against are many farmers in northerly latitudes, because sunrise would occur in winter at about 10:00 in the morning. However, in March 2010 the National Farmers Union said that it was not against Single/Double Summer Time, and is in fact relatively neutral, with many farmers expressing a preference for the change.
North America.
United States.
The following table lists future starting and ending dates of daylight saving time in the United States:
Automatic adjustment.
Most mobile phones and computers connected to the Internet will automatically adjust their clocks for DST. Some computers will not adjust or will adjust the time incorrectly or on the wrong date. Also, computers with more than one operating system may be incorrectly adjusted twice or more when each operating system boots.
Notes.
. WebExhibits
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Lanthanum
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Lanthanum is a chemical element. It has the chemical symbol La. It has the atomic number 57. It is part of a group of chemical elements in the periodic table named the Lanthanides. It is a rare earth element. It is silvery white, malleable and ductile. It is soft and can be cut with a knife.
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Rowing
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Rowing is about moving a boat on water using human muscle power. It can be a sport. The goal in rowing is to move as fast as possible on top of the water. The athletes use a boat. They move the boat forward by using two sculls or one oar. There are different types of rowing. The types depend on how many people are in the boat and if they have a coxswain or not. Rowing is a very popular sport in England, the Commonwealth, and the Northeastern United States. The old universities of the United States and England have yearly rowing matches.
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Inkjet printer
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An Inkjet printer is a printer for computers. It uses special ink to print on the paper. Another type of printing technology is the Laser printer. Inkjet printers are preferred for printing photos and graphics due to their high-quality color output, whereas laser printers are preferred for printing text due to their high contrast and speed.
Usually, inkjet printers are used by people who print very little. The ink comes in special ink cartridges, which can be very expensive and uneconomical. Also, the ink in the cartridge may dry up. This means that a new cartridge is needed. Three colors of cartridges, which combine magenta, yellow and cyan inks are used to create color tones. A black cartridge is also used for crisp monochrome output. Some professional printers have one or more additional colors for better photo quality, such as light cyan, light magenta, blue, red, green, orange, and grey.
Inkjet printers may use either dye or pigment inks. Pigment inks are less likely to fade, whereas dye inks create more-realistic photos and are less likely to clog the printhead.
Many professionals use inkjet printers to print on very large surfaces (up to 5m width). These printers usually do not use cartridges, but have a continuous supply of ink that could last for a long time. Standard-size (A4 or US Letter) printers with a continuous ink supply are also available.
Inkjet printers need special paper. This paper has been treated so that the ink does not smear.
Less expensive inkjet printers, which cost a little more than 100 US dollars, are a bargain for users who want to be able to print pages in color. Inkjet printers can be very cheap but the ink can also be rather expensive. Some professional inkjet printers can print on surfaces other than paper, such as CDs/DVDs or plastic cards.
An inkjet printer can print between 300 and 720 DPI (Dots Per Inch). Some newer printers can print at higher resolutions, although the benefit of resolutions beyond 720 DPI may not be noticed by the human eye.
A common problem with inkjet printers is that if the printhead is clogged, banding (stripes) will appear in the printed image. To fix this, the printhead needs to be cleaned using the software included with the printer. This problem occurs most often when the printer has not been used for a long time. To prevent this from happening on rarely-used printers, a cron job can be scheduled to print a purge sheet (an image containing all colors used by the printer) once per day. A small, barely noticeable (usually only noticeable by magnification) amount of banding will occur even with a perfectly clean printhead due to the way the printer works.
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Laser printer
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A laser printer is a printer for computers. It uses laser or LED-technology to get small particles of toner from a cartridge onto paper. Very often, this costs less to use than the ink of inkjet printers. Laser printers often print text more neatly than inkjet printers, but print photos less clearly. Printing on photo paper or coated paper designed for inkjet printers can damage the laser printer's drum and fuser unit.
The laser printer was first invented by a team at Xerox in 1969. The first laser printer was called the Xerox 2000.
Process.
Laser printing is a process which typically involves seven steps:
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Lawrencium
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Lawrencium is a chemical element. Before being officially named, it was known as eka-lutetium and unniltrium. It has the symbol Lr. It has the atomic number 103. It is a group 3 element and transition metal, but is also often counted as an actinide.
It is a radioactive element that does not exist in nature. It has to be made. Lawrencium is made from californium. The isotope that has the longest half-life (262Lr) has a half life of about 3.6 hours.
No uses for lawrencium are known. What lawrencium looks like is not known because not enough has been made to see it with human eyesight.
Discovered by Albert Ghiorso and co-workers in 1961, in California. Named after Ernest O. Lawrence, inventor of the cyclotron, a research instrument with which several new elements have been found/made.
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Grat Coalition
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Savannah
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Darmstadtium
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Darmstadtium is a chemical element. It has been named ununnilium (Uun) or eka-platinum but is now named darmstadtium. It has the symbol Ds. It has the atomic number 110. It is a transuranium element.
The element is named in honor of German city Darmstadt.
Darmstadtium is a radioactive element that does not exist in nature. It has to be made. The isotopes with an atomic mass from 267 to 273 have very short half-lifes. The half life of these isotopes is measured in milliseconds. Isotopes of darmstadtium with an atomic mass of 279 and 281 were synthesised after the other isotopes. Ds-279 and Ds-281 decay more slowly. The isotope with an atomic mass of 279 has a half life of 180 milliseconds and Ds-281 has a half life of 11.1 seconds.
No uses for darmstadtium are known. What darmstadtium looks like is not known because not enough has been made to see it with human eyesight.
History.
Darmstadtium was first made on November 9, 1994. It was made at the Gesellschaft für Schwerionenforschung (GSI) in Darmstadt, Germany. Only a few atoms of it were made. It was made by bombarding a lead target with nickel. A nuclear fusion reaction happened and made the element.
This is shown by the equation below that is the reaction that happened. Pb is the symbol for lead, Ni is the symbol for nickel and n is the symbol for a neutron.
The element was named for Darmstadt which was the place of its discovery. The GSI is in Wixhausen, a part of the north of the city of Darmstadt. The new name (darmstadtium) was given to the chemical element by the IUPAC in August 2003.
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Wampanoag
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The Wampanoag were a Native American tribe. They lived in what is now the American region of New England. This is part of the Northeastern Woodlands. They are part of the Northeast Woodlands. The Wampanoag tribe helped the English settlers to survive after they arrived in the "Mayflower".
They caught a bacterial infection called leptospirosis or Weil's syndrome in the early 17th century. It caused many deaths and damaged their society greatly, though their descendants still survive today.
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Mandir
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Hindu temple or Mandir is referred to a place where Hindus go to worship gods in the form of various deities. Many Hindu temples are filled with wooden and stone arts like pashupatinath temple. A mandir is a spiritual place for Hindus. It is the landmarks around which ancient arts, community celebrations and economy were developed, as well as this the mandir has been recognised for.
It is believed that the Mandir are stone or wooden images of idols ceremonially infused with the divine presence of God. They worship with arts and other ceremonies.
Purpose.
Hindus believe that gods and goddesses will answer the prayers of the faithful and inspire spiritually. For them, the temple also acts as a contact between the gods and goddesses and the worshipers. They also believe that the gods and goddesses will grant their wishes and protect them from danger.
Appearance.
In Hinduism gods are represented in various forms. Sometimes gods or goddesses are represented in a human form like Shiva, Vishnu, Saraswati or Kali. Sometimes there are gods goddesses in human and animal fused form like Ganesh. Sometimes they are also represented in plants and non-living form like Tulsi and Shaligrams. Murtis are made according to the prescriptios of the ilpasastra, and then installed by priests through the prana pratishtha ceremony. Afterward the divine personality is believed to be present in the Murtis.
Method.
To show respect, Hindus give gifts and food to the murtis. They are treated with respect and worshipped everyday. If a temple is a family temple it is treated as part of the family. Some Hindus also offer a part of their daily food to the god or goddess. They are given clothes and are changed at certain times.
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Babes in Toyland
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Kitchener, Ontario
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Kitchener is a city in Ontario, Canada. Kitchener is in Southwestern Ontario and is near Toronto, Hamilton, Mississauga and London. It is in Waterloo Region. Other cities in Waterloo Region include Waterloo and Cambridge. Sometimes Kitchener, Waterloo, and Cambridge are known as the "technology triangle". It is on the Grand River, which leads to Lake Erie.
History.
At first, Kitchener was called Berlin. When World War I started it seemed like a bad idea to have a city named after the capital of Germany. The city was renamed Kitchener, after a British general, Herbert Kitchener. Kitchener then slowly became a prosperous city as it is today.
Future.
A rapid transit system is planned to be added in the Waterloo Region.
Media.
CHYM 96.7
CKWR 98.5
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Spring (water)
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A spring is a place where groundwater flows out of the ground. A spring may flow the whole year or only sometimes. This depends on the water getting into the ground all of the time (rain) or only once in a while (snow melting).
Water from a spring often flows downhill, along the land. This is how rivers start.
Some springs produce water that is good for health reasons. Sometimes towns grow by these springs because many people who are ill come there to get better. Such towns are called spa towns.
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Thorium
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Thorium is a chemical element in actinide group. It is a weakly radioactive metal. It has a shiny, silvery white color. It has the chemical symbol Th and the atomic number 90. Natural thorium has an atomic weight of 232. Thorium is named after Thor, the Norse god of thunder. Its ores are found in nature (that is, on Earth), especially in India, the United States, and Australia.
Thorium would make a good source of nuclear fuel because it makes much less waste and is four times as common as uranium. It does not need the wasteful process of enrichment. It makes 3,200,000 times as much energy as coal and 200 times as much energy as uranium. Scientists believe that there is enough of it to power the world for thousands of years. Thorium has been used for various purposes since the 19th century. It is an alloying agent in magnesium and is also used as an industrial catalyst.
Thorium is safer than uranium. This is because thorium cannot undergo nuclear fission on its own. Usually, plutonium is need to start and maintain a reaction. This is why thorium is considered better for nuclear reactors. Also, nuclear waste from thorium reactors contains far smaller amounts of dangerous transuranic elements than waste from uranium reactors.
Estimates of Thorium that can be mined.
Estimates of mineral resources have been made about how much Thorium is available to be mined from different countries,
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River source
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The source of a river or stream is the original point from which the river flows. It may be a lake, a marsh, a spring or a glacier. This is where the stream starts.
The source is the farthest point of the river stream from its estuary or its confluence with another river or stream. Rivers are usually fed by many tributaries. The farthest stream is called the head-stream or head water. There is sometimes disagreement on which source is the head water, hence on which is the true source.
A lake fed by many rivers is sometimes called the source of the bigger river flowing out of it. For example, Lake Victoria is often called the source of the Nile, as the rivers that flow into it have names of their own.
Headwaters are usually in mountains. Glacial headwaters are made by melting of glaciers.
The source is where a river begins, and the river mouth is where it joins the sea. The mouth may be in the form of a river delta. The joining of a streams is called a confluence.
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Laserdisc
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A Laserdisc, like a DVD, can play video of a higher quality than VHS. A Laserdisc is much larger than a DVD. To play Laserdisc movies, a LaserDisc player is needed. LaserDisc was also known by the names DiscoVision and LaserVision.
Laserdisc was first produced by MCA in 1978, and became well known in the 1980s. Movie companies stopped making Laserdisc movies when DVDs became well known in the late 1990s. Today some of the better Laserdisc players still sell for $1,000 USD or more.
Technology.
Laser Discs work like a regular CD-ROM or DVD. The surface of the disc is covered with small holes that are read by a laser. This sequence of holes and no holes is turned into pictures and sound by the Laserdisc player. Most Laserdiscs can hold about 30 minutes to an hour of video per side for a total of 1 to 2 hours per disc.
The early Laserdisc players used a Helium-Neon laser to read the disc, but the later models used infrared lasers. The first units that were made with the infrared laser had some problems such as skipping, strange colors spots, and fuzziness. These problems were fixed in later models.
Some of the later Laserdisc players made were ones that could play Audio CDs as well as Laserdiscs. In Japan, one of the last models to be produced even had the ability to play DVDs as well as CDs and Laserdiscs.
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Californium
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Californium is a chemical element. It is a radioactive metal. It has the chemical symbol Cf. It has the atomic number 98. Californium is a transuranium element. Californium does not have many uses. It was discovered by bombarding a curium target with alpha particles (helium ions). Californium is named after the US State of California, where it was discovered, in the University of Berkeley.
Californium is produced in nuclear reactors and particle accelerators.
There are 20 known isotopes. The most stable is californium-251, which has a half-life of 898 years. This short half-life means the element is not found in the Earth's crust. Californium-252, whose half-life is 2.645 years, is the most common isotope used.
Compounds of californium are mostly of californium(III), which can take part in three chemical bonds. Californium can be used to help start up nuclear reactors, and is used as a source of neutrons. It can be used in making higher mass elements. Ununoctium was synthesized by bombarding californium-249 atoms with calcium-48 ions.
Safety.
When californium is used, workers must be protected from the element's ability to disrupt the formation of red blood cells.
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Menuetos
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Torgau
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Torgau is a town on the banks of the Elbe in northwestern Saxony, Germany. The town is well known as the place where during the Second World War, United States Army forces met with forces of the Soviet Union during the invasion of Germany on April 25, 1945.
This marked the beginning of the line of contact between Soviet and American forces, but not the occcupation zones. In fact the area surrounding Torgau at first occupied by U.S. forces was later, in July 1945, given over to Soviet forces.
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Chemical bond
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A chemical bond is a type of attraction force which holds together different chemical species. Atoms bonded stay together unless the needed amount of energy is transferred to the bond.
In general, strong chemical bonding comes with the sharing or transfer of electrons between the participating atoms. The atoms in molecules, crystals, metals and diatomic gases are held together by chemical bonds.
There are two types of bonds; covalent and ionic. Covalent bonds form when atoms share electrons. Ionic bonding is the attraction between oppositely charged ions. Chemical bonds are negatively charged electrons that are pulling protons into each other.
Because atoms and molecules are three-dimensional, it is difficult to use a single method to indicate orbitals and bonds. In molecular formulas the chemical bonds between atoms are indicated in different ways depending on the type of discussion.
A common way chemists describe chemical bonds is through the number of electrons each atom has on itself. Each atom is drawn with the number of electrons as dots or lines to form a maximum of eight. If the electrons form a chemical bond then a line is drawn between the two electrons. The number of bonds developed increases the number of lines.
Bonds can be double bonds or triple bonds.
Ionic bonding.
Ionic bonding is when non metals and metals are attracted to each other in a crystal structure.The metals and non metals in the crystal structure become charged atoms, called ions.The ions can either be positive or negative, a positive ion loses electrons and is called a cation and a negative ion gains electrons,and is called an anion.Generally the cation is a metal and an anion a non-metal,however this is not always the case.
Covalent Bonding.
Covalent bonding is when elements share electrons by mixing atomic orbitals together. Covalent bonds can be split into 2 types. The first type is called a Sigma bond and is represented by the Greek letter σ, and this is when two different atoms overlap head-on,which makes the bonds quite strong, usually single bonds are usually sigma bonds. The other type is a Pi bond which is represented by the Greek letter π, and they are formed when p orbitals overlaps sideways(laterally).There are two bonds that are bonded by both sigma bonds and pi bonds, double bonds and triple bonds. Double bonds are formed from one sigma bond and one pi bond whereas triple bonds are formed from one sigma bond and two pi bonds.
Triple bond.
A triple bond is when two chemical elements share six electrons rather than two.Here is some examples of triple bonded compounds.
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Physical property
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A physical property is a property, quality or way that an object is. A physical property can always be measured without changing or making the object chemically different or different in a way that would effect its chemical or atomic structure. There are two types of physical properties: "intensive" and "extensive".
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Concept
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A concept is an idea that is applied to all objects in a group. It is the way people see and understand something. The name used to identify a concept (the concept's label) is a "term". For example, the word "Dog" is the term to identify the concept of what a dog is. Everything that a person knows about a dog is the concept of the term dog.
Different terms can be used to identify the same concept. Car and Automobile are synonyms for the same concept. Different languages have different terms for the same concept. This is what makes translation possible. The terms may be different in each language, but the concept is the same. The concept of jumping is the same to a person from England and a person from Italy, but one person uses the term "Jump" to mean the concept and the other person uses "Salto".
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Kenpo
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Kenpo or kempo is the descriptive name of various Japanese martial arts with Chinese origins, and also of hybrid martial arts: the Japanese ones and the Chinese ones. Kenpo is similar to karate and includes more punches and kicks than holds or joint locks of wrestling.
More known styles of Kenpo.
Kempo is a Japanese Martial Arts form. However, unlike Karate, its origins are linked back to China and still have very strong influences from Chinese systems.
It is not uncommon for a Kempo artist to both use traditional Japanese and Chinese style techniques. The difference lies in that because of the Chinese influence, the Japanese moves tend to emphasize more fluidity than most of the other Japanese styles. And because of the Japanese influence, there is a stronger focus for shorter stances and movements than other Chinese styles.
For the same reason that many other styles are sometimes simply listed as "karate", Kempo has long been strongly linked under the general banner of "karate". Kempo is known for its near explosive, short-ranged attacks that often move faster than the opponent can see.
Kempo has a very strong presence in Hawaii, the home base for many of the systems under Kempo that exist today in the United States. Throughout each of the histories of the different groups there are strong signs of the continued merging of both Chinese and Japanese influences.
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Kempo
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Edge
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Edge can mean:
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Tyr
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Tyr is the god of war, heroic endeavor and justice in Norse mythology. In the Eddas, he is either the son of Odin or Hymir. He is the god of single (man-to-man) combat. Tyr only has one hand.
How Tyr lost his hand.
At one point in time, the gods decided that the wolf Fenrir (also called "Fenriswolf") could no longer go free. They wanted to lock him up onto a chain. But he broke every chain they tried to put on him. Finally, they had the dwarves make a magical chain. But Fenrir sensed what the gods would do. So Fenrir asked that one of them put his hand into his mouth. Knowing that if Fenrir was left unfettered, he would have grown strong enough to kill all the gods and destroy the world. Tyr was the only one who had the courage. When Fenrir sensed he had been tricked, he bit off Tyr's hand. Tyr remained handless forever.
Fenrir will remain bound until Ragnarök. Then, Tyr's opponent will be , the guard dog of Hel.
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Loki
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Loki (, ) is a god in Norse mythology. Loki is the son of Fárbauti and the brother of Helblindi and Býleistr. Loki is married to Sigyn. They have a son, Narfi (Nari). Loki is the father of Hel, the wolf Fenrir, and the world serpent Jörmungandr. While in the form of a horse, Loki was impregnated by Svaðilfari and gave birth to the eight-legged horse Sleipnir. Loki is referred to as the father of Váli in "Prose Edda". This source also refers to Odin as the father of Váli twice and Váli is only said to be a son of Loki once.
Loki's relation with the gods varies by source. Loki sometimes helps the gods and sometimes behaves badly towards them. Loki can change his shape. He has appeared in the form of a salmon, a mare, a fly, and possibly an old woman named Þökk . Loki's good relations with the gods end with his role in causing the death of the god Baldr. During Ragnarök, Loki is said to fight against the gods among the forces of the jötnar. He will fight the god Heimdallr, and they two will kill each other.
Loki is talked about in the "Poetic Edda", the "Prose Edda" and "Heimskringla", the Norwegian Rune Poems, in the poetry of skalds and in Scandinavian folklore. Loki may be shown on the Snaptun Stone, the Kirkby Stephen Stone, and the Gosforth Cross. Scholars disagree about Loki's origins and role in Norse mythology. Some have described him as a trickster god.
Other media.
Loki has been used in many different forms of media in modern popular culture. Most notable of this is his use in Marvel Comics and the Marvel Cinematic Universe. Tom Hiddleston has played Loki in the movies "Thor", ', ', "The Avengers" and "". He also played versions of Loki in the TV series "Loki" on Disney+.
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Freyja
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Freyja (Old Norse: “[the] Lady”) is the goddess of love, beauty, sex, fertility, seiðr, war, and death in Norse mythology. A member of the Vanir, Freyja is the daughter of Njörðr, and twin sister of Freyr. The most beautiful and refined of the goddesses, she owns the necklace Brísingamen, and rides in a chariot pulled by two cats, accompanied by a giant boar named Hildisvíni; in addition to this, Freyja possesses a cloak of falcon feathers. She is married to the god Óðr, by whom she is the mother of the twin goddesses Hnöss and Gersemi. Freyja rules over the heavenly field(s) of Fólkvangr, where she receives half of those that die in battle, as the other half go to Valhalla. The minor goddesses Gefjon, Skaði, Þorgerðr Hölgabrúðr and Irpa (Old Norse: literally “Þorgerðr, Hǫlgi’s bride”), and Menglöð all serve as her handmaidens.
Her name is often translated into English as Freya when used nowadays, but the original Norwegian name is spelt "Freyja."
Receiver of the slain.
The Valkyries, having chosen who is to live and die in battle, collect the souls of those slain and bring them to Valhalla, where they will feast and make revelry with Odin; Freyja herself shares half of these heroes with Odin. Her sacred realm is the field of Fólkvangr, wherein lies her great hall Sessrúmnir. There, Freyja decides where her warriors shall sit.
This is what is written in the original myth:
"The ninth hall is Folkvang, where bright Freyja decides"
"Where her warriors shall sit,"
"Some of the slain belong to her,"
"Some belong to Odin."
Bride of the Odr.
Freyja married a god called Óðr. She loves her husband deeply, but he often went away on long journeys, and Freyja cried red golden tears for him. Her tears become gold and amber when they fall to Earth, therefore gold was called "Freyja's tears". They have two beautiful daughters called Hnoss and Gersemi.
Owner of Brisingamen.
Freyja often rides in a chariot pulled by big silver tabby cats (her sacred animal) or on a golden boar named Hildisvíni, who accompanies her in battle. Freyja was renowned for her loveliness and beauty, as the myths tell of three giants who wanted to marry her, but they were all killed by Thor, the god of thunder.
Freyja also has a precious necklace called Brísingamen. The god Loki once stole this necklace, and Freyja had to ask the guardian Heimdall for help. Heimdallr engaged Loki in combat and won against the Trickster, giving the necklace back to Freyja. For this, Loki is also called "Thief of Brisingamen", and Heimdall is also called "Seeker of Brisingamen".
Thrymr, the king of the jǫtnar, once stole Thor's hammer, Mjölnir. When Loki went to Jötunheimr to retrieve the hammer, he found Thrymr, who revealed that he planned to give Mjölnir to Freyja as a wedding gift, as he requested her hand in marriage. When Loki returned to Asgard to deliver the news, Freyja was so angered that the heavens shook, and the necklace Brisingamen broke. When it was decided that Thor would go to Thrymr posing as Freyja (Loki disguised himself as one of the goddess' maidservants), he borrowed the necklace. Upon their arrival, Thrymr threw a huge feast in celebration of the marriage, as he presented Mjölnir to "Freyja" as a wedding gift; Thor then took his hammer, killing Thrymr and all who attended the wedding.
Jobs.
Freyja is a warrior goddess. Whenever she rides into battles, she gets half of the souls of dead heroes. She is also a practitioner of magic, otherwise known as seiðr, and is highly proficient in using it. She has a magical cloak made of falcon feathers which allows her to fly between different worlds.
Freyja is the patron goddess of crops and childbirths. She is also a goddess of love, whom lovers may send prayers to.
Frigg and Freyja were two of the most revered goddesses in Norse mythology. They were especially worshipped by Vikings. Freyja is said to be the kindest among goddesses. In a poem in the Poetic Edda, a young man called Ottar always trusted in the goddesses; he built a rock shrine for the goddesses, and Freyja answered his prayers. She disguised Ottar as her golden boar, and went on a trip to help him find his ancestors.
After Ragnarok.
In final battle of Ragnarök, Odin, and Freyr will die. Freyja is not stated as having died during Ragnarök or surviving.
Names.
Freyr's name means "the Lord", and Freyja's name means "the Lady".
The day of the week, Friday, is named either after her, or after Odin's wife Frigg. Before Christianity became the dominant religion of the region, the Orion constellation was called Frigg's distaff or Freyja's girdle. Frigg and Freyja may be one and the same goddess.
Freyja is also widely known as Vanadis (Old Norse: Vanadís - "Lady of the Vanir"). The metallic element Vanadium was named after her. The Vanir are close relatives of elves. Freyr is the Lord of the elves, and his sacred realm is Alfheim, home of the elves.
Another well-known name of Freyja is Gefn, which means "Giver", a suitable name for the fertility goddess.
Freyja represents the Norse women of the Viking Age, whose husbands often went away to war. From Freyja's name, noble Norse women were called Fru, and wives were called house-fru. Frau means "woman" in German.
Freya and Freja are now common Scandinavian female names.
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Freya
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Freja
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Frigg
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Frigg (or Frigga) is the goddess of marriage, family, and motherhood in Norse mythology. She is the wife of Odin (chief of the Æsir), by whom she is the mother of Baldr and Höðr, and stepmother of Thor (Odin's eldest son) and Víðarr. Ruling Asgard as queen alongside the All-Father, Frigg often dwells in the dense, foggy lands of Fensalir (Old Norse: “Halls of Fen”) when her husband is away on one of his quests for knowledge; additionally, she is the only one besides Odin permitted to sit on his throne Hliðskjálf, and look out across the Nine Realms. Serving as Frigg's attendants are Eir, the gods' doctor and goddess of healing, Hlín (a goddess of protection), Gná (a messenger goddess), and Fulla (a fertility goddess). It is unclear whether Frigg's companions and attendants are simply different aspects of Frigg herself (cf. avatar).
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