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11387 | https://simple.wikipedia.org/wiki/Playboy | Playboy | Playboy was a monthly American men's magazine. It was founded by Hugh Hefner in Chicago, Illinois in 1953. Marilyn Monroe was the magazine's first cover model. The logo was created by Art Paul.
The magazine featured articles about men's interests including clothing, sports, consumer goods, men's health, politics, and public figures. The magazine always showed large pictures of nude women, except for one year in 2016–2017.
In each issue, a provocatively posed "Playmate of the Month" was featured in a pictorial several pages in length at the center of the magazine with an accompanying "centerfold" photograph. Unlike traditional pin up art, Playboy humanized their models by describing their real world jobs, accomplishments, and goals.
In 1963 Hefner was arrested for obscenity in Chicago after publishing nude photos of actress Jayne Mansfield on the set of Promises! Promises! He was acquitted at trial by a hung jury.
Starting with the March 2016 issue, the magazine no longer had pictures of nude women. According to the company, "times change." Times changed again in February 2017 when nudity returned. In March 2020 the company announced that it would stop publishing the magazine on paper and only use digital copies instead. Between 1970 and 1985 Playboy was also printed in braille. It is also one of the few magazines whose microfilm format was in color, not black and white.
References
1953 establishments in the United States
American men's magazines
Nudity
Magazines published in Chicago, Illinois |
11394 | https://simple.wikipedia.org/wiki/1845 | 1845 |
Births
February 25 – George Reid, 4th Prime Minister of Australia (d. 1918)
March 27 – Wilhelm Röntgen, German physician and Nobel Prize Laureate
10 March - Alexander III of Russia , Czar of Russia and father of Czar Nicholas II .
New Books
Queen Margot by Alexandre Dumas, père |
11396 | https://simple.wikipedia.org/wiki/1165 | 1165 |
Events
The city of Jimmy is founded.
Birthdays
Ibn Arabi
References |
11398 | https://simple.wikipedia.org/wiki/1817 | 1817 |
Events of 1817
January – March
January 19 – An army of 5,423 soldiers, led by General José de San Martín, starts crossing the Andes from Argentina to free Chile and then Peru.
February 12 – The Argentine/Chilean patriotic army defeats the Spanish in the Battle of Chacabuco.
March 3
The Alabama Territory is created by splitting the Mississippi Territory in half, 9 months before Mississippi becomes a U.S. state.
President James Madison vetoes John C. Calhoun's Bonus Bill.
March 4 – James Monroe succeeds James Madison as the President of the United States of America.
April – June
April – Earthquake in Palermo, Italy
April 3 – Princess Caraboo appears in Almondsbury in Gloucestershire, England.
April 15 – The first American school for the deaf opens in Hartford, Connecticut.
April 17 – Martin Van Buren passes Erie Canal bill.
April 28 – Rush-Bagot Treaty is signed.
May – The General Convention of the Episcopal Church founded General Theological Seminary while meeting in New York City.
June 5 – First Great Lakes steamer, the Frontenac, is launched.
June 25 – Large prison riot in Copenhagen prison – army is sent for to quell it.
July – September
July 4 – At Rome, New York, construction on the Erie Canal begins.
August 22 – City of Araraquara, Brazil founded.
August 23 – Earthquake near the site of the ancient Greek city of Helike results in 65 deaths.
October – December
October – President and Mrs. James Monroe move back into the White House, after restoration repairs.
October 31 – Emperor Ninkō accedes to the throne of Japan.
November 20 – The first Seminole War begins in Florida.
November 22 – Fredric Cailliaud discovers the old Roman emerald mines at Sikait, Egypt.
December 10 – Mississippi is admitted as the 20th U.S. state, separated from the Alabama Territory.
Undated
Elgin Marbles are displayed in the British Museum.
John Kidd extracts naphthalene from coal tar.
Samuel Taylor Coleridge publishes Biographia Literaria.
A Typhus epidemic occurs in Edinburgh and Glasgow.
Outbreak of the Pernambucan Revolt.
January – June
January 6 – J. J. McCarthy, Irish architect (d. 1882)
January 8 – Sir Theophilus Shepstone, British-born South African statesman (d. 1893)
February 19 – King William III of the Netherlands (d. 1890)
February 22 – Carl Wilhelm Borchardt, German mathematician (d. 1880)
March 6 – Clémentine of Orléans, daughter of King Louis-Philippe of France and mother of Tsar Ferdinand I of Bulgaria (d. 1907)
March 22 – Braxton Bragg, American Confederate general (d. 1876)
May 15 – Debendranath Tagore, Indian philosopher (d. 1905)
June 30 – Joseph Dalton Hooker, English botanist (d. 1911)
July - December
July 12 – Henry David Thoreau, American philosopher (d. 1862)
July 24 – Adolphe, Grand Duke of Luxembourg (d. 1905)
August 3 – Archduke Albert, Austrian general (d. 1895)
August 14 – Alexander H. Bailey, American politician (d. 1874)
August 24 – Aleksey Konstantinovich Tolstoy, Russian writer (d. 1875)
October 17 – Sir Syed Ahmed Khan Bahadur Founder of the Two Nation Theory for a future Pakistan (d. 1898)
November 3 – Leonard Jerome, American entrepreneur and grandfather of Sir Winston Churchill (d. 1891)
November 12 – Bahá'u'lláh, Persian founder of the Bahá'í Faith (d. 1892)
November 17 – Benjamin Champney, American painter (d. 1907)
November 30 – Theodor Mommsen, German writer, Nobel Prize laureate (d. 1903)
Deaths
January – June
January 12 – Juan Andres, Spanish Jesuit (b. 1740)
January 16 – Alexander J. Dallas, American statesman and financier (b. 1759)
April 4 – André Masséna, French marshal (b. 1758)
April 12 – Charles Messier, French astronomer (b. 1730)
June 24 – Thomas McKean, American lawyer and signer of the Declaration of Independence (b. 1734)
July – December
July 14 – Anne Louise Germaine de Staël, French writer (b. 1766)
July 18 – Jane Austen, English novelist (b. 1775)
July 19 – John Palmer, Bath architect (b. c. 1738)
October 16 – Manuel Piar, Venezuelan military leader (b. 1774)
November 14 – Policarpa Salavarrieta, Colombian spy and revolutionary who worked for the Independence of Colombia (b. 1795)
November 30 – Jean-Baptiste-Melchior Hertel de Rouville, Canadian politician (b. 1748)
December 7 – William Bligh, Captain of the Bounty, Governor of New South Wales (b. 1754) |
11406 | https://simple.wikipedia.org/wiki/Larry%20David | Larry David | Larry David (born July 2, 1947 in Brooklyn, New York City) is an American actor and writer of Jewish descent.
He worked as a writer on Fridays and Saturday Night Live. He co-created the television series Seinfeld. He also created and stars in his own series called Curb Your Enthusiasm. On the series, he appears as a caricature of himself.
References
Other websites
1947 births
Living people
Actors from Brooklyn
American movie actors
American television actors
American television producers
American television writers
Movie producers from New York City
Jewish American actors
Jewish American writers
Jewish businesspeople
Seinfeld
Writers from Brooklyn |
11415 | https://simple.wikipedia.org/wiki/Joint%20Base%20Pearl%20Harbor%E2%80%93Hickam | Joint Base Pearl Harbor–Hickam | Joint Base Pearl Harbor–Hickam is a United States Navy and United States Air Force base in the U.S. state of Hawaii, on the south lagoon shore of Oahu. The navy base was started in 1899 and merged with the air force base in 2010. It is 8 miles (15 km) west of downtown Honolulu.
The Japanese bombed Pearl Harbor, on December 7, 1941, which was a surprise. The attack led to America's fighting in World War II. The reason the Japanese attacked Pearl Harbor was to destroy the U.S. Navy (Seventh Fleet), and prevent the U.S from stopping the Japanese expansion in Asia.
Other websites
WW2DB: Attack on Pearl Harbor
United States Navy
Hawaii
1899 establishments in the United States
19th-century establishments in Hawaii |
11416 | https://simple.wikipedia.org/wiki/RPG | RPG | RPG may refer to:
In the military, RPG means a rocket-propelled grenade, a weapon that launches explosive warheads.
In entertainment, RPG means role-playing game, a game where the player plays the role of one or several characters.
Disambiguation pages |
11417 | https://simple.wikipedia.org/wiki/Amsterdam | Amsterdam | Amsterdam is the capital and largest city in the European country of the Netherlands. Amsterdam is famous for its canals and dikes. Unlike in capitals of most other countries, the national government, parliament, government ministries, supreme court, royal family and embassies are not in Amsterdam, but in The Hague. The only diplomatic offices present in Amsterdam are consulates.
About 873,000 people were living in Amsterdam in 2021. The city hosts two universities (the University of Amsterdam and the Free University Amsterdam) and an international airport "Schiphol Airport". About 2.2 million people live in the metropolitan area. The city of Amsterdam is the world's most multi-cultural city. It has people living there from 175 different countries. Like other big cities in the Netherlands and elsewhere in the world, Amsterdam is unfortunately subjected to many criminal activities.
History
A dam was built in 13th century in the river Amstel (that's why the city is called Amsterdam). The old harbor of the city, Damrak, is now one of the busiest streets in the city. The city was for the first time mentioned in 1275 by count Floris V, count of Holland and Zeeland who gave the people of Amsterdam some more freedom. The city got its city rights probably in 1306; at least soon after the year 1300. The city became a major trading port pretty soon, with a successful trading route to the Baltic Sea. The city grew fast in the 15th century. Because the city basically lies in swamp, the builders of the city had to dig canals to use the digging-ground for getting the living-ground higher. Homes were built on wooden poles, and the canals served as a pretty effective primitive sewer.
The city was one of the first cities in Western Europe to be fairly democratic: Wealthy citizens chose the leaders of the city. Amsterdam declared war on the Spanish in 1578, during the Eighty Years' War. When the city of Antwerp fell to the Spanish in 1585, many people of Antwerp fled to Amsterdam. Antwerp was also a major trading city, and when its people moved to Amsterdam, they took their trading-networks with them. That's why Amsterdam became an even more important trading city after that. This launched the Dutch Golden Age. The number of people living in Amsterdam during the War rose from less than 30,000 in 1570 to over 100,000 in 1622. That number would even rise to 200,000 near the end of the 17th century, making the city a very large city for its time (only London and Paris also had that many people). In the 18th century, the number of people living in Amsterdam fell back to 140,000, ending the Golden Age.
The 19th century was the time for the first trains and trams in Amsterdam. The first train ran from Amsterdam to Haarlem in 1839. The number of people was rising, with about 250,000 living in Amsterdam in 1850, and more than 500,000 in 1900. Amsterdam was a heavy industrialised city by then. Before the Second World War, there were about 140,000 Jews living in Amsterdam. Most of those people did not survive the war. After the war, Amsterdam became a centre of tolerance and culture; to be different is not abnormal in Amsterdam. It is expected that Amsterdam will grow 12.6% until 2025. It will then hold almost 900,000 people, and the metropolitan area will hold almost 2.5 million people by then.
Districts
Amsterdam consists of eight districts:
Centrum
Noord
West
Nieuw-West
Zuid
Oost
Zuidoost
Westpoort
References
Amsterdam
Cities in the Netherlands
Settlements in North Holland
Olympic cities |
11418 | https://simple.wikipedia.org/wiki/Paraguay | Paraguay | Paraguay, officially the Republic of Paraguay (), is a small country in South America. It is landlocked, meaning that it does not touch the ocean. It is bordered to the North and East by Brazil, the West by Bolivia, and the South and Southeast by Argentina. The main languages are Spanish and Guaraní.
Paraguay's population is about 6 million. The ethnic makeup of the population is like the following: Mestizo (mixed European and Amerindian) 80%, European 20%, unmixed Amerindian 1-3%, Asian 1-4%.
Over (20%) of the population lives below the poverty line.
Paraguay has two official languages, Spanish and Guarani. Guaraní is recognized as a national language.
The capital city is Asuncion. Asuncion was founded in 1537 by a man from Spain named Juan de Salazar. Paraguay was a colony of Spain. Paraguay became independent from Spain in 1811.
From 1865-1870 Paraguay lost land and most of its male population in the War of the Triple Alliance against Brazil, Argentina, and Uruguay. It gained land in the Chaco War against Bolivia in the 1930s.
Paraguay's religion is Roman Catholicism.
The weather is more humid in the east and dryer in the west.
Government and politics
Administrative subdivisions
Paraguay has 17 departments and one capital district (Distrito Capital). The departments are formed by districts.
The departments are grouped in two geographic regions, separated by the Paraguay river:
Occidental (Western) region or Chaco, to the north of the Paraguay river (departments: Alto Paraguay, Boquerón and Presidente Hayes)
Oriental (Eastern) region, to the south of the Paraguay river (departments: Alto Paraná, Amambay, Caaguazú, Caazapá, Canindeyú, Central, Concepción, Cordillera, Guairá, Itapúa, Misiones, Paraguarí, San Pedro and Ñeembucú; the capital district is part of this region)
References
Notes
Spanish-speaking countries
1811 establishments
1810s establishments in South America |
11420 | https://simple.wikipedia.org/wiki/Loch%20Ness | Loch Ness | Loch Ness is a loch in the Scottish Highlands. It is also on the Great Glen Fault and part of the Caledonian Canal.
Geography
Loch Ness is 36 kilometres long and only 1.5 kilometres wide. It is the second largest Scottish loch by surface area at , after Loch Lomond. Because of its great depth, it is the largest by volume. Its deepest point is . This is deeper than any other loch except Loch Morar.
It contains more freshwater than all the lakes in England and Wales combined, and is the largest body of water on the Great Glen Fault, which runs from Inverness in the north to Fort William in the south.
In popular legend, it is the home of the "Loch Ness Monster", a myth which was promoted by a faked photograph.
Other websites
Cryptozoology.com
Fort Augustus near Loch Ness
References
Geography of Scotland
Legends
Ness
Lakes of the United Kingdom |
11421 | https://simple.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gary%20Burghoff | Gary Burghoff | Gary Burghoff (born May 24, 1943) is an American actor, artist, and musician. He is probably best known for his role as Walter "Radar" O'Reilly, a company clerk that had extraordinary hearing, in the 1970 movie M*A*S*H and on the television series of the same name. Burghoff also has a deformed hand which was hidden on the show by special camera tricks and he held it behind his back a lot.
Other websites
1943 births
Living people
American movie actors
American stage actors
American television actors
Actors from Connecticut |
11422 | https://simple.wikipedia.org/wiki/1847 | 1847 |
Events
The book Wuthering Heights is published
February 22 – The Battle of Buena Vista in the Mexican–American War
March 29 – Veracruz is taken by General Winfield Scott
May 7 – The American Medical Association is founded
July 24 – The Mormon pioneers under Brigham Young arrive in Salt Lake City to begin settling Utah.
July 26 – Liberia becomes a country
Births
February 11 – Thomas Edison
March 3 – Alexander Graham Bell
April 10 – Joseph Pulitzer
September 5 – Jesse James
Deaths
March 11 – Johnny Appleseed
November 4 – Felix Mendelssohn |
11423 | https://simple.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fred%20Gwynne | Fred Gwynne | Fred Gwynne (born July 10, 1926 - July 2, 1993) was an American actor. He is best known for his role as Herman Munster in The Munsters. He played Francis Muldoon in Car 54, Where Are You?. The Munsters and Car 54, Where Are You? were television situation comedies. He also wrote children's literature.
References
American movie actors
American stage actors
American television actors
American voice actors
Deaths from pancreatic cancer
Actors from New York City
1926 births
1993 deaths |
11424 | https://simple.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cannabis | Cannabis | Cannabis is a genus of plant. There are three species: Cannabis sativa, Cannabis indica, and Cannabis ruderalis.
The cannabis plant's flowers contain a chemical or drug known as THC (short for tetra-hydro-cannabinol). Smoking or eating the flower can make a person feel euphoric (very good) or sleepy. The plant is also used to make hemp fibre, and for its seeds and seed oil.
In its natural environment, THC's purpose was to protect itself against being eaten. There are many varieties of cannabis, and those low on THC production are selected for producing hemp and seeds.
Since the 19th century, Cannabis has become an illegal drug in many countries. In the 21st century, some countries have made cannabis legal again. Others allow cannabis to be used as medicine when people have certain medical conditions.
Ancient history
Scientists believe that cannabis first grew somewhere in the Himalayas. Evidence of people smoking cannabis goes as far back as prehistory: archaeologists have found burnt hemp seeds at a burial site in what is now Romania.
The most famous users of cannabis were the ancient Hindus, who called it ganjika in Sanskrit (ganja in modern Indian languages). According to legend, the Indian god Shiva told his followers to worship the plant. The ancient drug soma was sometimes associated with cannabis.
People in the Persian Empire (what is now Iran) would light giant campfires made of cannabis, exposing themselves to the smoke. The ceremony was known as "the booz-rooz."
Cannabis was also known in ancient Greece, where magicians would burn its flowers in order to cause strange thoughts in the audience members' minds. Historians think that the cult of Dionysus also began in ancient Greece and involved inhaling cannabis smoke.
Drug effects
When a person inhales cannabis smoke or consumes cannabis, he or she may get a feeling called "getting high" or "getting stoned". Cannabis's most common effects include feeling happy, relaxed, tired, silly or scared; having many ideas about what to do; not being able to think clearly (or remember some things at all); and getting hungry (also called getting "the munchies"). Smoking cannabis changes how people think and feel, making it either harder or easier to solve some problems. Some people who take cannabis feel strange or paranoid (worried that something bad is going to happen).
Hashish (dried resin) is much more concentrated than cannabis (it includes both leaves and flowers). Because of this, people who take large amounts of hashish may feel even stronger effects. They may also see things or hear things that do not exist (these are called hallucinations). They may also have strange thoughts. Some hashish users like the feeling of these visions and thoughts, while others may find them scary. However, people rarely get hallucinations after smoking or eating cannabis.
Legal status
Medical cannabis
As of 2016, many different countries and some states in the United States have made it legal for people with certain medical problems to use cannabis as a medicine. Medical use of cannabis is legal in Austria, Belgium, Canada, Chile, Colombia, the Czech Republic, Finland, Greece, Israel, the Netherlands, Spain and the United Kingdom
In the United States, as of February 2018, 30 states, plus Washington, D.C. and Guam, had legalized medical cannabis. However, using cannabis for any reason is still illegal under federal law.
According to a 1999 report by the Institute of Medicine, cannabis (especially THC) can decrease pain; control nausea and vomiting; and improve appetite. As of June 2016, according to the National Conference of State Legislatures, "Further studies have found that cannabis [helps] some of the symptoms of HIV/AIDS, cancer, glaucoma, and multiple sclerosis.
Personal use
On December 11, 2013, Uruguay was the first country in the world to make it legal to grow, sell, and use cannabis for personal (or recreational) use. Other countries that allow people to have small amounts of cannabis (just enough for them to use personally) include Colombia, Ecuador, Jamaica, the Netherlands, Peru, Portugal, Spain, and Switzerland. In the United States, on January 1, 2014, the states of Washington and Colorado made it legal for people aged 21 or older to buy cannabis. In November 2016, California did the same thing, and has been selling cannabis in stores since January 2018. As of October 17th, 2018, Canada has become the first G7 nation to make cannabis legal. Each province of Canada has its own legal minimum age to buy and use (either 18-years-old and older, 19-years-old and older, or 21-years-old and older) and how much of it is allowed to have at one time.
Health risks
Cannabis is one of the least dangerous of the commonly used illegal drugs. It is almost impossible to overdose on cannabis. A person would have to smoke their entire body weight in five minutes in order to overdose.
As of 1995, scientists had not shown that smoking cannabis causes lung cancer, even in people who smoke a lot of cannabis for a long time.
It is a common belief that people who use cannabis are less interested in life and may not want to go to school or work (scientists call this "amotivational syndrome"). However, many reports show that people who use cannabis do just as well as non-users.
Driving while "stoned"
A person who is intoxicated ("high" or "stoned") from cannabis could get hurt or killed in an accident if they drive a car. It is not safe to drive under the influence of any intoxicant. However, drivers who are "stoned" are much less likely to get into car accidents than drunk drivers and in some cases, sober drivers.
Addiction
"Hard drugs", such as heroin, meth, and cocaine, are chemically addictive. This means that if a person starts taking heroin, meth, or cocaine, that person's body will physically need to keep taking the drug. If they try to stop using the drug, they may become very sick. Cannabis and hashish are not chemically addictive, but they can be psychologically or habitually addictive. This means that people can get so used to the pleasure cannabis causes that they feel as if they need the drug. Unlike with alcohol, tobacco, and hard drugs, most people who use cannabis can stop taking it when they want, while experiencing only minor withdrawal symptoms. However, while cannabis may not be as addictive as other drugs, people can still become very much addicted to the pleasure of cannabis.
Related pages
Cannabis drug testing
References |
11442 | https://simple.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nevada | Nevada | Nevada is one of the United States' states. Its capital is Carson City. Other big cities are Las Vegas, Henderson and Reno.
History
Nevada was originally founded in 1821 as part of the First Mexican Empire. The Mexican Empire turned into the Mexican Republic in 1823, along with Nevada. Before the arrival of Europeans, Nevada was inhabited by Native American tribes including the Shoshone, the Paiute, the Washoe, and the Mohave.
The Mexican-American Conflict
Fighting between the United States and Mexico started. They fought over what was to become the Southwestern United States and who could own this land. This was called the Mexican-American War. The war ended in an American victory in 1848. Nevada later became an American territory in 1861. It was called the "Nevada Territory". This was not all of Nevada as it is today. The eastern part of Nevada was part of "Utah Territory" and the southern part was part of "New Mexico". In 1859 in the Comstock Lode, gold and silver were first discovered. This started a huge growth in mining in the state which Nevada is known for.
Gaining statehood
On October 31, 1864, now celebrated as "Nevada Day", Nevada was made the 36th state in the United States. It was given the distinct shape resembling a rectangle with a triangle. It was named Nevada meaning "snowy land" in Spanish, because it was snowy in the North. Later, on May 5, 1866, Nevada got its current borders because the Pah-Ute County in Arizona was taken as part of Nevada. It is now Clark County, Nevada. It was also agreed upon that the western part of Utah would become Eastern Nevada.
COVID-19 Response
On May 8th, 2020 Gov. Steve Sisolak allowed phase 1 re-opening of Nevada's economy, allowing restaurants and other previously non essential businesses to open.
Economy
Tourism is very important to the economy of Nevada. Many people visit Las Vegas, which has many casinos and resorts. There is not as much farming as there is in some other states, because Nevada is so dry. However, mining is big in Nevada. More gold is mined in Nevada than in any other state.
Related pages
Colleges and universities in Nevada
List of counties in Nevada
References
Other websites
State of Nevada official website
1864 establishments in the United States
Western United States |
11458 | https://simple.wikipedia.org/wiki/Comoros | Comoros | Comoros (officially called Union of the Comoros) is a small island nation in the Indian Ocean. It is between Madagascar and mainland Africa. The capital is Moroni on Grande Comore. The population (except for Mayotte) is about 798,000 people.
The Comoros Islands are in the Indian Ocean, between Mozambique and Madagascar. It is the southernmost member state of the Arab League.
There are 4 islands from west to east: Grande Cormore, Moheli, Anjouan and Mayotte. All the islands are of volcanic origin. Islam is the official religion of Comoros with over 90% of the population being Sunni Muslims.
Mayotte is also a territory that is claimed by Comoros but is under occupation by the French as an overseas territory. The other islands form the independent state of Comoros.
The country has a history with many coup d'état since independence in 1975. As of 2008, about half the people live below the international poverty line of US$1.25 a day.
Mount Karthala is the country's highest point. Karthala is an active shield volcano on Grand Cormore. It had a minor eruption in May 2006.
Geography
The Comoros is formed by Ngazidja (Grande Comore), Mwali (Mohéli) and Nzwani (Anjouan), the three major islands in the Comoros Archipelago. There are also many minor islets. The islands are officially known by their Comorian language names. International sources still use their French names (given in parentheses above). The capital and largest city is Moroni on Ngazidja.
At 2,034 km2 (785 sq mi), it is one of the smallest countries in the world. The interiors of the islands vary from steep mountains to low hills.
Climate
The climate is generally tropical and mild. The rainy season runs from December to April. It is called kashkazi/kaskazi, meaning north monsoon. The cool, dry season is from May to November. It is called kusi, meaning south monsoon.
The temperature reaches an average of in March, the hottest month. The average low is in the dry season. The islands are rarely subject to cyclones.
The islands have their own ecoregion, the Comoros forests.
Government
The President of the Comoros is both head of state and head of government. The constitution was adopted on 23 December 2001. It was last amended in May 2009.
In November 1975, the Comoros became the 143rd member of the United Nations. The citizens of Mayotte chose to become French citizens and keep their island as a French territory.
There is a small standing army. This includes a 500-member police force and a 500-member defense force. A treaty with France provides navy protection for territorial waters.
Cities
Economy
The Comoros is one of the world's poorest countries. Agriculture is the leading sector of the economy. Agriculture includes fishing, hunting, and forestry.
The Comoros is the world's largest producer of ylang-ylang. It is a large producer of vanilla.
References
Other websites
French-speaking countries
Least developed countries
Members of the Organisation of Islamic Cooperation
1975 establishments in Africa |
11462 | https://simple.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oat | Oat | The oat (Avena sativa) is a cereal grain. It is food for people and other animals, for example, chickens and horses. Oatmeal is made from oats. Oat straw is used as bedding for animals.
Porridge is made only from whole grain oats. It forms an excellent part of a balanced diet for the following reasons:
Oats are rich in both soluble and insoluble fiber.
Oats are a place to get energy. As a rich place to get complex carbohydrates, they provide a slow release of energy over the morning – in that way they reduce the desire to eat ‘quick energy release’ sugar-based foods.
Oats are also a good place to get protein.
Oats are also a good place to get vitamin B1.
Origin
The wild ancestor of Avena sativa and the similar minor crop, A. byzantina, is the hexaploid wild oat A. sterilis. Science of DNA shows that the ancestor forms of A. sterilis grew in the Fertile Crescent of the Near East.
Domesticated oats appear later. They are also far from the Near East, in Bronze Age Europe. Oats are like rye. They are normally thought as a less important crop, i.e. coming from a weed out of the main cereals wheat and barley As these cereals spread into cooler, wetter places, this may have favored the oat weed. This quickly leads to its common use.
Cultivation
Oats are grown all over temperate places. They have a lower summer heat need and are able to survive more rain than other cereals like wheat, rye or barley. Oats are an annual plant, and can be planted either in autumn (for late summer harvest) or in the spring (for early autumn harvest).
Historical attitudes towards oats are very different. Oat bread was first made in England, where the first oat bread factory was made in 1899. In Scotland, are well liked, as a good part of the national diet. The English writer Samuel Johnson, famously wrote in A Dictionary of the English Language that the oat was a grain, which in England is generally given to horses, but in Scotland supports the people. Which the Scottish quickly said back "and England has the best horses, and Scotland the best men."
Uses
Oats have many uses in food. Most of the time they are rolled or crushed into oatmeal, or ground into oat flour. Oatmeal is also eaten as porridge, but may also be used in many of baked goods, such as oat cakes, oatmeal cookies, and oat bread. Oats are also an substance used in many cold cereals, in particular muesli and granola. Without cooking, oats may also be taken as food.
Oats are also sometimes used in drinks. In Britain, it is used for making beer. Oatmeal stout is one of many beers using some oats. A cold, sweet drink made of ground oats and milk is a well liked drink in Latin America. 'Oatmeal caudle', made of ale and oatmeal with spices was a usual British drink and well-liked by Oliver Cromwell.
In Scotland a dish called Sowans was made by putting the husks from oats in water for a week so that the fine, dusty part of the meal remained at the bottom to be strained off, boiled and taken as food (Gauldie 1981). Oats are also widely used there as a thickener in soups, as barley or rice might be used in other countries.
Oats and its hulls are also commonly used as feed for horses - as whole or rolled oats or as part of food bits. Cattle are also fed oats, either whole, or ground into a flour using a mill.
Oat straw is prized by cattle and horse makers as bedding, because its soft, almost dust-free, and takes in liquid. The straw can also be used for making corn dollies. Tied in a cotton bag, oat straw was used to soften bath-water.
Things take out of oatscan also be used to make pain less sharp in the skin, as in skin lotions. It is the main substance in the Aveeno line of products.
Health
Oats are mostly thought as "healthy" food. The finding of the healthy LDL cholesterol-lowering properties has led to more liking of oats as human food.
Protein
Oat is the only cereal having a globulin or legume-like protein, avenalin, as the major (80%) storage protein. Globulins can be taken up by weak salt water. The more common cereal proteins are gluten and zein. The minor protein of oat is avenin.
Oat protein is almost the same in quality as soy bean protein, which has been shown by the World Health Organization to be equal to meat, milk, and egg protein. The amount of protein of the hull-less oat kernel ranges from 12–24%, which is the highest among cereals.
Related pages
Oatmeal
References |
11464 | https://simple.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kapingamarangi | Kapingamarangi | Kapingamarangi is an atoll in the Pacific Ocean. It is part of the Federated States of Micronesia. There are about 700 people living in Kapingamarangi. The inhabitants speak the Kapingamarangi language, a Polynesian dialect.
The Kapingamarangi people live a simple life. They believe that it's not what you have that is important. They help each other, neighbors, relatives, and everybody. They share what they have. The sea provides a significant source of food. And the people are very talented in doing all the different types of fishing.
Atolls
Federated States of Micronesia |
11465 | https://simple.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kiribati | Kiribati | Kiribati (pronounced "KiriBASS") is an island country located on the Pacific Ocean. It has 33 atolls, groups of tiny islands. The country is near the equator. Its capital is South Tarawa, on the Tarawa atoll.
Kiribati used to be called the Gilbert Islands. In 1892, the Gilbert Islands became a British protectorate with the Ellice Islands (nowadays known as Tuvalu), together called Gilbert and Ellice Islands. Kiribati became an independent republic in 1979.
Tourism is an important industry.
Kiribati signed a "Treaty of Friendship and Territorial Sovereignty" (also called the "Treaty of Tarawa") with the United States in 1979. The USA gave up its claims to the islands of Canton, Enderbury, Hull, Birnie, Gardner, Phoenix, Sydney, McKean, Christmas, Caroline, Starbuck, Malden, Flint, and Vostok in that treaty.
The official languages of Kiribati are English and Gilbertese.
References
Other websites
Least developed countries
1979 establishments |
11470 | https://simple.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bisexuality | Bisexuality | Bisexuality is a sexual orientation. Bisexual (also bi) people are sexually attracted to both men and women. Some bisexual people love men and women the same and some people love one more than the other.
A popular myth within the LGBT community is that bisexual people can only be attracted to cis people (people who identify with their assigned birth gender), and/or males and females. This is incorrect.
Some bisexual people have preferences to one or more sexes, however some may not. Both attractions are entirely valid and accepted by the bisexual community, as bisexuality is fluid and is a different experience for every bisexual person.
In 1948, Alfred Kinsey published the Kinsey scale. The Kinsey scale shows that sexuality is a continuum, meaning it moves little by little from heterosexuality to homosexuality. On the Kinsey scale, a 0 is someone who is only heterosexual. A 6 is someone who is only homosexual. Someone who is equally homosexual and heterosexual (bisexual) is a 3.
In biology, bisexual can define an organism that has both male and female organs. This mostly refers to plants.
Related pages
Pansexuality
References
Further reading
Sexual orientation and bisexuality FAQ's from the American Psychological Association
James D. Weinrich, Sexual Landscapes: Why We Are What We Are, Why We Love Whom We Love, Charles Scribner's Sons, December 1987.
LGBT variations |
11471 | https://simple.wikipedia.org/wiki/Barbados | Barbados | Barbados is an island country in the Atlantic Ocean. The island has an area of about 430 km². Its capital and largest city is Bridgetown. The official language of Barbados is English. Barbados is a popular tourist destination. In 2008, the island had a population of about 284,000 people. About 80,000 live in or around Bridgetown.
The island is in the western area of the North Atlantic and 100 kilometres (62 mi) east of the Windward Islands and the Caribbean Sea. It is about east of the islands of Saint Vincent and the Grenadines, and north-east of Trinidad and Tobago. Barbados is outside of the main Atlantic hurricane belt.
The island's only airport is the Grantley Adams International Airport. It abolished the monarchy and become a republic on 30 November 2021.
Barbados produces rum.
History
The earliest inhabitants of Barbados were Native Americans. Barbados was first visited by the Spanish around the late 1400s to early 1500s. It first was on a Spanish map in 1511. The native Arawaks may have fled or been enslaved. The Portuguese visited in 1536. They brought wild hogs for a good supply of meat whenever the island was visited. The first English ship, the Olive Blossom, came in 1624. They said the island belonged to the British king James I. Two years later in 1627 the first permanent settlers arrived from England. Slaves from Africa were sent to Barbados to work on sugar plantations.
Government and politics
Barbados has been an independent country since 30 November 1966. Elizabeth II, Queen of Barbados was the head of state. The Queen was represented locally by the Governor-General. The Prime Minister is the local head of the government. On 30 November 2021, the country became a republic with the President of Barbados becoming the head of state. This means the monarchy and the office of governor-general were be abolished on this date and replaced by the presidency.
Military
The Barbados Defence Force has roughly 600 members.
The Barbados Defence Force (BDF) is the name given to the combined armed forces of Barbados. The BDF was established August 15, 1979, and has responsibility for the territorial defence and internal security of the island. The headquarters for the Barbados Defence Force are in the St. Ann's Fort area at The Garrison, Saint Michael.
There are three main components of the BDF:
Force Headquarters — provided administrative and logistical support for the entire force
The Barbados Regiment — this is the main land force component, and encompasses both regular and reserve units.
Barbados Coast Guard — this is the maritime element, with responsibility for patrolling Barbados' territorial waters as well as drug interdiction and humanitarian and life-saving exercises. It too encompasses both regular and reserve units.
Barbados Cadet Corp — Military youth organisation. Includes Infantry and Sea Cadets. This organisation was started in 1904. The first females joined the cadet corps in 1970s to 1980s.
The Cadet Corps has a pledge and also a song. It started with 3 normal units but today has expanded to 22. These units are grouped into Zones. There are also a band, sea cadet and medical units along with a shooting programme.
In 1981 a Cessna 402C entered service as part of the air wing.
Geography and climate
Barbados is the easternmost island in the Lesser Antilles. It is flat in comparison to its island neighbours to the west. The highest point of the nation is Mount Hillaby.
The country usually has two seasons. The "wet season" is from June to November. The "dry season" is from December to May.
Divisions
Barbados is divided into 11 parishes:
Christ Church
Saint Andrew
Saint George
Saint James
Saint John
Saint Joseph
Saint Lucy
Saint Michael
Saint Peter
Saint Philip
Saint Thomas
St. George and St. Thomas in the middle of the country are the only two parishes without coastlines.
Demographics
The population of Barbados is about 300,000 people, nearly 90% of that is predominantly of African and Mixed descent, 6% are Asian and 4% Whites. There is also an East Indian minority on the island and Chinese and other ethnic groups. Gypsies were expelled to Barbados during the colonial era.
Religion
Most Barbadians are Christians (95%). The most common Christian church is Anglicans (40%). Other Christian churces in Barbados are the Catholic Church, Pentecostals (Evangelicals) Jehovah's Witnesses, Seventh-Day Adventist and Spiritual Baptists. The Church of England was the official state religion. It was ended by the Parliament of Barbados after independence. Other religions include Hindus, Muslims, the Baha'i Faith, Jews and Wiccans.
Culture
The influence of the English on Barbados is more noticeable than on other islands in the West Indies. A good example of this is the island's national sport: cricket. Barbados has had several great cricketers, including Sir Garfield Sobers and Sir Frank Worrell.
Citizens are officially called Barbadians.
In the music business, Rihanna (born Robyn Fenty) is one of Barbados' best-known Grammy winning artists.
In Barbados, the official language is English. But they also speak an English-African Creole language known as Bajan.
Sports
Cricket is very popular on the island. Barbadians play on the West Indies cricket team. The country hosted the final of the 2007 Cricket World Cup.
Obadele Thompson is a world class sprinter from Barbados. Ryan Brathwaite, a hurdler, reached the 2008 Olympic semi-finals in Beijing.
Polo is very popular with the rich on the island.
In golf, the Barbados Open is an annual stop on the European Seniors Tour.
Tourism
Over half a million tourists visit Barbados every year. Barbados has several beautiful beaches which are well maintained and the sea water is crystal clear. There are also features such as Blackmans Gully, Barbados Wildlife Reserve and Harrison’s Cave which have been developed for tourism.
The annual Crop Over festival attracts many visitors to Barbados. Barbados also has a rich history. Many historic sites and buildings such as Sunbury Plantation House and St. Nicholas Abbey have been preserved or restored. Visitors can visit these sites and learn about the history of Barbados.
A joint tourism initiative has been undertaken between Barbados and the Inter American Development Bank (IDB) to the tune of US$20 million. It is aimed at repositioning the tourism sector through the implementation of key tourism initiatives.
References
Other websites
Barbados Government Information Network - Official website
Barbados -Citizendium
Commonwealth realms
English-speaking countries
Current monarchies
Caribbean Community
Former British colonies
1966 establishments in North America |
11473 | https://simple.wikipedia.org/wiki/Annie | Annie | Annie (1976 present) is a musical. The book was written by Thomas Meehan. The lyrics were written by Martin Charnin. The music was written by Charles Strouse. Annie is based on characters and concepts created by Harold Gray for the comic strip Little Orphan Annie.
The musical premiered on Broadway at the Alvin Theatre in 1977. It ran for about six years. A West End production opened in 1978. Annie won three Tony Awards, including the Tony Award for Best Musical.
Roles
Annie, an 11-year-old orphan
Oliver "Daddy" Warbucks, a billionaire
Grace, his assistant
Miss Hannigan, the matron of an orphanage
Rooster, Miss Hannigan's brother
Lily St. Regis, Rooster's girlfriend
Story
Annie lives in an orphanage run by Miss Hannigan. She is chosen from the orphans to spend two weeks with Oliver Warbucks. He grows to love her. When he learns that she wants to find her parents, he offers a large reward. Miss Hannigan, Rooster, and Lily scheme to kidnap Annie, but their plot fails, and they are sent to prison.
Adaptations
Annie was made into a movie in 1982 starring Albert Finney, Aileen Quinn, Bernadette Peters, and Carol Burnett.
Broadway musicals
West End musicals
1970s musicals
Musicals based on comic strips
Musicals adapted to movies
Tony Award winning musicals |
11474 | https://simple.wikipedia.org/wiki/James%20Taylor | James Taylor | James Taylor (born March 12, 1948) is an American singer and songwriter. He is popular for his songs "Fire and Rain", "You've Got a Friend", and "How Sweet It Is (To Be Loved By You)". Taylor is a Democrat and attended the 2012 Democratic National Convention in support of President Obama's re-election. Taylor even performed during Obama's second inauguration.
References
American singer-songwriters
Singers from North Carolina
Grammy Award winners
American pop musicians
Democrats (United States)
1948 births
Living people |
11476 | https://simple.wikipedia.org/wiki/Truro | Truro | Truro is the capital of Cornwall in South West England. It is the only city in Cornwall, and it is the most southerly city in the British Isles. The River Truro flows though Truro and boats can travel to Truro along the river.
History
Truro became a large town in the 19th century because of the tin mining industry of west Cornwall. When a new Church of England diocese for Cornwall was set up in 1876 Truro became the seat of the bishop. Truro Cathedral took many years to build but was finished in 1910. It is built in the Early English Gothic revival style. Truro also became the county town of Cornwall when a county council was set up in 1888. The Royal Cornwall Museum is Cornwall's county museum and is owned by the Royal Institution of Cornwall (founded 1818).
Facilities
The Royal Cornwall Hospital is a major NHS hospital.
County towns in England
Settlements in Cornwall
Cities in England
Civil parishes in Cornwall |
11477 | https://simple.wikipedia.org/wiki/1664 | 1664 |
Events
March 12 – New Jersey becomes a colony of Britain. |
11481 | https://simple.wikipedia.org/wiki/San%20Francisco | San Francisco | San Francisco is a city in the U.S. state of California. It is famous for the Golden Gate Bridge. With a population of 744,041, San Francisco is the 13th largest city in the United States, and the 4th largest city in California behind Los Angeles, San Diego, and San Jose. It is in the northern part of California, between the Pacific Ocean and the San Francisco Bay. The urbanized San Francisco Bay Area surrounds it. San Francisco was founded in 1776 by the Spanish conquerors. It was called "Hierba Buena" which is Spanish for "Good Herb", because a lot of mint grew there. After the Mexican-American War, Yerba Buena was taken over by the United States. In 1848 it was renamed "San Francisco" and became a city in 1850. The city is famous for its many internet companies and being home to a large LGBTQ+ population.
Climate
San Francisco has a warm-summer Mediterranean climate (Csb in the Köppen climate classification). The record high temperature is 41.1 °C (106 °F) on September 1, 2017. The record low temperature is -4.4 °C (24 °F) on December 9, 1972.
References
Other websites
San Francisco Hotels
County seats in California
1850 establishments in California
1776 establishments in North America
18th-century establishments in California |
11484 | https://simple.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pelops | Pelops | Pelops is a person from Greek mythology. He was the son of Tantalus and Dione and the father of Pittheus, Plisthenes, Atreus, Thyestes, Chrysippus and Copreus.
According to the mythology, the Peloponesus was named after Pelops.
Tantaus cut Pelops into pieces and served him to the gods in a stew. He was later put back together.
People in Greek mythology |
11487 | https://simple.wikipedia.org/wiki/Job | Job | A job is any legal activity that allows an individual to perform a service and in return earn credits she/he can use to buy things.
A job can mean "some work that has to be done", for example: there are jobs to be done in the house: washing up, mending things that are broken, etc.
A job can also mean: work that a person does to earn money. The word "job" may be used when a person works for someone else "an employer" who pays them for the work. For example, a teacher's job is to teach children or adults. A taxi driver's job is to drive people in a taxi. A firefighter rescues people from burning buildings and puts out fires. A dermatologist's job is to diagnose and treat skin diseases. Some jobs pay very little.
The International Labour Organization was established to make people's job conditions better. It became an organization of the United Nations in 1946.
Related pages
International Labour Organization
Constitution
Constitutional economics
Full employment
Unemployment
VOA Special English words
Employment |
11501 | https://simple.wikipedia.org/wiki/Organ | Organ | Organ may be:
Organ (anatomy), a part of the body
Organ (music), a family of keyboard instruments which is usually played with both the hands and the feet. |
11502 | https://simple.wikipedia.org/wiki/Crop | Crop | Crops are living plants grown by farmers. Most crops are foods such as grain, vegetables, or fruit. Some crops are for drugs, such as quinine, or fibers such as cotton, or other materials such as rubber or wood. Farms are usually made to grow just one kind of crop. Crops are domesticated plants, most of which have been selected to improve their size, taste and other qualities. Many crops are farmed in monoculture.Growingng crops is a part of agriculture.
Important food crops
The following crops are very important as food to humans (The numbers shows the kcal of a person for a day). They are: rice (541 kcal), wheat (527 kcal), sugarcane and other sugar crops (200 kcal), maize (corn) (147 kcal), soybean oil (82 kcal), other vegetables (74 kcal), potatoes (64 kcal), palm oil (52 kcal), cassava (37 kcal), legumes (37 kcal), sunflower oil (35 kcal), rapeseed and mustard oil (34 kcal), other fruits, (31 kcal), sorghum (28 kcal), millet (27 kcal), groundnuts (25 kcal), beans (23 kcal), sweet potatoes (22 kcal), bananas (21 kcal), various nuts (16 kcal), soybeans (14 kcal), cotton oil (13 kcal), groundnut oil (13 kcal), yams (13 kcal).
References
Agriculture |
11505 | https://simple.wikipedia.org/wiki/Proletariat | Proletariat | The proletariat (often shortened to "prole" in slang) is a term used by communists for a segment of society. It describes the class of workers in urban areas who work in industry or manufacturing. These urban workers are different from the peasants, who are workers who do farming jobs in rural areas. Someone is who part of the proletariat class is called a proletarian.
The political way of thinking of communism states that the proletariat should have a revolution and take over the means of production. They are often sarcastically referred to as "wage-slaves."
The proletariat is the laboring bulk of society that does most of the useful, necessary work, and pays most of the taxes. It is also perceived by "capitalists" (another communist term) as being necessary for those reasons: labor and taxes, plus being available to exploit to produce profits.
History
The word proletariat comes from the Latin word proletarius, which means "maker of offspring". In Ancient Rome, the proletarii were the people who were so poor that the only form of property that they had were their children, who could be used as soldiers.
Modern use
Karl Marx used the word proletariat to describe people who did not own the means of productions (such as factories and land) and had to work for others for a wage. He thought the proletariat class could overthrow the capitalist system and society more just. He learned about the word while studying Roman law in Berlin. In Marxist theory, the lumpenproletariat ("rag-proletariat" in German) were a class of people who were not interested in revolution.
Marx believed that the bourgeoisie exploited the proletariat.
References
Related pages
Bourgeoisie
Class struggle
Exploitation
Marxism
The Communist Manifesto
Communism |
11506 | https://simple.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ohio%20River | Ohio River | The Ohio River is the one of the most important tributaries to the Mississippi River. It is 981 miles long and it forms boundaries for the states of Ohio, Kentucky, Illinois, Indiana, and West Virginia before finally going to its headwaters in Pennsylvania. It is its widest a little to the West of downtown Louisville, where it is one mile wide. Cities on the Ohio River include Evansville, Indiana, Paducah, Kentucky, Cincinnati, Ohio, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. The river begins in Pittsburgh. The Wabash, Kentucky and the Tennessee Rivers flow into the Ohio.
Other websites
Historic Ohio, the magazine
Ohio Historical Preservation Group
Ohio River Valley Families Online Searchable Database, a genealogy resource
Image at the confluence with the Mississippi River
Watershed information
Ohio River Forecast Center, which issues official river forecasts for the Ohio River and its tributaries.
Rivers of Kentucky
Rivers of Illinois
Rivers of Indiana
Geography of Ohio
Rivers of Pennsylvania
Rivers of West Virginia |
11521 | https://simple.wikipedia.org/wiki/Croatia | Croatia | Croatia ( ) is a unitary democratic parliamentary republic in Europe at the crossroads of Central Europe, and Southern Europe, being influenced by powers from both regions at varying points in its history. Its capital and largest city is Zagreb. It was one of the republics of the Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia. It became independent in 1991. It joined the European Union on 1 July 2013.
History
In earlier times, the land now known as Croatia was inhabited by different kinds of humans including Neanderthals and Neolithic cultures. In Roman times, seafaring pirates known to the Romans as the Dalmatian Tribes lived there, as the Histri, Liburni and the Delmatae. The Romans conquered and annexed the territory in 9 AD, calling it the province of "Dalmatia," named after these tribes. During more than 400 years of Roman rule, the province of Dalmatia would become Romanized. The Roman invaders mixed with the natives and their descendants adopted a Roman lifestyle even after the collapse of the Roman state in 476 AD.
In the early seventh century AD, pagan West Slavs named the Croats (where Croatia gets its name) came to live in the former province of Dalmatia when they conquered the people already living there. However, they would soon be influenced by Roman Catholic Christian missionaries who completed the process of Christianization in the early 9th century. From the time of the crowning of Tomislav in 925 as the first King of Croatia, Croatia would become its own independent Catholic kingdom until 1102, when a Hungarian prince inherited the Croatian throne. The Hungarians would rule as Kings of Croatia until the early modern period, when the last Hungarian king of Croatia Louis II was killed at the Battle of Mohacs in 1526 and the kingdom chose the Austrian Archduke Ferdinand as king the next year.
Croatia would remain as a part of the empire of Austria-Hungary under Ferdinand's descendants until 1918. In 1918 it became a part of Kingdom of Slovenians, Croats and Serbs, later named Yugoslavia which was occupied in World War II.
After a short war with Italy a fascist dictatorship formed the Independent State of Croatia in 1941, but it was not independent from the control of Nazi Germany (see also Jasenovac concentration camp).
In 1945, Croatia became a part of new Yugoslavia (Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia) which was non-aligned after breaking connections with Eastern Bloc. It collapsed in 1991 as initially Slovenia, than Croatia, later other republics claimed independence and became parliamentary democracies. War with Yugoslavia made a strong impact on society in economic, political and cultural terms. Civil society and media that came out of anti-war struggle in Croatia grew against nationalism, media and civil freedoms, later also corruption.
The country's democratic development around 2000, made it possible for Croatia to finally join Slovenia as only the second republic to become the European Union member on 1 July 2013.
In recent decades Croatia is increasingly popular tourist destination, especially the coastal regions of Dalmatia and Istria.
Geography
Croatia is in Central and Southeast Europe, bordering Hungary to the northeast, Serbia to the east, Bosnia and Herzegovina to the south-east, Montenegro to the south-east, the Adriatic Sea to the south-west and Slovenia to the northwest. It lies mostly between latitudes 42° and 47° N and longitudes 13° and 20° E. Part of the territory in the extreme south surrounding Dubrovnik is a practical exclave connected to the rest of the mainland by territorial waters, but separated on land by a short coastline strip belonging to Bosnia and Herzegovina around Neum. Croatia is divided into 21 counties.
Croatia is the 127th largest country in the world. The highest point is the Dinara peak at . Thousands of islands are part of Croatia. 48 have people living there year round. The largest islands are Cres and Krk. Major rivers are the Sava, Drava, Kupa and Danube.
There are many deep caves in Croatia. 49 of which are deeper than . Croatia's most famous lakes are the Plitvice lakes.
Climate
Most of Croatia has a moderately warm and rainy continental climate. Average temperature ranges between (in January) and (in July). The coldest parts of the country are Lika and Gorski Kotar. The warmest are at the Adriatic coast.
Biodiversity
There are several ecoregions in Croatia. The coastline, forests, mountains, and rivers give Croatia diverse flora and fauna. There are more than a thousand endemic species.
Croatia is home to the only known aquatic cave vertebrate—the olm.
There are 444 protected areas of Croatia. Those include eight national parks, two strict reserves, and ten nature parks. The oldest national park in Croatia is the Plitvice Lakes National Park, a UNESCO World Heritage Site.
Politics
Croatia adopted its constitution in 1990. It declared independence from Yugoslavia on 8 October 1991.
The President of the Republic is the head of state. The President is directly elected to a five-year term. The Constitution limits the President to a maximum of two terms. Zoran Milanović became president in 2020.
The Prime Minister of Croatia is the head of government. Since 2016, the prime minister of the government is Andrej Plenković.
Administrative divisions
Economy
Croatia is one of the richest countries of the Balkan Peninsula and of the former Yugoslavia's countries. But Croatia had also the highest cost prices of the whole Central Europe. The average monthly salary/wages in Croatia standing on 739 euro or nearly $1000 USD.
The retirement age for men is 65 years and for women 60 years.
The health care enjoys relative strong protection for the country's inhabitants.
Education
Education is free and required until the child reaches the age of 15. Many choose to continue their studies in high school until the age of 18.
Tourism
After the war that devastated the country, Croatia has rebuilt its infrastructure, revitalizing its image as a Mediterranean country with crystal clear waters, medieval cities that mix western and eastern architecture, respect for the environment and traditions with the arrival of tourism. Dubrovnik has become the most characteristic symbol of this new Croatia that is strongly committed to European tourism. It is developing a type of tourism based on sustainability, in which culture, gastronomy and nature coexist with the visitor, offering them the experience of discovering Croatia as part of it.
There are many reasons to visit Croatia. Its six UNESCO World Heritage sites : Dubrovnik's Old Town (undoubtedly one of the most beautiful cities in Europe), the Diocletian's Palace in Split , the historic core of Trogir , the Cathedral of St. James of Sibenik , the Plitvice Lakes National Park , or the Episcopal Ensemble of the Euphrasian Basilica in the Historic Center of Porec (Istria) .
Nature is another attractive source of tourism in Croatia. Its eight National Parks and ten Natural Parks with their varied fauna and flora show all their splendor, with a coastline that winds from the Istria Peninsula to the south of Dalmatia, leaving beautiful coves, beaches, and cliffs. The islands, such as Hvar or Korcula , in Dalmatia or Rab and Losinj in Kvarner Bay , which are sometimes grouped together in archipelagos as interesting as those of Brijuni or Kornati, they host millions of tourists who seek peace or the possibility of practicing nudism, so associated with Croatia, in its crystalline waters. More than a thousand islands and islets that make up the Adriatic Coast, a paradise for those who love sailing and seek to cross the Adriatic by Sailboat .
The variety of the tourist offer in Croatia goes beyond the beautiful cities Dubrovnik, Zagreb or Split.
Related pages
List of cities in Croatia
Croatia at the Olympics
Croatia national football team
List of rivers of Croatia
References
Other websites
The Croatian government's official website @ vlada.hr
Basic facts, website of the Croatian Ministry of Foreign Affairs
Croatian National Tourist Board
General information about Croatia
European Union member states
Italian-speaking countries |
11523 | https://simple.wikipedia.org/wiki/El%20Alamein | El Alamein | El Alamein is a town in Egypt. It is most famous for being the place where the British-led Allies won the Second Battle of El Alamein against the Nazis during World War II. The town has a railroad station, which was important to all of the battles that have happened there.
Cities in Egypt |
11525 | https://simple.wikipedia.org/wiki/Otis%20Redding | Otis Redding | Otis Ray Redding Jr. (September 9, 1941 - December 10, 1967) was an American singer and songwriter. He was an African American who was born in Dawson, Georgia. He wrote and sang many popular songs. He was killed in a plane crash at the age of 26 in Madison, Wisconsin. Shortly after his death, his song "Sittin' on the Dock of The Bay", went to # 1 on the charts. His music was magnificent and his songs moved many. He was a great man and a talented artist.
He wrote the song, "Respect", which became a smash hit for Aretha Franklin.
Notes
1941 births
1967 deaths
African American musicians
American singer-songwriters
American soul musicians
Aviation deaths in the United States
Singers from Georgia (U.S. state) |
11526 | https://simple.wikipedia.org/wiki/Black%20Forest | Black Forest | The Black Forest (German: Schwarzwald) is a world famous forest in Baden-Württemberg, Germany.
Important towns are (from north to south): Pforzheim, Calw, Baden-Baden, Offenburg, Freudenstadt, Horb, Villingen-Schwenningen, Titisee-Neustadt and Waldshut-Tiengen. The highest mountain is the Feldberg (1492m).
The Black Forest is quite popular for hiking, skiing and Nordic walking. In Triberg, at the lake Titisee and in other places you can buy the famous cuckoo clocks. A good way to get known to the Black Forest is to travel on the Deutsche Uhrenstraße, a "National Scenic Byway."
References
Other websites
Official website
Black Forest image galleries
Information about Black Forest, Hotels, Wellness and more
Forests of Germany
Geography of Baden-Württemberg |
11527 | https://simple.wikipedia.org/wiki/Frankie%20Avalon | Frankie Avalon | Frankie Avalon (born Francis Thomas Avallone, in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania on September 18, 1939) is an American actor and singer. He is best known for his starring roles in a series of beach movies in the 1960s. He was known as a teen idol.
References
Other websites
1939 births
Living people
American movie actors
American pop musicians
Actors from Philadelphia, Pennsylvania
Singers from Philadelphia, Pennsylvania |
11528 | https://simple.wikipedia.org/wiki/Celebrity%20chef | Celebrity chef | A celebrity chef is a chef who is well known for their cooking, kinds of food, and style of preparation. Many celebrity chefs become famous through television appearances, publishing cookbooks, or having their own restaurant.
Some "celebrity chefs" are:
Francesco Bellissimo
Gino D'Acampo
Rocco Despirito
Lisa Faulkner
Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall
The Frugal Gourmet (Jeff Smith)
Ken Hom
Graham Kerr (The Galloping Gourmet)
Nigella Lawson
Emeril Legasse
Jamie Oliver
Paul Prudhomme
Wolfgang Puck
Gordon Ramsay
Rachael Ray
Alfons Schuhbeck
Delia Smith
Rick Stein
Phil Vickery
Marco Pierre White
Martin Yan
Historical celebrity chefs
Eliza Acton
Carême
Julia Child
Fanny Cradock
Escoffier
Mrs Beeton
The Two Fat Ladies (Jennifer Paterson and Clarissa Dickson Wright)
La Varenne
Celebrities |
11529 | https://simple.wikipedia.org/wiki/Huntz%20Hall | Huntz Hall | Henry "Huntz" Hall (August 15 1919 - January 30 1999) was a well-known American actor. He was best known as Dippy in the Dead End Kids series. He made 78 movies.
Trivia
He is one of the famous people who appeared on the cover of The Beatles, Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band album.
1919 births
1999 deaths
American movie actors
Actors from New York City |
11530 | https://simple.wikipedia.org/wiki/Robert%20Peel | Robert Peel | Sir Robert Peel (5 February 1788 – 2 July 1850) was a British politician. He established many well-known laws in Britain including the police force and had a brief term as Prime Minister.
In 1834, he founded the Conservative party out of the old Tory party which was founded in 1678. Peel was a very clever politician in his own right. However, his conviction led eventually led him to go against his party in 1846 by repealing the Corn Laws, following this the party split and were not able to win a majority for 28 years.
In 1835 he published the Tamworth Manifesto, which told people how he wanted the government to be run. He came to power in 1841, defeating the Whig government of Lord Melbourne, and ruled the country until 1846. During this time, Peel's popularity with other party members became lower because many of them thought he was too proud, and disliked the way he changed his mind over many important issues, often without telling them first. The defeat of his Conservative Party in 1846 was followed by a brief period in the House of Commons until his death in 1851, in a horse riding accident.
Peel is one of the famous people who appears on the cover of The Beatles Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band album.
1788 births
1850 deaths
Chancellors of the Exchequer
British conservatives
People from Bury |
11531 | https://simple.wikipedia.org/wiki/Herodotus | Herodotus | Herodotus ( ; , ; ) was an Ancient Greek historian. He was born in Halicarnassus, a town in south-west Asia Minor (now Bodrum, Turkey)
Herodotus was called the "Father of History" by Cicero. He wrote about the ancient empires of Babylon, Egypt, and Persia, and about the Ancient Greeks.
During his life, Herodotus probably told his stories in front of large numbers of people in Greek cities. Some men at the time did this for pay. He is now most famous for his writings about the wars between the Persian Empire and the Greek city-states. He told the story from the Greek side, although the war was mostly finished when he was still a child.
In his books, Herodotus tells us that he travelled a lot. He says that he went to what is now Italy (including Sicily), Ukraine, Egypt and Pakistan. He may also have travelled to Babylon in today's Iraq. He often used stories from people he met to write about other places and happenings.
Some people think that Herodotus wrote about things that were not true. That is possible, because he would have relied on information from various sources. His work is important because there is very little writing on these subjects before his works.
The works of Herodotus are available today in translations.
References
Other websites
Herodotus Citizendium
480s BC births
420s BC deaths
Ancient Greek historians |
11532 | https://simple.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chinook | Chinook | A chinook is a warm westerly wind that sometimes flows over Canada's Rocky Mountains in the winter. It can raise temperatures in southern Alberta by twenty or thirty degrees in an hour. A chinook is caused when air flowing off the Pacific Ocean is raised by the mountains and heated as the water vapor in the air condenses. Then it is warmed more as it flows down the other side of the mountains and is compressed. It flows out over the prairie, and may travel as far as the eastern border of Alberta if it is especially strong. The chinook is also called "snow eater", because it can melt snow so quickly.
Winds
ml:കാറ്റ്#ചിനൂക്ക് |
11541 | https://simple.wikipedia.org/wiki/Etoumbi | Etoumbi | Etoumbi is a town in a part of the Republic of the Congo called Cuvette-Ouest.
Recently, there were four outbreaks of the Ebola virus in Etoumbi. Some people think this is because the people that live there ate some dead animals from the forest. In 2003, 120 people died in an outbreak. Because of an outbreak in May, 2005 nobody was allowed in or out of the town.
Other websites
Multimap: Map of Etoumbi
Towns in Africa
Settlements in the Republic of the Congo |
11542 | https://simple.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chad | Chad | Chad (; , officially called the Republic of Chad), is a landlocked country in Central Africa. The capital is N'Djamena.
It was a French colony until 1960. It suffers from poverty, illness, drought, and armed conflicts. In 2011, the population of Chad was 11,535,000.
Arabic and French are the official languages. Islam and Christianity are the most widely practiced religions.
Chad has one of the highest levels of hunger in the world. Food insecurity is common in the country. 80% live in total poverty on less than a dollar a day, and 90% are unemployed in Chad. Chad has a low life expectancy. Life expectancy is 54 years old in Chad.
Chad is home to 134 kinds of mammals, 141 bird species, 52 kinds of reptiles, 30 amphibians and 130 kinds of fish. Many animals such as elephants, hippopotamuses, rhinoceroses, warthogs, giraffes, antelopes, lions, leopards, and cheetahs live in Chad.
Geography
Chad is the world's 21st-largest country. It is slightly smaller than Peru and slightly larger than South Africa. To the north is Libya, to the south is the Central African Republic, to the east is Sudan, and to the west are Cameroon, Nigeria, and Niger.
The country's capital is from the nearest seaport Douala, Cameroon. Due to this distance from the sea and the country's largely desert climate, Chad is sometimes called the "Dead Heart of Africa".
Lake Chad is the largest wetland in Chad and the second largest in Africa. Lake Chad was 7000 years ago. Now it is . Chad's highest peak is the Emi Koussi in the Sahara.
The region's tall grasses and large amount of marshes make it good for birds, reptiles, and large mammals. Chad's major rivers are the Chari and Logone.
Regions
Since 2002, the Republic of Chad has been divided into regions. It was previously divided into prefectures, and then departments.
Below is a list of the 23 regions as of 2012.
ad since 2012
Cities
The largest cities in Chad are:
N'Djamena - 704,200
Moundou - 136,900
Sarh - 100,100
Abéché - 72,500
Kélo - 41,500
Koumra - 35,400
Pala - 34,600
Am Timan - 28,200
Bongor - 27,100
Mongo - 27,100
Languages
Chad's official languages are Arabic and French, but over 100 languages and dialects are spoken. Due to the important role of Arab traders and merchants, Chadian Arabic has become a lingua franca, a language for all to use.
Education
Attending primary school is required in Chad, though only about 50% of children attend school. Adult literacy is only 35%.
The University of N'Djamena provides higher education.
References
Related pages
Virgin Islands
Other websites
French-speaking countries
Least developed countries
Members of the Organisation of Islamic Cooperation
1960 establishments in Africa |
11543 | https://simple.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anal%20sex | Anal sex | Anal sex is a sex act performed on the anus. Anal sex can involve a penis inserted in the anus, oral stimulation of the anus, using fingers for penetration and using different objects for stimulation.
Overview
The anus is a part of the body that is tight and cannot lubricate itself. Because of this, a person should be careful not to damage the walls of this organ if inserting something. Lubrication is often used which can be oil or water-based and is sold commercially.
For a man, pleasure can come from the stimulation of the prostate that is found near the anus. For women, it can come from indirect stimulation of the clitoral legs/G-Spot or the cervix. Both men and women can get pleasure from anal sex because the anus has many nerve endings.
Related pages
Condom
Orgasm
Masturbation
AIDS
Donkey punch
Other websites
Discovery.com - Anal sex
Sexual acts |
11544 | https://simple.wikipedia.org/wiki/1248 | 1248 | Year 1248 (MCCXLVIII) was a leap year starting on Wednesday of the Julian calendar.
Events
Cologne Cathedral built.
King Louis IX of France starts the Seventh Crusade. He leaves with an army of 20,000 toward Egypt.
Roger Bacon publishes the formula for black powder in Europe. |
11545 | https://simple.wikipedia.org/wiki/Honor%20Blackman | Honor Blackman | Honor Blackman (22 August 1925 – 5 April 2020) was an English actress. She was born in Plaistow, Essex. She is best known for her roles in the movie Goldfinger and on the television programmes, The Avengers and The Upper Hand (the British version of Who's the Boss).
Blackman died at her home in Lewes on 5 April 2020. She was 94.
References
Other websites
1925 births
2020 deaths
Actors from Essex
Actresses who played Bond girls
English movie actors
English stage actors
English television actors |
11546 | https://simple.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hamlet | Hamlet | The Tragedy of Hamlet, Prince of Denmark is a tragedy play by William Shakespeare. It is one of his best-known plays, and many lines have become famous quotations. The play is often just called Hamlet.
Hamlet was written between 1600 and 1602, and first printed in 1603. With 4042 lines and 29551 words, Hamlet is the longest Shakespearean play.
Plot
Hamlet is a young prince in Denmark who was supposed to become king when his father (also named Hamlet) died. Instead, Hamlet's uncle Claudius took the throne for himself and married Hamlet's mother, Gertrude. Hamlet meets a ghost of his dead father, who tells him that he was poisoned by Claudius. The ghost demands that Hamlet kill Claudius in revenge.
Hamlet is at first not sure whether to believe the ghost, so he tries to investigate. He pretends to be mad to hide what he is doing. As the play goes on, it becomes hard to tell if Hamlet is actually mad or still just pretending. His behaviour causes him to fall out with Ophelia, a girl he was in love with. He eventually has the idea of getting some actors to put on a play about a king being killed, in the same way that the ghost described, to see how Claudius reacts. Claudius panics when he sees the play, and Hamlet sees this as proof that his uncle is a murderer.
Hamlet has a chance to kill Claudius in the castle chapel, but cannot bring himself to do it. He instead visits his mother, and they have an argument because Hamlet is unhappy that she married Claudius. Someone moves behind a curtain and Hamlet, thinking it is Claudius, stabs him. It turns out that he has killed Polonius, a royal advisor and Ophelia's father. Claudius orders Hamlet to be exiled to England. He sets up a plot to have Hamlet killed, but Hamlet escapes and returns to Denmark. Meanwhile, Ophelia has been suffering from madness after falling out with Hamlet. After learning that he has killed her father, she drowns herself. Hamlet arrives at Ophelia's funeral and gets into a fight with her brother Laertes. Laertes blames Hamlet for the deaths of his sister and father, and wants revenge. He challenges Hamlet to a swordfight. Hamlet agrees.
The swordfight is arranged to take place at the castle. To get Hamlet killed, Claudius gets Laertes to fight with a sword that has poison on the blade, and brings some poisoned wine in case this does not work. The swordfight begins. After some fighting, Laertes wounds Hamlet and poisons him. After more fighting, they drop their swords and Hamlet ends up fighting and wounding Laertes with the poisoned sword. Laertes shows regret for what he has done and tells Hamlet about the poison as he dies. Meanwhile, Gertrude drinks the poisoned wine by mistake and dies. Realising that he is also dying, Hamlet stabs Claudius with the poisoned sword and forces him to drink the rest of the wine. In his last moments, Hamlet tells his friend Horatio that Fortinbras, a Norwegian prince, should be named as the next King of Denmark.
Characters
The characters in the story are:
Hamlet, the prince of Denmark
Ghost, the ghost of king Hamlet
Gertrude, the Queen, prince Hamlet's mother
Claudius, the King, brother of dead King Hamlet and now married to Gertrude
Horatio, Hamlet's trusted friend
Polonius, the royal advisor
Laertes, the son of Polonius
Ophelia, the daughter of Polonius and Hamlet's girlfriend
Rosencrantz and Guildenstern, two members of Claudius' royal court, who spy on Hamlet for Claudius
Acting Hamlet
Hamlet is one of the hardest parts for an actor to perform. It is one of the largest roles written by Shakespeare. Many people disagree about what Hamlet is really thinking. For many actors, playing Hamlet is one of the most important parts of their career.
Hamlet in movies
There have been many movies made of the play. Most of them show only part of the play, because the entire play is very long. Some of the most famous movies include:
1948 Hamlet played by Laurence Olivier. Directed by Laurence Olivier.
1960 A version made for German television. This version was later an episode of Mystery Science Theatre 3000.
1990 Hamlet played by Mel Gibson. Directed by Franco Zeffirelli.
1996 Hamlet played by Kenneth Branagh. Directed by Kenneth Branagh. Unlike most movies, Branagh's Hamlet did not leave out any of the play to make the movie shorter.
2009 Hamlet played by David Tennant. Directed by Gregory Doran, a three and a half hour Television adaptation for the BBC. An adaptation of the folio text with changes from the first and later quarto's to fit the dramatisation.
2014 Bollywood movie "Haider" directed by Vishal Bhardwaj, where role of Hamlet played by Shahid Kapoor.
References
Other websites
HyperHamlet - research project at the University of Basel
BBC production of Hamlet in 2009
Plays by William Shakespeare |
11547 | https://simple.wikipedia.org/wiki/Director | Director | A director is someone who is in charge of something. It can mean slightly different things in different places.
Art director, a position in theatre, movies, television, and related areas
Board of directors, the people in charge of a company
Movie director, the person who controls how a movie is made
Television director, the person who directs different types of television programs.
Theatre director, the person in charge of deciding how a stage play should be performed. |
11548 | https://simple.wikipedia.org/wiki/1605 | 1605 |
Events
Don Quixote, part 1, is written by Miguel De Cervantes |
11549 | https://simple.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bias | Bias | Bias means that a person prefers an idea and possibly does not give equal chance to a different idea. Bias can be influenced by a number of factors, such as popularity (for example, a newspaper might be biased towards a particular political party due to their employees sharing the same political beliefs as that party).
Bias in an article or editorial would show one point of view, using selected facts and quotes to support that point of view. Facts or opinions that do not support the point of view in a biased article would be excluded. For example, an article biased toward riding a motorcycle would show facts about the good gas mileage, fun, and agility. An article biased against motorcycle riding would show facts about risk of injury and noise, and ignore positive facts about motorcycles.
An article biased against guns would show only facts and information that support the author's position. They would list suicides, accidental shootings and other facts showing guns in a negative way. An article biased for guns should show only information that supports the author's position. The positively biased article would discuss 'lives saved' by guns, numbers of crimes prevented by civilian gun use, and other facts and data that put gun ownership and guns in a good light.
Bias in writing can also be shown by using bad or slang words to refer to groups of people or things. "Broads" rather than "women"; "murdercycles" rather than "motorcycles". Words or phrasing that make wide assumptions about races or groups of people also indicates bias. "All Chinese people are good at math".
Bias also means mistakes in measurements. For example, a person may measure the height of another person wearing shoes. The shoes make the height more than the same person without shoes. If the extra height of the shoes (extra bias) was not explained, someone might think that the person had been measured without shoes on. Data with extra parts not explained is called biased data.
Related pages
Cognitive bias
Prejudice
Other websites
Examples of Bias in Writing
Psychology |
11552 | https://simple.wikipedia.org/wiki/1701 | 1701 |
Births
September 7 – Georges-Louis Leclerc, Comte de Buffon, French naturalist (d. 1788) |
11554 | https://simple.wikipedia.org/wiki/Harpsichord | Harpsichord | Harpsichords are keyboard instruments that make sound by having the strings plucked with a plectrum. They are thought to have originated when a keyboard was attached to a psaltery. This makes them different from a clavichord where the strings are hit. The piano is therefore closer to a clavichord than a harpsichord. On a piano it is possible to play louder or quieter by playing the keys with more or less force. On a harpsichord the volume (playing louder or softer) cannot be controlled by the way it is played. However, some large harpsichords have several "stops", each one giving a different kind of sound. The largest harpsichords have two manuals (keyboards) which gives more variety. It makes it possible for the right hand to play the tune on one manual while the left hand plays an accompaniment more quietly on the other.
Some small harpsichords were called "virginals", perhaps because they were played by young girls. There are also spinets which were very small and sometimes wing-shaped. They could be picked up and put on a table.
Harpsichords were very important in music from the Renaissance and Baroque periods. They were used as solo instruments as well as to accompany an orchestra. Some of the most famous composers of harpsichord music are William Byrd (1543-1623), François Couperin (1668-1733), Domenico Scarlatti (1685-1757) and Johann Sebastian Bach (1685-1750). The last of these composers wrote The Well-Tempered Clavier, which has a prelude and fugue in every major and minor key. It is said that Bach wrote this collection of music to show how keyboard instruments like the harpsichord can be tuned in a way to make playing in any key possible.
Other websites
Keyboard instruments
Early musical instruments
Plucked string instruments |
11555 | https://simple.wikipedia.org/wiki/The%20Kingston%20Trio | The Kingston Trio | The Kingston Trio was a folk music group from Palo Alto, California who were popular in the 1950s and 1960s.
References
Musical groups from California
Folk music groups
Palo Alto, California |
11557 | https://simple.wikipedia.org/wiki/The%20Passion%20of%20the%20Christ | The Passion of the Christ | The Passion of the Christ is the title of a movie that was produced and directed by Mel Gibson based on sister Catherine Emmerich's visions. It was released in 2004. The movie shows the last 24 hours in the life of Jesus of Nazareth (called by his followers Jesus Christ) as told in the Gospel accounts contained in the New Testament that Christians regard as a part of the Holy Bible.
The Passion of the Christ was unusual and controversial for many reasons. All of the speech was in three languages that were spoken at the time of Jesus: Latin, Greek and Hebrew. The movie spent a lot of time showing details of the suffering and death of Jesus, with lots of violent scenes. Mel Gibson said that this was a realistic showing of what happened, though others thought it showed too much violence.
Jewish groups and Christians objected to the movie because it showed the Jewish leaders arranging to have Jesus killed. There were also other depictions in the film of Jews that many Jews and Christians felt was controversial. They said that this would cause people to think that modern-day Jews were guilty because of this and increase antisemitism and inaccurate beliefs of Jews. The movie makers said that this was not their intention, however criticism from both sides continued and still persists to this day.
Mel Gibson was unable to get support from movie studios for this movie, and so supplied the money for it (around $25 million) mostly himself. The movie made much more money than expected -around $370 million.
Other websites
2004 drama movies
American drama movies
American epic movies
Fiction set in the past
Movies set in Ancient Rome
Movies based on the Bible
Multilingual movies
Movies directed by Mel Gibson |
11558 | https://simple.wikipedia.org/wiki/Depression | Depression | Depression might mean:
Depression (mood), when a person is very sad
Depression (mental illness), a type of mood disorder
Depression (economics), when the economy is shrinking instead of growing
Great Depression, a major economic depression in the 1930s |
11560 | https://simple.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cavalry | Cavalry | Historically, cavalry have been soldiers who fought while riding horses. In modern times, "cavalry" means the branch of the military that fight in armored vehicles such as tanks. They differ from the infantry in that the Infantry fight on foot.
Soldiers have fought on horses ever since people have ridden horses. Before that, they fought in chariots pulled by horses. Because horses are strong, cavalry troops can wear more armor than infantry and carry heavier weapons. Because horses are fast, cavalry can ride into battle more quickly than infantry.
Army
Horse riding
Military animals |
11561 | https://simple.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zachary%20Taylor | Zachary Taylor | Zachary Taylor (November 24, 1784 – July 9, 1850) was the 12th president of the United States. He served as President from 1849 until his death in 1850. He was a second cousin to James Madison.
General years
Taylor was a general in the United States Army. He led an army during the Mexican-American War. He was selected by the Whigs to be their candidate because he was a famous general. He was the last President to own slaves while in office.
Presidency
During his term, slavery was a big issue because the Northerners wanted no slavery in the U.S. and wanted to stop newly formed states from allowing slavery. The southerners believed that they had the right to keep their slaves and people feared that they would choose to not be a part of the United States anymore (which they would eventually do in 1860).
Taylor did not like the idea of the southern states leaving the United States at all. He threatened to use military force against them if they were to do that.
Taylor never voted until he was 62 years old. He was never a resident of a particular location in the United States long enough to register to vote.
Sixteen months into his presidency, Taylor died of cholera and his vice-president Millard Fillmore became president to take his place.
The Compromise of 1850 (a proposal several laws that would calm down the slavery issue by pleasing both the north and the south) was voted on in Congress shortly after his death. This was negotiated by Kentucky's Congressman, Henry Clay, who was a distant cousin of the Taylors and Lincolns.
References
Other websites
Taylor's White House biography
1784 births
1850 deaths
Deaths from stroke
Politicians from Virginia
American military people
19th-century American politicians |
11575 | https://simple.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gianni%20Rodari | Gianni Rodari | Gianni Rodari (October 23, 1920 in Omegna (Novara) - April 14, 1980 in Rome) was an Italian writer. He was famous for his books for children.
Rodari, Gianni
1920 births
1980 deaths |
11578 | https://simple.wikipedia.org/wiki/Montgomery%2C%20Alabama | Montgomery, Alabama | Montgomery is the capital city of the state of Alabama in the United States. It is on the Alabama River. In 2000 201,568 people lived there.
History
Montgomery was started on December 3, 1819 by merging New Philadelphia and East Alabama Town. The city became a county seat in 1822. On January 28, 1846, the state capital was moved from Tuscaloosa to Montgomery. For a few months in 1861 Montgomery was the capital of the Confederate States of America.
Notable natives and residents
Nat King Cole, jazz pianist & singer
Martin Luther King, Jr., civil rights advocate
Bart Starr, Pro Football Hall of Famer
Rosa Parks
References
Other websites
Montgomery -Wikivoyage
City of Montgomery, Alabama
Former national capitals
County seats in Alabama
State capitals in the United States
1819 establishments in Alabama |
11581 | https://simple.wikipedia.org/wiki/Omaha%2C%20Nebraska | Omaha, Nebraska | Omaha is a city in the state of Nebraska in the United States. The city is home to 408,958 people making it the state's largest city both in population and geography.
Music
Omaha is known for its Indie music scene. Bright Eyes and 311 are some of the most well known bands to come out of the city. Local music venues include the Slowdown in NoDo and The Waiting Room in Benson.
Connor Oberst, lead singer of Bright Eyes, started Saddle Creek Records in Omaha. The label is named after a street in Midtown Omaha, despite the label being housed in downtown. Saddle Creek Records is the owner of the Slowdown.
Business
Omaha is home to a number national and global headquarters including TD Ameritrade, Berkshire Hathaway, Con Agra Foods, Mutual of Omaha, Woodmen of the World, and Hayneedle. First National Bank of Omaha's headquarters are located downtown at One First National Place, the state's largest building. Billionaire Warren Buffett calls the city home and hosts the annual Berkshire Hathaway shareholders meeting at the Century Link Center in downtown Omaha.
Sports
The city hosts the College World Series every year at TD Ameritrade Park, since 2011. The series was formerly hosted at Rosenblatt Stadium prior to its condemnation in September 2010 and subsequent demolition in late 2012. The Series was first held in Omaha in 1947.
Climate
Omaha has a humid continental climate (Dfa in the Koeppen climate classification). Summers are hot and quite wet; winters are cold and quite dry.
References
County seats in Nebraska
1854 establishments in Nebraska Territory |
11582 | https://simple.wikipedia.org/wiki/Toledo%2C%20Spain | Toledo, Spain | Toledo is a city in Spain with a population of 85,000. It is a historical city with a lot of monuments. The city was important from the Roman period to the 18th century. It is the capital of the autonomous community of Castile-La Mancha and the Toledo province. Many famous people and artists were born or lived in this city, including Garcilaso de la Vega, Alfonso X and El Greco. A city in Ohio was named after this.
Sinagoga del Tránsito
Notes
Further reading
Other websites
Municipality
Exhibit on Toledo, Ohio Sister City Agreement
Photography of Toledo by Antony Marsh
http://lahistoriadefermosa.com "La Historia de Fermosa" Abraham S. Marrache, Hebraica Ediciones 2009, a historical novel in Spanish about the love affair in 1179 between King Alfonso VIII of Castile and the young Toledan Jewess, Fermosa.
Sunset in Toledo , Eretz Acheret Magazine
Legends of Toledo
Free Audio Guide of Toledo ES/EN
Spain's official website - Info about Toledo
Capital cities in Spain
World Heritage Sites in Spain |
11583 | https://simple.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tommy%20Tutone | Tommy Tutone | Tommy Tutone was a 1980s pop music group. They are best known for their 1982 song 867-5309-Jenny.
Discography
Studio albbums
Tommy Tutone (1980)
Tommy Tutone 2 (1981)
National Emotion (1983)
Nervous Love (1996)
Tutone.rtf (1998)
Singles
Angel Say No (1980)
867-5309/Jenny (1981)
Which Man Are You (1982)
Get Around Girl (1983)
My Little Red Book (2017)
Time Won’t Let Me (2018)
American rock bands
American pop music groups
new wave bands
Musical groups from California |
11584 | https://simple.wikipedia.org/wiki/Judas%20Priest | Judas Priest | Judas Priest are an English heavy metal band. They formed in The Black Country, England in 1969. They are famous for having two guitar players, named Glenn Tipton and K.K. Downing. The singer, Rob Halford, left the band in the early 1990s because of problems with the other people in the band. He went back to the band in 2003.
On 7 December 2010, the band said they would play their last concert tour during 2011, But they are still a band, and have made a new album called Redeemer of Souls.
History
70s
Forming
Judas Priest used to be a different band to the one that is together now. The lead singer for this old band was called Al Atkins. Around the same time, guitar player K.K. Downing and bass player Ian Hill put together their own band, and when they were looking for a lead singer, they found Al Atkins. His band called Judas Priest had broken up by then, and he suggested that KK and Ian should use the same name. They kept on using the name even after Atkins left in 1973.
When the band was looking for another singer, Ian Hill discovered the singing talents of his girlfriend's brother, Rob Halford. He joined the band.
During the seventies, the band went through several drummers, including Alan Moore, John Hinch, Simon Phillips and Les Binks.
First five albums
Before Judas Priest recorded their first album, a second guitar player, Glenn Tipton, joined the band. The first album, Rocka Rolla, came out in 1974. It was not very successful, probably because it didn't have many of the songs that the band were known for playing in live concerts back in those days. They would later be on the band's next album, Sad Wings of Destiny in 1976. That album was followed up by Sin After Sin in 1977. These three albums had a hard rock style that was familiar to bands like Led Zeppelin, and had a psychedelic feel.
The band's fourth album, Stained Class, had less of a psychedelic sound and was rockier sounding. This was the first album to have drummer Les Binks, who had a drumming style that was liked by many fans, and is thought of as important for improving the band's sound. The fitth album, Killing Machine (called Hell Bent for Leather in America because of the original title suggesting murder) was also rockier sounding but had shorter songs. "Hell Bent for Leather" from the album is one of the band's more popular songs. Les Binks left after this album.
It was also during the late 70s/early 80s that Rob Halford started putting together stage costumes of S&M leather and studs. This was done to express that he was gay - he felt like he needed to keep this from the fans in case it would hurt the band's popularity, and he did not come out until 1998. The S&M look was not thought at the time by fans to be a symbol of homosexuality, and it was copied by many other metal bands.
80s
Les was replaced by Dave Holland, who drummed with the band on all their 80s albums.
Sucess with British Steel and similar albums
The band gained much more fame with album #6 in 1980, called British Steel. The album is said to be important for building on what we know as the heavy metal sound and is one of their most popular, including hit songs like "Metal Gods" "Breaking the Law" and "Living After Midnight". The next album, Point of Entry, didn't do as well.
Album #8, Screaming For Vengeance, was a return to success and had the hits "Electric Eye" and "You've Got Another Thing Comin'" Album #9. Defenders of the Faith, had a similar style.
Change to pop-metal sound
Album #10, however, called Turbo, had more of a pop-metal sound with synthesizers on all the songs and lyrics with sexual themes. This is best demonstrated in the first song "Turbo Lover". It received mixed critic reviews who had doubts about the change in sound. The next album, Ram It Down, mixed the pop metal sound of Turbo with the heavy metal sound of the band's more popular albums.
Dave Holland left the band in 1989, and was replaced with the American Scott Travis - the first non British person to play for the band.
90s
The trial against the band
In the summer of the year 1990, the band was involved in a trial where they were blamed for causing two young men to try to kill themselves. These men were 20-year-old James Vance and 18-year-old Raymond Belknap, both American. On 23 December 1985, Vance and Belknap, after hours of drinking beer, smoking weed and apparently listening to Judas Priest, went to a playground at a church with a shotgun to kill themselves. Belknap died instantly after shooting himself, but Vance survived with a disfigured face. Vance died three years after.
Their parents thought they heard "do it" being sung in the band's song "Better By You, Better Than Me" from the Stained Class album (actually a cover of a Spooky Tooth song). They said the words in the song made them shoot themselves. The trial was dismissed in August of 1990 when Rob Halford played a clip from their song called Exciter in reverse, so it sounded like Halford was singing "I asked her for a peppermint, I asked her to get one" (the actual words were "Stand by for exciter, salvation is his task"). He did this to show how any reverse messages in their songs suggesting suicide were accidental.
Painkiller and Halford leaves
The band released one of their most popular albums in 1990 called Painkiller. The title song did very well and is a popular Judas Priest song. Fans and critics liked Scott Travis' fast and heavy drumming style, feeling it was better than the more simple slower drumming of Dave Holland.
Halford wanted to make heavier music in the style of newer bands like Pantera, but the band wanted to carry on with the style they were playing. Halford and the rest of the band started arguing which led to his leaving of the band, starting new bands called Fight and 2wo.
New singer: Tim 'Ripper' Owens
The band didn't play together for a few years, until 1996 when they found American singer Tim Owens, who nicknamed himself 'Ripper' after an early Priest song. Owens had been playing in a Priest tribute band before joining the actual band.
They released Jugulator in 1997. The album was a lot heavier and darker than Painkiller and had lyrics describing the end of the world. Reviews were negative about Owens' singing style and the heavier musical style.
2000s
Halford and the band make up and Demolition
Halford and the rest of Judas Priest started speaking again after KK, Glenn and Ian were invited to a wedding of a relative of Halford's. KK and Ian attended and made up with Halford.
However, Tim Owens was still in the band until 2003, bringing out Demolition in 2001. The album has a larger variety of musical styles than Jugulator, but was no more successful.
Halford re-joins
Their next album was Nostradamus in 2008, which was a concept album (an album telling a story) about a prophet, also called Nostradamus. Reviews were more critical, with negativity towards the album's length of two discs.
Modern Era
Epitaph tour and new album
Around 2010, media reported that the band planned to break up after one last tour. However, eventually, the band confirmed that they would not be breaking up after the tour but would be doing a lot less touring. K.K. Downing left the band in 2011, after 41 years. He was replaced by Richie Faulkner.
During the tour, the band played at least one song from every studio album apart from the two with Ripper Owens.
The band made a new album after the tour called Redeemer of Souls, which came out in 2014. The band are still touring although their tours will not last as long due to the elderly ages of some of the band members.
Discography
Studio albums
Rocka Rolla (1974)
Sad Wings of Destiny (1976)
Sin After Sin (1977)
Stained Class (1978)
Killing Machine / Hell Bent for Leather (1978)
British Steel (1980)
Point of Entry (1981)
Screaming for Vengeance (1982)
Defenders of the Faith (1984)
Turbo (1986)
Ram It Down (1988)
Painkiller (1990)
Jugulator (1997)
Angel of Retribution (2004)
Nostradamus (2008)
Redeemer of Souls (2014)
Firepower (2018)
References
1960s establishments in England
1960s British music groups
1970s British music groups
1980s British music groups
1990s British music groups
2000s British music groups
2010s British music groups
English heavy metal bands
Hard rock bands
Musical groups established in 1969
Musical groups from Birmingham, West Midlands
Speed metal bands |
11585 | https://simple.wikipedia.org/wiki/Palo%20Alto%2C%20California | Palo Alto, California | Palo Alto is a city in the American state of California in Santa Clara County that has a population of about 55,000 people. It is in the region called Silicon Valley and close to Stanford University. It is the home of many innovators and entrepreneurs. "Palo Alto" means tall tree in Spanish after a famous redwood that was struck down by lightning in 1955. A diverse population thrives in a city known for its schools, churches, restaurants and mild climate.
Palo Alto is where Apple CEO, Steve Jobs died on October 5, 2011. |
11586 | https://simple.wikipedia.org/wiki/Everly%20Brothers | Everly Brothers | Phil and Don Everly (Phil January 19, 1939 – January 3, 2014 and Don February 1, 1937 – August 21, 2021) were two brothers from the U.S. state of Iowa. They started performing in the 1950s and had a lot of famous songs in the 1950s and 1960s. They are considered very influential in rock and roll.
Don was born in Muhlenberg County, Kentucky. He died on August 21, 2021 in Nashville, Tennessee of heart attack at the age of 84.
Phil was born in Chicago, Illinois. He died at age 74 on January 3, 2014 in Burbank, California from chronic obstructive pulmonary disease.
Related pages
List of country musicians from Iowa
References
Other websites
1957 establishments in the United States
Musical groups disestablished in 2014
1950s American music groups
1960s American music groups
1970s American music groups
1980s American music groups
1990s American music groups
2000s American music groups
2010s American music groups
American rock bands
Country bands
Musical duos
Entertainers from Iowa
20th-century establishments in Iowa
2014 disestablishments in the United States
Musical groups established in 1957
Warner Bros. Records artists |
11587 | https://simple.wikipedia.org/wiki/1896 | 1896 |
Events
The first modern Olympic Games takes place in Athens.
Alden J. Blethen buys The Seattle Times.
On January 4, Utah became a state in the United States.
Births
February 9 – Alberto Vargas – Pin-up artist
May 30 - Howard Hawks, American director (d. 1977)
August 27 – Miyazawa Kenji Japanese poet, writer of children's literature
September 21- Walter Breuning, among the oldest people |
11589 | https://simple.wikipedia.org/wiki/42 | 42 | 42 is a year in the 1st century. It was a common year starting on Monday of the Julian calendar. At the time, it was known as the Year of the Consulship of Caesar and Piso.
Events
Roman Empire
Romans take control of Ceuta.
Lands now known as Algeria and Morocco become a Roman province.
The Dalmatian legate Furius Camillus Scribonianus revolts. His troops do not support him and the rebellion quickly ends.
Claudius starts building the Port of Ostia.
Asia
Suro becomes the first king of Geumgwan Gaya in the Korean peninsula.
Chinese General My Yuan puts down the rebellion of the Trung sisters in Tonkin.
Religion
25 January: the apostle Paul becomes a Christian. The exact date is not known, but the Catholic Church has chosen to celebrate it on this date.
Births
Herennius Philo (approximate date) (d. 141)
Pope Sixtus I (d. 124)
Deaths
Arria
Gaius Appius Junius Silanus
40s |
11592 | https://simple.wikipedia.org/wiki/Willie%20Nelson | Willie Nelson | Willie Hugh Nelson (; born April 29, 1933) is an American country music singer-songwriter, as well as an author, poet, actor, and activist.
In 1961, a song that he wrote was recorded by Faron Young, and became a number one song on Billboard's Hot Country Songs music chart. In 1975 he had his first number one song, as a singer, on Billboards Hot Country Songs music chart.
Early life
Willie Nelson was born in Abbott, Texas on April 29, 1933, during the Great Depression to Myrle Marie (née Greenhaw) and Ira Doyle Nelson. He was born on April 29, 1933, but his birth was recorded by doctor F. D. Sims on April 30. He was named Willie by his cousin Mildred, who also chose Hugh as his middle name, in honor of her recently deceased younger brother. Nelson's ancestry includes English, Irish, and Cherokee. His parents moved from Arkansas in 1929, to look for work. Nelson's grandfather, William, worked as a blacksmith, while his father worked as a mechanic. His mother left soon after he was born, and his father remarried and also moved away, leaving Willie and his sister Bobbie to be raised by their grandparents. The Nelsons, who taught singing back in Arkansas, started their grandchildren in music. Nelson's grandfather bought him a guitar when he was six, and taught him a few chords, and with his sister Bobbie, he sang gospel songs in the local church. He wrote his first song at age seven, and when he was nine, played guitar for the local band Bohemian Polka. During the summer, the family picked cotton along with other citizens of Abbott. Nelson didn't like picking cotton, so he earned money by singing in dance halls, taverns, and honky tonks from age thirteen, and continuing through high school. Nelson's musical influences were Hank Williams, Bob Wills, Lefty Frizzell, Ray Price, Ernest Tubb, Hank Snow, Django Reinhardt, Frank Sinatra and Louis Armstrong.
Personal life
Nelson is the co-chair of the National Organization for the Reform of Marijuana Laws (NORML) advisory board.
Discography
Singles
Blue Eyes Crying in the Rain (1975)
"Always on My Mind" (1982)
Writing of songs
Crazy (song) (1961)
Christmas Blues
Related pages
List of country musicians from Texas
Sources
1933 births
Living people
American country singers
American country guitarists
American movie actors
American songwriters
American television actors
Musicians from Texas
Singers from Texas |
11593 | https://simple.wikipedia.org/wiki/Africa-Eurasia | Africa-Eurasia | Africa-Eurasia (also called Afro-Eurasia, Eurafrasia, Afrasia) is the world's biggest landmass. Around 85% (approximately 5.5 billion) of the world population lives there. It is split between the two continents of Africa and Eurasia, the latter of which has been historically further subdivided into Europe and Asia.
In geopolitics the mainland of Africa-Eurasia (excluding islands such as the British Isles, Japan and Madagascar) has been referred to as the World Island.
The Old World includes Africa-Eurasia and its surrounding islands:
Eurasia
Asia
Northern Asia
Western Asia
Central Asia
Eastern Asia
Southern Asia
Southeastern Asia
Europe
Northern Europe
Western Europe
Eastern Europe
Southern Europe
Africa
Northern Africa
Western Africa
Central Africa
Eastern Africa
Southern Africa
In geological terms, Africa-Eurasia (or Eurafrasia) may be a supercontinent if Africa collides with Europe. One estimate suggests it will happen in 600,000 years, when the southern tip of Spain reaches Africa. If this happens, the Mediterranean Sea will be isolated from the Atlantic Ocean. Africa is expected to collide with Europe completely in 50 million years, closing the Mediterranean.
References
Supercontinents |
11594 | https://simple.wikipedia.org/wiki/1916 | 1916 | 1916 (MCMXVI) was a leap year starting on Saturday of the Gregorian calendar.
Events
January 1 – The Royal Army Medical Corps first successful blood transfusionblood that had been stored and cooled.
January 1 – Impressionist painter Monet paints 'Water Lilies'.
January 5 – Heavy rain – allegedly caused by rainmaker Charles Hatfield – begins; it will cause flooding around San Diego, California
January 8 – Allied forces withdraw from Gallipoli
January 13/14 – A heavy storm sweeps through the Zuiderzee in the Netherlands, causing extensive damage. This storm helped the Dutch parliament to decide to build the Afsluitdijk and build polders in the current IJsselmeer.
January 17 – The Professional Golfers Association of America (PGA) is formed
January 18 – A 611 gram chondrite type meteorite struck a house near Baxter, Stone County, Missouri.
January 23 to January 24 In Browning, Montana, the temperature drops from +6.7 °C to -48.8 °C (44 °F to -56 °F) in one day, the greatest change ever on record for a 24-hour period.
January 24 – In Brushaber v. Union Pacific Railroad the Supreme Court of the United States upholds the federal income tax
January 28 – Louis D. Brandeis becomes the first Jew appointed to the Supreme Court of the United States.
January 29 – World War I: Paris is bombed by German zeppelins for the first time.
February 3 – Parliament buildings in Ottawa, Canada are burned down.
February 9 – 6.00 PM – Tristan Tzara "founds" Dadaism (according to Hans Arp)
February 11 – Emma Goldman is arrested for lecturing on birth control.
February 11 – Baltimore Symphony Orchestra presents its first concert
February 21 – World War I: In France the Battle of Verdun begins.
March 20 – Albert Einstein publishes his Theory of Relativity, which explains the relationship between mass and energy.
Births
March 11 - Harold Wilson, British Prime Minister
April 5 – Gregory Peck, American actor (d. 2003)
July 28 - David Brown, American producer (d. 2010)
October 14 - C. Everett Koop, American politician and spokesperson (d. 2013)
November 23 - Michael Gough, British actor (d. 2011)
Deaths
June 4 - Lord Kitchener, British Secretary of State for War, drowned.
nv:1901 – 1950 |
11595 | https://simple.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cemetery | Cemetery | A cemetery or a graveyard is a place, usually surrounded by a fence, where people bury dead bodies and honor the dead people. Many of them have gardens and other greenery in them to symbolise life and to honor those who are dead.
Related pages
Catacomb
Mausoleum
Necropolis
Death customs |
11596 | https://simple.wikipedia.org/wiki/Linda%20Blair | Linda Blair | Linda Blair (born January 22, 1959 in St. Louis, Missouri) is an American actress. She is best known for her role in the movie The Exorcist (1973).
Other websites
1959 births
Living people
Actors from St. Louis, Missouri
American movie actors
American television actors |
11597 | https://simple.wikipedia.org/wiki/David%20Crosby | David Crosby | David Van Cortland Crosby (born August 14, 1941 in Los Angeles, California, USA) is an American Guitarist, singer and songwriter. He is most famous as a founding member of the bands The Byrds and Crosby, Stills, and Nash.
References
American guitarists
Musicians from Los Angeles
American folk musicians
American rock musicians
Organ transplant recipients
Singers from Los Angeles
1941 births
Living people |
11598 | https://simple.wikipedia.org/wiki/Paul%20Harvey | Paul Harvey | Paul Harvey Aurandt (September 4, 1918 – February 28, 2009) was an American radio host. He was best known for his short radio program called "The Rest of the Story" that was broadcast on many radio stations in the United States. He worked in the radio industry from 1933 to 2009. He also had news programs two times a day, in which he would comment on the headlines and tell some odd news stories.
Death
Harvey died on February 28, 2009 at a hospital in Phoenix, Arizona. His son, Paul Harvey Jr., said, "millions have lost a friend".
References
American historians
American radio personalities
Writers from Tulsa, Oklahoma
1918 births
2009 deaths |
11599 | https://simple.wikipedia.org/wiki/Carbon%20dioxide | Carbon dioxide | Carbon dioxide (CO2) is a chemical compound and is acidic. It is a gas at room temperature. It is made of one carbon and two oxygen atoms. People and animals release carbon dioxide when they breathe out. Also, every time something organic is burnt (or a fire is made), it makes carbon dioxide. Plants use carbon dioxide to make food. This process is called photosynthesis. The properties of carbon dioxide were studied by the Scottish scientist Joseph Black in the 1750s.
Carbon dioxide is a greenhouse gas. Greenhouse gases trap heat energy. Greenhouse gases change the climate and weather on our planet, Earth. This is called climate change. Greenhouse gases are a cause of global warming, the rise of Earth surface temperature.
Its concentration in Earth's atmosphere since late in the Precambrian was regulated by photosynthetic organisms and geological phenomena (mainly volcanos).
Biological role
Carbon dioxide is an end product in organisms that obtain energy from breaking down sugars, fats and amino acids with oxygen as part of their metabolism. This is a process known as cellular respiration. This includes all animals, many fungi and some bacteria. In higher animals, the carbon dioxide travels in the blood from the body's tissues to the lungs where it is breathed out. Plants take in carbon dioxide from the atmosphere to use in photosynthesis.
Dry ice
Dry ice, or solid carbon dioxide, is the solid state of CO2 gas below -109.3 °F (-78.5°C). Dry ice does not occur naturally on earth but is man made. It is colorless. People use dry ice to make things cold, and to make drinks fizzy, kill gophers, and freeze warts. The vapor of dry ice causes suffocation and eventually, death. Caution and professional assistance is recommended whenever dry ice is in use.
At usual pressure it will not melt from a solid to a liquid but instead changes directly from a solid to a gas. This is called sublimation. It will change directly from a solid to a gas at any temperature higher than extremely cold temperatures. Dry ice sublimates at normal air temperature. Dry ice exposed to normal air gives off carbon dioxide gas that has no color. Carbon dioxide can be liquified at pressure above 5.1 atmospheres.
Carbon dioxide gas that comes off of dry ice is so cold that when it mixes with air it cools the water vapour in the air to fog, which looks like a thick white smoke. It is often used in the theater to create the appearance of fog or smoke.
Isolation and production
Chemists can get carbon dioxide from cooling air. They call this air distillation. This method is inefficient because a large amount of air must be refrigerated to extract a small amount of CO2. Chemists can also use several different chemical reactions to separate carbon dioxide. Carbon dioxide is made in the reactions between most acids and most metal carbonates. For example, the reaction between hydrochloric acid and calcium carbonate (limestone or chalk) makes carbon dioxide:
The carbonic acid (H2CO3) then decomposes to water and CO2. Such reactions cause foaming or bubbling, or both. In industry, such reactions are used many times to neutralize waste acid streams.
Quicklime (CaO), a chemical that has widespread use, can be made heating limestone to about 850 °C. This reaction also makes CO2:
Carbon dioxide is also made in the combustion of all carbon-containing fuels, such as methane (natural gas), petroleum distillates (gasoline, diesel, kerosene, propane), coal or wood. In most cases, water is also released. As an example the chemical reaction between methane and oxygen is:
Carbon dioxide is made in steel mills. Iron is reduced from its oxides with coke in a blast furnace, producing pig iron and carbon dioxide:
Yeast metabolizes sugar to produce carbon dioxide and ethanol, also known as alcohol, in the production of wines, beers and other spirits, but also in the production of bioethanol:
All aerobic organisms produce when they oxidize carbohydrates, fatty acids, and proteins in the mitochondria of cells. The large number of reactions involved are exceedingly complex and not described easily. (They include cellular respiration, anaerobic respiration and photosynthesis). Photoautotrophs (i.e. plants, cyanobacteria) use another reaction: Plants absorb from the air, and, together with water, react it to form carbohydrates:
Carbon dioxide is soluble in water, in which it spontaneously interconverts between CO2 and (carbonic acid). The relative concentrations of , and the deprotonated forms (bicarbonate) and (carbonate) depend on the acidity (pH). In neutral or slightly alkaline water (pH > 6.5), the bicarbonate form predominates (>50%) becoming the most prevalent (>95%) at the pH of seawater, while in very alkaline water (pH > 10.4) the predominant (>50%) form is carbonate. The bicarbonate and carbonate forms are very soluble. So, air-equilibrated ocean water (mildly alkaline with typical pH = 8.2–8.5) contains about 120 mg of bicarbonate per liter.
Industrial production
Industrial carbon dioxide is produced mainly from six processes:
By capturing natural carbon dioxide springs where it is produced by the action of acidified water on limestone or dolomite.
As a by-product of hydrogen production plants, where methane is converted to CO2;
From combustion of fossil fuels or wood;
As a by-product of fermentation of sugar in the brewing of beer, whisky and other alcoholic beverages;
From thermal decomposition of limestone, , in the making of lime (Calcium oxide, );
Chemical reaction
Carbon dioxide can be created with a simple chemical reaction:
carbon + oxygen → carbon dioxide
References
Organic compounds
Biochemistry
Greenhouse gases
Oxides |
11600 | https://simple.wikipedia.org/wiki/Intermission | Intermission | An intermission or interval is a break in a performance. An intermission may be twenty minutes or longer: time for people to have a drink and time for the performers to relax. Plays and operas are usually divided into acts. The intermission will come where there is a suitable break between the acts. There are a few operas (e.g. those by Richard Wagner) which are so long that there may be two intermissions.
Theater |
11601 | https://simple.wikipedia.org/wiki/David%20Duchovny | David Duchovny | David Duchovny (born August 7, 1960) is an American actor. He is best known for his role as Fox Mulder on the television series, The X-Files. On August 13, 2007, his series Californication began airing on the Showtime television network.
References
1960 births
Living people
American movie actors
American television actors
Actors from New York City
Golden Globe Award winning actors |
11602 | https://simple.wikipedia.org/wiki/Laramie%2C%20Wyoming | Laramie, Wyoming | Laramie is a city in the U.S. state of Wyoming. It is near the University of Wyoming. It is the county seat of Albany County.
The University of Wyoming is located in Laramie.
Recent history
In 1998, Matthew Shepherd was murdered in this town.
References
Other websites
City of Laramie, official website
Cities in Wyoming
County seats in Wyoming
Albany County, Wyoming |
11603 | https://simple.wikipedia.org/wiki/Black%20Death | Black Death | The Black Death was a pandemic in Europe and Asia during the 14th century. This outbreak of disease was at its worst between 1347 and 1351. It killed between 75 million and 200 million people across Europe, the Middle East, India, and China.
Historians cannot be certain which disease caused the Black Death. However, most think the disease was the bubonic plague. This is a bacterial infection caused by the Yersinia pestis species of bacteria.
The Black Death may have begun in Central Asia or East Asia. It definitely appeared in Crimea in 1347. It was probably carried by fleas living on black rats. These rats traveled on Genoan ships and brought the plague to port cities around the Mediterranean. Rats may also have traveled along trade routes like the Silk Road, bringing infected fleas to European cities. When these fleas bit humans, they infected them with the plague by injecting a little bit of Y. pestis bacteria into the wound. Symptoms would start three to seven days later.
Not everybody agrees that plague caused the Black Death. Some historians have suggested that anthrax or a viral hemorrhagic fever caused the pandemic.
Impact
The disease killed around a third of Europe's population. Some areas were less affected than others. At least 75-200 million people across Eurasia died in the Black Death pandemic.
Until the 1700s, the plague seems to have reappeared in Europe at least once every generation. Some of these smaller plagues were more intense than others, and caused more deaths. Later outbreaks include the Italian Plague of 1629-1631, the Great Plague of London (1665–1666), the Great Plague of Vienna (1679), the Great Plague of Marseille in 1720–1722, and the 1771 plague in Moscow. The most virulent form of the plague seems to have disappeared from Europe in the 18th century.
The Black Death had a very big effect on Europe's population. It changed Europe's social structure. It was a serious blow to the Roman Catholic Church and resulted in widespread persecution of minorities such as Jews, Muslims, foreigners, beggars and lepers. The uncertainty of daily survival influenced people to live for the moment, as illustrated by Giovanni Boccaccio in The Decameron (1353).
At the time, fourteenth-century European writers called the pandemic the "Great Mortality." After later outbreaks, it got the name 'the Black Death'.
Media
The Black Death appears in some modern literature and media, used as a subject or a setting. For example, Edgar Allan Poe's short story The Masque of the Red Death (1842) is set in an unnamed country during a fictional plague that shares many things in common with the Black Death.
Albert Camus's writings use this theme too. His novel The Plague (1947) is set against an outbreak of the plague in Algeria, and discusses how people handle the epidemic.
Medical aspects
In humans, the bubonic plague causes fevers, severe flu symptoms, and buboes. Buboes are large swellings filled with pus. They usually appear in the groin, under the arms, on the thighs, and behind the ears. Buboes are a black and purple colour; this may be how 'The Black Death' got its name. The disease was painful, and many victims died horrible deaths.
The medical knowledge of the time was based on Hippocrates' theory of humorism. This theory said the body consists of different fluids. If they are in harmony, a person is healthy. If they are not, disease results. Very often, diseases were also seen as a punishment from God.
The theory of humorism does not explain why disease spreads from one person to another. Most people thought that infection was caused bymiasma ("bad air"). The bad air could come from within the earth, and thereby cause the disease. Remedies against the disease included opening only north-facing windows; not sleeping during the day; and not working too hard.
In 1348, Philip VI of France asked the Faculty of Medicine of the University of Paris about the cause of the Black Death. The Faculty concluded that the pandemic was caused by a bad conjunction of Jupiter, Saturn and Mars on 20 March, 1345. Since this answer was based on science (astrology), many people believed it, and it was translated into many languages.
Because nobody understood what caused the plague, doctors had no effective treatments. Often, doctors simply told their patients to go to Confession, so that their sins would be forgiven if they died. Eventually, the pandemic caused doctors to change their ideas about how the human body worked. Gradually they moved away from the theories of Hyppocrates and Galenos, and towards empirical science. Just 200 years later, Girolamo Fracastoro discovered that diseases spread through infection.
Germ warfare
Mongol forces used the plague as a biological weapon in 1347. This was one of the earliest uses of germ warfare in history.
On the Crimean Peninsula, Mongol forces were fighting for control of Caffa, a Black Sea port (now Feodosiya, Ukraine). At that time, Caffa was a Genoese trade centre. Mongol forces began a siege. During the siege, they are reported to have catapulted plague-infested bodies over the walls into the city. Genoans fled the siege, using ships. Some historians believe the Caffa refugees brought the plague back to Italy with them, starting the Black Death pandemic.
Related pages
Great Plague of London
References
Other websites
Primary sources online
Agnolo di Tura's account
Gabriele de' Mussi's account
Marchionne di Coppo di Stefano Buonaiuti's account
A Petrarch account and More quotes from Petrarch
Secondary sources online
The History Guide "Satan Triumphant: The Black Death"
Symptoms, causes, pictures of bubonic plague
Overview of the black death
BBC news story on controversy over Black Death origins
Examination of "Ring around the Rosy"'s relationship to the plague
Black Death Overview from BBC history
Plague and Public Health in Renaissance Europe. Primary source documents and analyisis
Secrets of the Dead . Mystery of the Black Death PBS
Pandemics in Eastern Europe
Plague pandemics
Middle Ages |
11604 | https://simple.wikipedia.org/wiki/Liverpool | Liverpool | Liverpool is a city in North West England, United Kingdom with a population of about 485,000 in 2015. It is part of the Liverpool-Birkenhead metropolitan area, the fifth-largest metropolitan area in the UK. The local government is Liverpool City Council.
Liverpool is on the eastern side of the River Mersey. It used to lie in the old area of West Derby in the south west of Lancashire. It became a borough in 1207 and a city in 1880. In 1889, it became separate from Lancashire. Liverpool's growth as a large port was matched by the growth of the city during the Industrial Revolution.
It was most famous as a port during the late 19th and early 20th century. It is the birthplace of the famous rock group The Beatles. It is also famous because of its football teams, Everton F.C. and Liverpool F.C.
People from Liverpool are called Liverpudlians or Scousers. People from Birkenhead are called "true Scousers" by some.
History
Liverpool became very important due to trade in sugar, tobacco and especially slaves. In 1818, the Black Ball Line, with a fleet of sailing ships, offered the first regular passenger service with emphasis on passenger comfort, from England to the United States.
In the 19th Century, transatlantic trade and passenger travel was served to destinations such as New York City from Liverpool by;
Black Ball Line (trans-Atlantic packet) (1817-1877)
Cunard Line (1840-)
White Star Line (1845-1934)
Collins Line (1818-1858)
Leyland Line (1873-1901)
Guion Line (1866-1894)
Inman Line (1850-1893)
In 1830, Liverpool and Manchester became the first cities to have a railway connecting them to each other, the Liverpool and Manchester Railway. Not including airports in London, Liverpool Airport was the first airport in Britain opening in 1930. In 2008 it was awarded the title European Capital of Culture.
Geography
Liverpool is a city on the River Mersey, on the coast next to the Irish Sea. On the other side of the river Mersey is the Wirral. In 1846 the Albert Dock was opened and in 1988, turned into a shopping centre.
Culture
The city is the birthplace of the famous rock group The Beatles and the musical style Merseybeat. It has several art galleries, museums and theatres. The Tate Liverpool is a gallery of modern art, the Walker Art Gallery displays classical art, the Bluecoat and FACT exhibit contemporary art. Museums include the World Museum, the Maritime Museum and the Museum of Liverpool. There are two cathedrals, Liverpool Cathedral which is known as Anglican and Metropolitan Cathedral which is Catholic. There are two famous football clubs, Liverpool F.C. and Everton F.C. It has several parks including Sefton Park and Stanley Park.
Transport
Liverpool Airport opened in 1930, it was later renamed Liverpool John Lennon Airport. It has three tunnels under the River Mersey, one for trains and two (Queensway and Kingsway) for cars travelling to and from Wirral.
Rail
It has a local train network called Merseyrail and the station Liverpool Lime Street provides train travel to and from the rest of the United Kingdom. Until the 1950s it also had Liverpool Overhead Railway and Liverpool Corporation Tramways. Liverpool is connected to the West Coast Main Line railway connecting London, Birmingham, Manchester, Edinburgh and Glasgow.
Road
Motorways running into Liverpool include the M62 from Manchester, the M58 and the M53 from Wirral. The inner ring road is Queens Drive and the outer ring road is the M57.
Sea and river
Liverpool Cruise Terminal opened in 2007 and provides travel to Europe. Regular ferries services operate to Wirral and the Isle of Man. River cruises operate down the Manchester Ship Canal and the Leeds Liverpool Canal also connects into Liverpool.
Education
Liverpool has several universities;
University of Liverpool,
Liverpool John Moores University,
Liverpool Hope University
Liverpool Institute of Performing Arts.
Famous places
Albert Dock
St George's Hall
Liverpool Cathedral
Speke Hall
Merseyside Maritime Museum
International Slavery Museum
Tate Liverpool
The Beatles Story
Pier Head
Al-Rahma Mosque
Goodison Park
Anfield
Famous people from Liverpool
David Morrissey, actor.
Steven Gerrard, Rangers F.C. Manager, Former Liverpool F.C. & England National Team captain
Jamie Carragher, Liverpool Football Club Legend
The Beatles (John Lennon, Paul McCartney, George Harrison, and Ringo Starr).
Tom Baker, actor (Doctor Who)
Ken Dodd, comedian
Echo and the Bunnymen
Julian Lennon, musician, son of John Lennon and his first wife, Cynthia.
Brian Epstein, music mogul
Frankie Goes to Hollywood, music group
Gerry Marsden, musician
Gerry and the Pacemakers, music group
Cilla Black, entertainer
Paul O'Grady, former drag act and television presenter
Jason Isaacs, actor
Miles Kane, musician
Melanie "Mel C" Chisholm, Sporty Spice, Member of the Spice Girls
John Bishop, comedian and actor
Clive Barker, author & director
Peter Serafinowicz, actor & comedian
Kim Cattrall, actress
Jodie Comer, actress
Freddie Starr, Comedian, actor & musician
Development
There has been a lot of development work which is part of a regeneration plan for Liverpool. It is because Liverpool was the Capital of Culture for 2008.
References
Ports and harbours of the United Kingdom |
11605 | https://simple.wikipedia.org/wiki/1166 | 1166 |
Births
December 24 – John I of England
Events
Marko III follows Yoannis V as patriarch of Alexandria.
Henry the Lion builds the first bronze statue north of the Alps.
Giraldo Sempavor captures Evora. |
11606 | https://simple.wikipedia.org/wiki/Serfdom | Serfdom | Serfdom is the forced labour of serfs in a feudal society. In medieval Europe, serfs were peasant farmers who worked without pay for a lord. In exchange, they got to live and work on the lord’s manor. They also got the lord’s protection.
Serfs had more rights than slaves (for example, serfs could own property). However, they were not completely free. They could not move, marry, or leave the manor without the lord’s permission. In most serfdoms, serfs were legally part of the land. If the land was sold, they were sold with it.
Serfs worked in their lord’s fields. They sometimes did other things related to agriculture, like forestry and transportation (by both land and river). Some also worked in craft and manufacturing.
Serfdom developed from agricultural slavery in the Roman Empire. It spread through Europe around the 10th century. During the Middle Ages, most European people lived in serfdoms.
Serfdom lasted up to the 1600s in England and until 1789 in France. In most other European countries, serfdom continued until the early 19th century.
The system of serfdom
During the Middle Ages in Europe, monarchs, the Catholic Church, and the nobility owned all land. Serfs did not own land. Instead, they did manual labor for landowners in exchange for a place to live and work.
Most serfs were farmers, but some were craftsmen - like the village blacksmith, miller or innkeeper.
The serf's feudal contract
Serfs had a feudal contract, just like a baron or a knight. A serf's feudal contract said that he would live and work on a piece of land owned by his lord. A serf was allowed to have their own home, fields, crops, and animals on the lord’s land. Serfs had some rights in the feudal contract. In return for their work, the serf would get protection.
During feudal times, people said that a serf "worked for all", a knight or baron "fought for all," and clergy "prayed for all." Serfs were in a lower social class than knights and barons. However, they were better off than slaves.
A manorial lord could not sell his serfs like Romans sold slaves. However, serfs were legally tied to the land they worked on. If their lord sold his land, his serfs were sold along with the land. Serfs could not sell the land they lived on, and could not leave the manor without their lord’s permission. Often, they needed the lord’s permission before they could marry someone who was not also a serf for that lord.
Becoming a serf
A free man usually became a serf because he owed a large debt. He would make an agreement with the lord of the land. The lord would keep him safe, give money to pay his debt, and give him land to work on. In return, he would work for the lord. All his children would become serfs.
The serf's duties
Serfs had to pay taxes to their lord. The lord would decide how much each serf had to pay, based on the size of the land the serf lived on. Usually, serfs had to pay 1/3 of their land’s value in taxes. When the lord was fighting a war, serfs also had to pay wartime taxes.
Money was not very common during the Middle Ages. Serfs usually paid their lord by giving food and working without pay. Usually, serfs spent five or six days a week working for their lord. On these days, the lord would give his serfs very good food. However, serfs had to do the lord’s work before they could do their own work. When the lord’s crops needed to be harvested, the serf’s own crops needed to be harvested too. Still, the serf could not harvest his own food until he had done his required work for the lord.
At different times in the year, serfs would do different things. A serf might plough his lord's fields, harvest crops, dig ditches, or repair fences. The rest of his time he could take care of his own fields, crops and animals.
There were strange tests to decide if something was good enough to be given for taxes. A chicken, for example, had to be able to jump over a fence. That showed that the chicken was young and healthy.
Lords also required serfs to pay fines when they did certain things. For example, a serf would have to pay a fine:
If he inherited money or property
If he became a priest or monk
If his children moved to the city instead of staying and being a serf on the lord’s manor
If he used his own mill to grind the grain he grew
When a serf died, his children could only stay on the land if they gave the lord their best animal.
Serfs had to pay to use the lord’s grain mill. Many serfs thought this was unfair. Millers charged a fee called multure, which was usually 1/24 of the total grain milled. The serfs often thought the millers were not honest.
Many serfs had to use their lord’s ovens to bake their daily bread. They had to pay to use these ovens. They also had to pay to use the lord’s carts to carry their produce.
Benefits of serfdom
Serfs had some freedoms. They could get and keep property and money. Some serfs had more money and property than their free neighbours. Sometimes, serfs could buy their freedom.
The lord could not make serfs leave his land unless he had good reasons. The lord was supposed to protect them from criminals or other lords, and he was supposed to give them charity during famines.
Agricultural benefits
Serfs could grow what they wanted on their lands. Sometimes they had to pay their taxes in wheat, which is difficult to grow. They could take the wheat they did not give for taxes to the market.
Mostly, serfs were subsistence farmers, eating what they grew. Their heirs usually got an inheritance.
Variations
The rules for serfdom were different at different times and places. In some places, serfdom changed into different types of taxation.
In the 13th-century Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth, serfs had to work two to three days a week for their landlords. In the 14th century, they had to work one day per week. In the 17th century, they had to work four days per week. In the 18th century, they had to work six days per week.
Sometimes, serfs were soldiers during war. They could earn their freedom or even become nobles as a reward for bravery in war.
Serfs could also gain their freedom in other ways. Sometimes they could buy their freedom. Enlightened or generous owners could free a serf (this is called manumission). Some serfs were able to flee to other towns or to newly settled land where people would not ask questions about the serf’s past. Laws varied from country to country. In England, a serf became free if he made his way to a chartered town and avoided being recaptured for a year and a day.
Freedom for the serfs
When people started to use money more, and barter became less important, serfdom began to change. Now lords could make money by renting their land. This was more profitable than getting unpaid work from serfs. Many lords "freed" their serfs when their work became less valuable than money.
Still, the serfs' lives were not seriously changed. They still had to farm their land, take care of their families, and pay their taxes. However, they could no longer be forced off their lands if they did not pay rent, or if their Lord decided he wanted to use their fields for a different purpose.
History of serfdom
Serfs in antiquity
The helots in the ancient Greek city-state of Sparta worked like serfs. So did peasants working on government lands in ancient Rome. However, these workers were not called “serfs.” Instead, they were called coloni, meaning "tenant farmers.”
When Germanic tribes took over the Roman Empire, they took the lands from the wealthy Romans. They became the new lords in the same economic system of serfdom.
Beginning of serfdom
In Western Europe
Medieval serfdom in Western Europe began with the breakup of the Carolingian Empire around the 10th century. This empire had ruled most of western Europe for more than 200 years. After the empire broke up, Western Europe had no strong central governments for a long time.
During this time, feudal lords worked to make serfdom the common way for people to live. Under serfdom, rich landlords could force other people to work for them and feed them.
Serfs did most of the agricultural work in medieval Western Europe. Slavery did exist during this time, but it was not common. Usually slaves were only used to take care of people’s houses.
Parts of Europe, including much of Scandinavia, never used serfdom or other feudal institutions.
In Eastern Europe
Serfdom reached Eastern European countries later than Western Europe. It started in Russia around the 12th century, but was not common until several hundred years later. By the 17th century, serfdom was the most common relationship between Russian peasants and the nobility. It was most common in the central and southern areas of the Tsardom of Russia, and later the Russian Empire.
Serfdom in Ukraine, in other Cossack lands, in the Urals and in Siberia was rare until the reign of Catherine the Great (r. 1762–1796). At that time, it spread to Ukraine. Noblemen began to send their serfs into Cossack lands in an attempt to harvest their extensive untapped natural resources.
Russian serfdom was different than in other Eastern European countries, because it was not changed by German law or by people coming from Germany. In Russia, serfdom and manorialism systems were enforced by the crown (the Tsar), not by the nobility.
End of serfdom
In Western Europe
By the 13th and 14th centuries, serfdom was becoming less common in Western Europe. The manorial system weakened as powerful monarchs took control, towns developed, and the economy improved. At the same time, there were more protests by serfs and peasants, like Wat Tyler’s Rebellion in England in 1381. This put pressure on the nobility and the clergy to change the system and make improvements. New ways of renting the land gave people more freedom.
By the 15th and 16th centuries, serfdom was ending in Western Europe. As the economy continued to change, serfdom became less profitable than renting land for money. Other causes for the end of serfdom included changes in the population and laws about what lords could make their tenants do.
The Industrial Revolution also helped to end serfdom. Landowners began to put their money into industries, because they made more money this way than they did from having serfs. This caused urbanization. As towns got bigger, farmers wanted to move off of manors. They could make more money working in town than they could by working in a lord’s fields.
In England, serfdom ended around 1600. After the Renaissance, serfdom was not common in Western Europe. However, as serfdom was ending, chattel slavery was beginning in the English-speaking parts of the Western Hemisphere.
In Eastern Europe
Serfdom existed in Russia until February 19, 1861. In Russian Baltic provinces, it ended in the beginning of the 19th century (see Russian Serfdom Reforms).
Dates for abolition in European countries
Savoy: 19 December 1771
Baden: 23 July 1783
Denmark: 20 June 1788
France: 3 November 1789
Switzerland: 4 May 1798
Schleswig-Holstein: 19 December 1804
Grand Duchy of Warsaw (Poland): 22 July 1807
Prussia: 9 October 1807 (effectively 1811-1823)
Mecklenberg: October 1807 (effectively 1820)
Bavaria: 31 August 1808
Nassau: 1 September 1812
Estonia (Russian Empire): 23 March 1816
Courland (Russian Empire): 25 August 1817
Württemberg: 18 November 1817
Livonia (Russian Empire): 26 March 1819
Hannover: 1831
Saxony: 17 March 1832
Austria: 7 September 1848
Hungary: 2 March 1853
Bulgaria: 1858 (when feudalism was definitely abolished in the Ottoman Empire; practically in 1880)
Russia: 19 February 1861 (or 1974 - see 'Return of Serfdom' below)
Danubian Principalities (Romania): 14 August 1864
Bosnia and Herzegovina: 1918
Return of serfdom
Some people say that planned economies, especially those based on Soviet-style Communist economics (like the Soviet collective farm system) are government-owned serfdom. Friedrich Hayek said this in his book The Road to Serfdom.
Mikhail Gorbachev grew up in a kolkhoz. These were supposed to be collectives. There were also sovkhoz, which were state-owned. The government used a system of internal passports and household registration (like China's hukou system) to make people stay on their farms. They had to plant crops according to instructions from the central authorities, especially if they were on state-run farms. The state then bought their agricultural produce at low prices and invested heavily in industrialization. Gorbachev said this was much like being a serf.
This kind of serfdom lasted in Russia until 1974 (with a brief break during the Russian Civil War). USSR Government Decree #667 gave peasants identification documents, with an unrestricted right to move within the country, for the first time in Russian history. It is possible that a system like this still exists in rural China.
Related pages
Indentured servant
Farm
Fiefdom
Yeoman
Villein
Other websites
An extraction from the book "Serfdom to Self-Government: Memoirs of a Polish Village Mayor, 1842-1927"
The Granary of Europe - serfdom in Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth
The Causes of Slavery or Serfdom: A Hypothesis , discussion and full online text of Evsey Domar (1970), "The Causes of Slavery or Serfdom: A Hypothesis," Economic History Review 30:1 (March), pp. 18–32
The Estabilishment of Serfdom in Eastern Europe and Russia, Richard Trethewey, American Economist, Spring 1974, Vol. 18 Issue 1
Serfdom
SERFS UP!
References
War Communism to the NEP: The Road from Serfdom
Gorbachev's BBC Interview
Hayek, Friedrich A. von, The Road to Serfdom, London: Routledge, 2001.
Feudalism |
11608 | https://simple.wikipedia.org/wiki/Refrigerator | Refrigerator | A refrigerator is a machine used for keeping things cold. It is sometimes called a fridge or an icebox. It is normally maintained at 4-5 degree Celsius for household use. People put food and drinks in it, to keep those items cold or good (unspoiled) for a longer time. A refrigerator has a heat pump which takes heat away from the air inside the fridge. The heat is moved to the air outside. The heat pump is usually driven by an electric motor.
There are also ice boxes available that do not use electricity because they are filled with ice to provide the colder temperature. The ice can keep things cold until the ice melts. Ice boxes can be taken on camping trips. Sometimes they are called coolers. Refrigerator-sized iceboxes were used before electricity was available.
Most modern refrigerators are available in a variety of colours, although most are white. Smaller versions of the popular refrigerator are also used. They are mainly used in hotels and college dorm rooms.
Freezer
A freezer is a special type of refrigerator that stores food at freezing temperatures. Inside a freezer, it is normally . Freezers can be found in household refrigerators, as well as in industry and commerce. When stored in a freezer, frozen food can be stored safely for a longer time than storing at room temperatures.
Domestic freezers can be a separate compartment in a refrigerator, or can be a separate appliance. Household refrigerators usually have a separate compartment where the heat pump is used to pump even colder temperatures to the contents. Most household freezers maintain temperatures from . Some freezer-only units can achieve and lower. Most household refrigerators generally do not achieve a temperature lower than , because it is difficult to control the temperature for two different compartments. This is because both compartments shares the same coolant loop.
Domestic freezers normally stand upright, resembling refrigerators. Sometimes a domestic freezer is laid on its back to look like a chest. Many modern upright freezers come with an ice dispenser built into their door. Many commercial freezers stand upright and have glass doors so shoppers can see the contents.
References
Other websites
Home appliances
Machines |
11611 | https://simple.wikipedia.org/wiki/Janis%20Ian | Janis Ian | Janis Ian (born Janis Eddy Fink, April 7, 1951) is an American songwriter, singer, musician, columnist, and science fiction writer. She stated singing folk in the mid-sixties while she was still a teenager. She sang the most in the 1960s and the 1970s, but she's still singing today. In 1975, Ian won a Grammy Award for her song, "At Seventeen".
Ian is openly lesbian and is married to a woman.
Discography
Albums
Janis Ian (1967) #29 US (Verve) / (1978) (Columbia) / (Bonus Track) (2004) (Festival, Cooking Vinyl UK)
For All the Seasons of Your Mind (1967) #179 US (Verve)
The Secret Life of J. Eddy Fink (1968) (Verve)
Who Really Cares (1969) (Verve)
Present Company (1971) #223 US (Capitol)
Stars (1974) #83 US, #63 (Columbia) / (Bonus Track) (2004) (Festival, Cooking Vinyl)
Between the Lines (1975) #1 US, #22 Japan (Columbia, Festival) / (Bonus Track) (2004) (Festival, Cooking Vinyl UK)
Aftertones (1976) #12 US, #1 Japan (Columbia) / (Bonus Track) (2004) (Festival, Cooking Vinyl UK)
Miracle Row (1977) #45 US, #26 Japan (Columbia) / (Bonus Track) (2004) (Festival, Cooking Vinyl UK)
Night Rains (1979) (Columbia)
Restless Eyes (1981) #156 US (Columbia)
Uncle Wonderful (1983) (Festival) (Australia only)
Breaking Silence (1993) (Morgan Creek) / (Bonus Track) (2003) (Festival, Cooking Vinyl UK)
Simon Renshaw Presents: Janis Ian Shares Your Pain (1995) (not released until 12.09)
Revenge (1995) (Beacon)
Hunger (1997) (Windham Hill)
god & the fbi (2000) (Windham Hill) / (3 Bonus Tracks) (2000) (JVC Japan)
Lost Cuts 1 (2001) (Rude Girl)
Billie's Bones (2004) (Oh Boy, Rude Girl Cooking Vinyl US)s Night Rains (Bonus Track) (2004) (Festival, Cooking Vinyl UK)
Billie's Bones (Bonus Track) (2004) (JVC Japan)
Folk is the New Black (2006) (Rude Girl) / (With DVD) (2006) (Evasound)
Revenge (Bonus Track) (2006) (Cooking Vinyl UK 2003) (WEA)
Compilation albums
Remember (1978) (JVC Japan)
The Best of Janis Ian (1980) (CBS)
My Favourites (1980) (CBS)
Stars/Night Rains (Double Album) (1987) (CBS)
At Seventeen (1990) (CBS)
Up 'Til Now (1992) (Sony)
Society's Child: The Verve Recordings (1995) (Polydor)
Live on the Test 1976 (1995) (BBC World Wide)
Unreleased 1: Mary's Eyes (1998) (Rude Girl)
The Bottom Line Encore Collection (1999) (Velvet)
The Best of Janis Ian (2002) (Festival)
Live: Working Without a Net (2003) (Rude Girl)
Souvenirs: Best of 1972-1981 (US CD) (2004) (Rude Girl) / (Japan CD) (2004) (JVC Japan) / (CD/DVD) (2006) (Evasound)
Unreleased 2: Take No Prisoners (2006) (Rude Girl)
Unreleased 3: Society's Child (2006) (Rude Girl)
Ultimate Best (2007) (JVC Victory)
Best of Janis Ian: Autobiography Collection (2008) (Rude Girl)
The Essential Janis Ian (2009)
Singles
DVDs
Live at Club Cafe (2005) (Rude Girl)
Janismania (2005) (Rude Girl)
Through the Years: A Retrospective (2007) (Rude Girl)
Janis Ian '79: Live in Japan & Australia'' (2008) (Rude Girl)
References
Other websites
Official website
Janis Ian's Pearl Foundation
Janis Ian interview on Slashdot
2006 interview
Janis Ian archive on NPR Music
1951 births
Living people
American composers
American folk musicians
American guitarists
American science fiction writers
Grammy Award winners
Jewish American writers
Lesbians
LGBT novelists
LGBT people from New York City
LGBT singers
LGBT songwriters
Musicians from New York City
Singers from New York City
Writers from New York City |
11612 | https://simple.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vilnius | Vilnius | Vilnius is the largest city and the capital of Lithuania, with a population of 553,904 (850,700 together with Vilnius County) as of December 2005. It is the seat of the Vilnius city municipality and of the Vilnius district municipality. It is also the capital of Vilnius County. Vilnius lies 312 kilometres (194 mi) from the Baltic Sea and Klaipėda, the chief Lithuanian seaport. Vilnius is connected by highways to other major Lithuanian cities, such as Kaunas (102 km/63 mi away), Šiauliai (214 km/133 mi away) and Panevėžys (135 km/84 mi away).
History
See History of Vilnius
Population
According to the 2001 census by the Vilnius Regional Statistical Office, there were 542,287 inhabitants in the Vilnius city municipality, of which 57.8% were Lithuanians, 18.7% Poles, 14% Russians, 4.0% Belarusians, 1.3% Ukrainians and 0.5% Jews.
Climate
The climate of Vilnius is considered as Humid Continental or Hemiboreal by Köppen climate classification. Summers can be hot, with temperatures above thirty degrees Celsius throughout the day. Winters can be very cold, with temperatures rarely reaching above freezing
Tourism
Vilnius is a cosmopolitan city with diverse architecture. There are more than 40 churches in Vilnius. Restaurants, hotels and museums have sprouted since Lithuania declared independence. Like most medieval towns, Vilnius was developed around its Town Hall. The Old Town, the historical centre of Vilnius, is one of the largest in Europe (3.6 km²). The most valuable historic and cultural sites are concentrated here. The main sights of the city are Gediminas Castle and Cathedral Square, symbols of the capital. The Old Town of Vilnius was inscribed on the UNESCO World Heritage List in 1994. In 1995, the first bronzecast of Frank Zappa in the world was installed near the center of Vilnius with the permission of the government.
Economy
Vilnius is the major economic centre of Lithuania and one of the largest financial centres of the Baltic states.
Education
The city has many universities. The biggest are:
Vilnius University
Vilnius Gediminas Technical University
Mykolas Romeris University
Vilnius Pedagogical University
Specialized higher schools with the university status are:
General Jonas Žemaitis Military Academy of Lithuania
Lithuanian Academy of Music and Theatre
Vilnius Academy of Fine Arts
National M. K. Čiurlionis School of Art
Religion
Vilnius is the Roman Catholic center of the country, with the main church institutions and Archdiocesan Cathedral located here. There are many churches in the city as there are many monasteries and religion schools. The Church architecture in the city includes Gothic, Renaissance, Baroque and Neoclassical styles, these styles can be foundin the Old Town. Vilnius is considered one of the main centers of the Polish Baroque movement in architecture of churches. Vilnius has been home to an Eastern Orthodox Christian presence since the thirteenth century. A famous Russian Orthodox monastery, named for the Holy Spirit, is located near the Gate of Dawn. St. Paraskeva's Orthodox Church in the Old Town is the site of the baptism of Hannibal, the great-grandfather of Pushkin, by Tsar Peter the Great in 1705. A number of Protestant and other Christian groups are present in Vilnius, most notably the Lutheran Evangelicals and the Baptists.
Once widely known as Yerushalayim De Lita (the "Jerusalem of Lithuania"), Vilnius once was comparable only to Jerusalem, Israel, as a world center for the study of the Torah, and for its large Jewish population. That is why one part of Vilnius was named Jeruzalė. At the end of the 19th century, the number of synagogues in Vilnius was more than hundred.
Islam came to Lithuania in the 14th century from Crimea and Kazan, through the Tatars. Tatars in Lithuania have maintained their religious practices: currently, about 3,000 Tatar Muslims live in Lithuania. There are same few groups of pre-Christian pagan in the city.
Subdivisions
The city of Vilnius is made up of 21 elderates that are based on neighbourhoods:
Verkiai — includes Baltupiai, Jeruzalė, Santariškės, Balsiai, Visoriai
Antakalnis — includes Valakampiai, Turniškės, Dvarčionys
Pašilaičiai — includes Tarandė
Fabijoniškės — includes Bajorai
Pilaitė
Justiniškės
Viršuliškės
Šeškinė
Šnipiškės
Žirmūnai — includes Šiaurės miestelis
Karoliniškės
Žvėrynas
Grigiškės — a separate town included in the Vilnius city municipality
Lazdynai
Vilkpėdė — includes Vingis park
Naujamiestis — includes bus and train stations
Senamiestis (Old Town) — includes Užupis
Naujoji Vilnia — includes Pavilnys, Pūčkoriai
Paneriai — includes Trakų Vokė, Gariūnai
Naujininkai — includes Kirtimai, Salininkai, Vilnius International Airport
Rasos — includes Belmontas, Markučiai
Transport
Motorways
Vilnius is the starting point of the Vilnius-Kaunas-Klaipėda motorway that runs across Lithuania and connects the three major cities. The Vilnius-Panevėžys motorway is a branch of the Via-Baltica.
Airports
Vilnius International Airport serves most Lithuanian international flights to many major European destinations.
Public Transport
Vilnius has a public transportation system. There are over 60 bus and 19 trolleybus routes, the trolleybus network is one of the biggest in Europe. Over 250 buses and 260 trolleybuses transport about 500,000 people every day. In the end of year 2007 a new electronic monthly ticket system was introduced.
Sister cities
Vilnius has 14 sister cities.
References
Other websites
Vilnius Public Transport System |
11613 | https://simple.wikipedia.org/wiki/1524 | 1524 | Year 1524 (MDXXIV) was a leap year starting on Friday (link will display the full calendar) of the Julian calendar.
Events
January–June
January – Giovanni da Verrazzano, on board La Dauphine in the service of Francis I of France, sets out from Madeira for the New World.
March 1 (approximate date) – da Verrazzano's expedition makes landfall at Cape Fear.
April 17 – da Verrazzano's expedition makes the first European entry into New York Bay and sights the island of Manhattan.
July–December
Summer – Paracelsus visits Salzburg. He also visits Villach during the year.
July 8 – da Verrazzano's expedition returns to Dieppe.
August–September – Marseille is besieged by Imperial forces under the Duke of Bourbon.
October 28 – A French army invading Italy under King Francis besieges Pavia.
Births
Luís de Camões, Portuguese poet (d. 1580)
Catherine Howard, Fifth Queen of Henry VIII of England, (born in between 1518 and 1524; d. 1542)
Deaths
Pietro Perugino – Italian painter
June 12 – Diego Velázquez de Cuéllar, Spanish conquistador (b. 1465)
July 20 – Claude of France, queen of Louis XII of France (b. 1499)
December 24 – Vasco da Gama, Portuguese explorer (b. c. 1469)
References |
11614 | https://simple.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fungus | Fungus | A fungus (plural: fungi) is a living organism that includes yeasts, moulds, mushrooms and others. Fungi have thin thread-like cells called hyphae that absorb nutrients and hold the fungus in place. Some, such as mushrooms, also have a body containing many cells. Fungi do not have chlorophyll to capture energy from sunlight as plants do. Instead, they are nourished by digesting dead organic matter around them and absorbing it. The study of fungi is called mycology.
The fungi are a separate kingdom of living things, different from animals and plants.
The cells of fungi have nuclei, unlike the cells of bacteria. Hyphae sometimes have many nuclei. Their cell walls contain chitin, unlike the cell walls of plants, which contain cellulose. These and other differences show that the fungi form a single group of related organisms. The group of fungi is called the Eumycota or Eumycetes. They share a common ancestor: they are a monophyletic group.
Fungi are saprophytic: a fungus breaks down dead organic matter around it, and uses it as food. It absorbs the molecules of food through its cell wall.p107 Some fungi are parasitic or symbiotic.
Fungi reproduce sexually and asexually in several different ways. Many fungi make spores that grow into new fungi.
Fungi came into existence about 1000 million years ago. They are found in fossils from the Devonian period, and they are probably much older. They are hard to find in older fossils because they decay rapidly.
Structure
Reproduction
Fungi reproduce both sexually and asexually. Some fungi grow mushrooms: these are fruiting bodies. Under the cap there are gills; the gills bear spores that will disperse, and may develop into new fungi. Otherwise, fungi use a sporangium to bear asexual spores by mitosis, or sexual spores by meiosis. The spores are haploid.
Fungi may be single celled or multicellular. Yeast is single-celled, and reproduces either sexually or asexually. Asexual reproduction occurs by simple budding (binary fission).
Mycelium
The mycelium is the vegetative (non-reproductive) part of a fungus. It is usually underground (or inside some other substance), and made of filaments called hyphae (singluar: hypha).
Hyphae
Hyphae look like threads or tiny roots. The mycelium is a mat of hyphae that may be very thickly woven. The fungus uses them to extract nutrients. Each hypha is a long cell inside a tube-shaped cell wall that grows from the end.
Hyphae are usually syncytia. This means the cell walls (septa) are mostly not complete, and the cell nuclei are not separated from each other as in normal cells. Details differ between species.
Symbiosis
Symbiosis means living together. Lichens are a symbiosis between a fungus and an alga or bacterium. In this partnership the algal cells live inside the fungus tissue. The end result is a new mat-like life-form which clings to rock and other surfaces. About 20% of all fungi live as part of a lichen.
Another important kind of symbiosis is mycorrhiza. This is when a fungus lives inside plant roots; most trees have mycorrhizal roots, and so do many crop plants. Both the fungus and the plant benefit in this arrangement.
Pathogens
Some fungi cause crop diseases; others cause serious disease in humans. Some are highly poisonous: never eat a mushroom picked in the wild unless you know what you are doing.
Uses
Edible fungi are widely used as human food. Certain types of cheese need a fungal species to be added. Blue cheese and Camembert cheese are examples of those types of cheese. The fungi give a unique flavor and texture to the cheese.
Some fungi produce psychotropic (mind-altering) substances. Some people take these fungi recreationally for their psychedelic properties. These psychedelic mushrooms are often called magic mushrooms because they can cause hallucinations. As with any drug, their effect ends after a certain amount of time. Most "magic mushrooms" last for 4 to 6 hours. Because of their mind-altering effects they are illegal in many countries around the world. However, scientists are also researching ways to use "magic mushrooms" as medicine.
In modern times, some fungi (for example, penicillin) have been used as a source of antibiotics. The antibiotics are produced by many fungi as a natural defence against bacteria.
Related pages
Mycorrhiza
Mould
Lichen
Candida
References |
11615 | https://simple.wikipedia.org/wiki/Guernsey | Guernsey | Guernsey is an island in the English Channel off the coast of Normandy. It is one of the Channel Islands, and is the main administration island of the Bailiwick of Guernsey'. Elizabeth II is the head of state, but it has a government of its own, with its own laws and special status when it comes to taxes.
65,573 people live there.
The Island
Guernsey has 10 parishes. These are
Castel, Forest, St Andrews, St Martins, St Peter Port, St Pierre du bois, St Sampson, St Saviour's, Torteval, Vale.
St Peter Port is the biggest parish by terms of population, with 16,500 people living there.
Language
Guernsey has its own dialect of the Norman language, called Guernésiais. It is spoken by only 2% of the population, but is understood by around 14%. This means that only 1300 people speak it, and most of these people are elderly. Only 1 in every 1000 young people can speak it.
Islands of the Channel Islands |
11616 | https://simple.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pottery | Pottery | Pottery is the ceramic material which makes up potteryware. Major types include earthenware, stoneware and porcelain. The place where such wares are made is also called a pottery (plural "potteries"). Pottery also refers to the art or craft of a potter or the making of pottery. A dictionary definition is simply clay fired in a kiln.
Pottery objects are made from damp clay mixed with other materials. They are then fired in a special oven called a kiln at high temperatures. Firing makes the clay hard. The potter may then apply a glaze to the surface before firing the object again. The fired glaze makes the surface of the pottery shiny, decorative and water-tight.
Some potters make objects which are not useful and are really artistic objects or sculpture. Bare pottery objects without a glaze are called bisque or just earthenware. The finest pottery objects, made of porcelain or bone china are quite strong, yet are translucent.
History of pottery
Pottery originated before the Neolithic period. The earliest example we have is from eastern Europe, dating to 25,000 years ago or earlier. It is a female figurine known as the Venus of Dolní Věstonice, from a palaeolithic site in Moravia, Czech Republic. It may have been made as part of a fertility ritual. There are some similar figures from other nearby sites.
Since the invention of agriculture, and the building of cities, containers for food and drink have been found at almost all archaeological sites.
The Potteries
This means the area of Stoke-on-Trent in England, sometimes called the Staffordshire potteries. There were six towns, Tunstall, Burslem, Hanley, Stoke, Fenton and Longton, which now make up Stoke-on-Trent.
The area was the centre of the English pottery industry. The area had local supplies of clay, salt, lead and coal. Canals were used to transport the product inland. It was a large exporter of pottery for about 200 years: roughly from 1760 to about 1960. Plastic crockery after World War II and cheap ceramic production in China largely destroyed the Stoke pottery industry.
References
* |
11618 | https://simple.wikipedia.org/wiki/Screenwriter | Screenwriter | A screenwriter is a person who writes the screenplay (or script) for a movie or television show - that is, a screenwriter writes the words that the actors and actresses speak.
A script conveys the dialogue of the movie, and will briefly describe visuals, although not too much, as this is left up to the director.
There are certain rules as to how to format a movie script. If these are not followed, then it is highly unlikely that it will ever be taken seriously. In order to test the effectiveness of a script, actors will do a first reading of it. If the format is not clear, then it will probably cause the actors confusion, and will make the task very difficult to complete.
References
Movie occupations |
11619 | https://simple.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sacramento%2C%20California | Sacramento, California | Sacramento is the capital of the U.S. state of California. The governor and legislature of California are in Sacramento. About 400,000 people live in Sacramento. About 1,700,000 live in and around Sacramento.
Sacramento comes from Spanish and Portuguese for holy rite. A sacrament is a religious act that gives people divine grace (being liked or favored by God.)
Sacramento was started in 1848 by John Sutter. It was a very important place during the California Gold Rush. The Gold Rush was the time after gold was found in California. Many people came to California to find gold. They did this to make money. During the Gold Rush, Sacramento was where the railroad ended. It was also where the Pony Express stopped.
Sacramento is near where the American River meets the Sacramento River. This was important when Sacramento was founded. It meant that ships could bring things to Sacramento from the Pacific Ocean. Sacramento was a railroad town. This made Sacramento a port town. This made it a very important place for business.
References
Cities in the Central Valley of California
County seats in California
State capitals in the United States
1850 establishments in California |
11620 | https://simple.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alexander%20Scriabin | Alexander Scriabin | Alexander Scriabin (also spelt: Skryabin) (born Moscow January 6 1872; died Moscow April 27 1915) was a famous Russian composer and pianist. He wrote music for the orchestra and for the piano. His music belongs to the Late Romantic period, but his later works sound quite modern, and he was influenced by Impressionism. He had some very unusual ideas about combining all the arts into one work.
Life
Scriabin was the only child in a family which had an aristocratic background. He was always proud of having been born on Christmas Day (6 January is Christmas Day in the Russian Orthodox church). His mother died when he was a year old and his father spent most of his time abroad working as a diplomat. He was looked after by his aunt, grandmother and great-aunt, all of whom fussed over him so that he was a very spoilt child. When he grew up he was very short and his hands could only just stretch one octave (eight notes) on the piano.
Scriabin was educated in the Moscow Cadet Corps. He learned to play the piano and became friends with the composer Sergei Rachmaninoff who was just one year younger. He won the second gold medal ever to be awarded at the Moscow Conservatoire (Rachmaninoff had won the first one). He practised a piece called Islamey by Balakirev but damaged his right hand doing it. He still managed to continue his career as a pianist, but he wrote a few piano pieces for the left hand only. In 1895 he toured through many countries in Europe giving concerts and composing a lot of piano music. He married in 1897. He went with his wife to Odessa where he played his Piano Concerto and then spent several months in Paris. He taught at the Moscow Conservatoire and wrote some important orchestral music. Later he left his wife and children and went to Europe for several years with another woman. She inspired a lot of his music. Scriabin continued to travel and play the piano until the end of his life. When he was in London in 1914 he had a boil on his lip, which got steadily worse until he died a year later.
His music
Scriabin liked the music of Chopin and he wrote a lot of short pieces called Preludes which show Chopin’s influence. As he got older his music became more and more personal. He was very egocentric (thought only about himself and not about other people) and he had some strange ideas. He wanted to write a work which combined all the arts and all the senses: music, dance, poetry, colours and even smells. He wanted this work to be performed beside a lake in India. This work was never finished or performed, and we do not know whether he seriously thought it would happen, but he did buy himself a sun helmet.
Scriabin tried using different harmonies in his music. He had a favourite chord which he called his “mystic chord” (from the bottom upwards: C, F sharp, B flat, E, A, D). He used it in lots of ways. His orchestral works include a Piano Concerto, 3 symphonies, Le poème de l’extase (The poem of extasy) and Prométhée, le poème du feu (Prometheus, the poem of fire). His music which is mysterious and dream-like and shares some similarity French Impressionist composers like Debussy.
Related pages
Synaesthesia
Other websites
Scriabin Society of America website
Scriabin biography and a description and pictures from the last place he lived, which has been preserved as a museum
1872 births
1915 deaths
20th-century Russian composers
Musicians from Moscow
Romantic composers
Russian pianists |
11621 | https://simple.wikipedia.org/wiki/Robert%20Mugabe | Robert Mugabe | Robert Gabriel Mugabe (21 February 1924 – 6 September 2019) was a Zimbabwean politician. He was the President of Zimbabwe from 1987 to 2017. Before that, he was Prime Minister, the head of government, after being elected in 1980. For many years before he resigned, Mugabe ruled his country in the style of a dictator.
Presidency
His first years as leader were prosperous. He introduced land reforms, which were supposed to give the land owned by white people back to the "original" black owners. This has had a serious impact on how the country is seen from outside. In recent years, Mugabe has allowed violence against the white citizens of the country as well as to opposition leaders of all races. The reforms were done in 1998. In 2001, the United Nations imposed sanctions against Zimbabwe. This was done because human rights abuses came to the attention of the United Nations.
On November 15, 2017, he was placed under house arrest as Zimbabwe's military took control in a coup. On November 21, 2017, Mugabe resigned as President of Zimbabwe. It ended his rule of 40 years.
Death
Mugabe was hospitalized in April 2019, making the last of several trips to Singapore for medical treatment. He died on 6 September 2019 at a Singapore hospital, at the age of 95. The cause of death was prostate cancer.
References
Other websites
1924 births
2019 deaths
Deaths from prostate cancer
Former dictators
Former members of the Order of the Bath
Presidents of Zimbabwe
Prime Ministers of Zimbabwe
Roman Catholics
African Union chairpersons |
11622 | https://simple.wikipedia.org/wiki/Guyana | Guyana | The Co-operative Republic of Guyana (formerly British Guiana) is a country in South America. It is one of the most sparsely populated countries in the world (700,000 people live there inside its over 200,000 km² of area). Georgetown is the capital; like most of the country's settlements, it is on a flat coastal plain that goes from northwest to southeast. Venezuela claims the land west of the Essequibo River as part of Guayana Esequiba.
Guyana's current president is Irfaan Ali. The country gained independence from the United Kingdom on May 26, 1966 (before which it was called British Guiana). The republic is called cooperative for integrating different ethnic groups into government, introduced after the socialist government PNC won a majority in1968. The term "cooperative republic" however dates back from 1961.
Guyana is member of the Commonwealth of Nations and the Caribbean Community It is ranked first in suicides per capita worldwide.
Related pages
Guyana at the Olympics
Guyana national football team
List of Guyanese people
List of rivers of Guyana
References
Other websites
President's Official Website
Guyana Portal
Guyana in the News
Travel information on Guyana
BBC's profile
Caribbean Community
English-speaking countries
1966 establishments in South America |
11623 | https://simple.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sen%20no%20Rikyu | Sen no Rikyu | Sen no Rikyu (, 1522–1591) made important and lasting changes to the Japanese tea ceremony. He was a follower of Toyotomi Hideyoshi. Besides the tea ceremony, Rikyu practiced ikebana and wrote poetry. He also studied zen.
1522 births
1591 deaths
People from Osaka Prefecture |
11625 | https://simple.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oscar%20Wilde | Oscar Wilde | Oscar Fingal O'Flahertie Wills Wilde (16 October 1854 – 30 November 1900) was an Irish writer, poet and playwright. He wrote The Picture of Dorian Gray, and the plays Salomé, The Importance of Being Earnest, An Ideal Husband, and Lady Windermere's Fan.
Wilde was bisexual. He was married, and had two children. His downfall came as a result of his affair with a younger man, Lord Alfred Douglas.
Biography
Wilde, born in Ireland in 1854, was an outstanding classical scholar at Trinity College, Dublin, then at Magdalen College, Oxford University. In London, he worked as a journalist for four years. Known for his biting wit, flamboyant clothes, and glittering conversation, Wilde was one of the best known personalities of the day. It was his only novel, The Picture of Dorian Gray, which brought him full recognition. Then he turned to writing drama. He wrote Salomé in French in Paris in 1891, but it was refused a licence. Despite this, Wilde produced four society comedies in the early 1890s, which made him one of the most successful playwrights of late Victorian London.
At the height of his fame and success—his masterpiece, The Importance of Being Earnest, was still on stage in London—Wilde sued his lover's father for libel. After a series of trials, Wilde was convicted of gross indecency with other men and sentenced to two years of hard labour in Reading Gaol (jail). In prison he wrote De Profundis, a long letter which discusses his spiritual journey through his trials, forming a dark counterpoint to his earlier philosophy of pleasure.
Upon his release he left immediately for France, never to return to the British Isles. There he wrote his last work, The Ballad of Reading Gaol, a long poem commemorating prison life. Living in a Paris hotel, he was destitute, with little money and few friends. His last memorable words were: "My wallpaper and I are fighting a duel to the death. One of us has got to go".p546 He died of cerebral meningitis in Paris at the age of forty-six.
Wilde's wife, Constance Lloyd, changed the family name to Holland after his conviction, and took the children to Switzerland.
The affair
Wilde's lover was the son of the Marquess of Queensbury, who was known for his outspoken atheism, brutish manner and creation of the modern rules of boxing. Queensberry, who argued a lot with his son, confronted Wilde and Lord Alfred about the nature of their relationship. In June 1894, he visited Wilde at 16 Tite Street without an appointment, and said: "If I catch you and my son again in any public restaurant I will thrash you."
Trials
Wilde vs Queensberry
On the 18 February 1895, the Marquess left his calling card at Wilde's club, the Albemarle, inscribed: "For Oscar Wilde, posing as a sodomite".
Wilde, egged on by Douglas and against the advice of his friends, initiated a private prosecution against Queensberry, and had him arrested on a charge of criminal libel. As sodomy was then a crime, Queensberry's note amounted to a public accusation that Wilde had committed a felony, forming the legal basis for libel charges. Queensberry could avoid conviction for libel only by demonstrating that his accusation was, in fact, true.
In his opening speech for the defence, Counsel for Queensbury, Edward Carson, announced that he had found several male prostitutes who were to testify that they had sex with Wilde. On the advice of his lawyers, Wilde then decided to drop the libel prosecution against Queensberry. Queensberry was found not guilty, as the court declared that his accusation that Wilde was "posing as a sodomite" was justified, "true in substance and in fact".
Under the Libel Act 1843, Queensberry's acquittal rendered Wilde legally liable for the considerable expenses Queensberry had incurred in his defence, which left Wilde bankrupt.
The Crown vs Wilde
After Wilde left the court, a warrant for his arrest was applied for on charges of sodomy and gross indecency. Friends found Wilde at a hotel; they advised him to go to Dover and try to get a boat to France. His mother advised him to stay and fight like a man. Wilde was duly arrested and then imprisoned on remand at Holloway, where he received daily visits from Douglas.
Events moved quickly. His prosecution opened on the 26 April 1895 and Wilde pleaded not guilty. He had already begged Douglas to leave London for Paris, and Douglas fled to the Hotel du Monde. Under cross examination Wilde was at first hesitant, then spoke eloquently:
Charles Gill (prosecuting): What is "the love that dare not speak its name?"
Wilde: " 'The love that dare not speak its name' in this century is such a great affection of an elder for a younger man as there was between David and Jonathan, such as Plato made the very basis of his philosophy, and such as you find in the sonnets of Michelangelo and Shakespeare. It is that deep spiritual affection that is as pure as it is perfect. It dictates and pervades great works of art, like those of Shakespeare and Michelangelo, and those two letters of mine, such as they are. It is in this century misunderstood, so much misunderstood that it may be described as 'the love that dare not speak its name', and on that account of it I am placed where I am now. It is beautiful, it is fine, it is the noblest form of affection. There is nothing unnatural about it. It is intellectual, and it repeatedly exists between an older and a younger man, when the older man has intellect, and the younger man has all the joy, hope and glamour of life before him. That it should be so, the world does not understand. The world mocks at it, and sometimes puts one in the pillory for it".
This response was, however, counterproductive in a legal sense as it only served to reinforce the charges of homosexual behaviour. The trial ended with the jury unable to reach a verdict. Wilde's counsel, Sir Edward Clark, was finally able to agree bail. The Reverend Stewart Headlam put up most of the £5,000 bail, having disagreed with Wilde's treatment by the press and the courts. Wilde was freed from Holloway and, shunning attention, went into hiding at the house of Ernest and Ada Leverson, two of his firm friends. Edward Carson approached Frank Lockwood (QC) and asked "Can we not let up on the fellow now?"p435 Lockwood answered that he would like to do so, but feared that the case had become too politicised to be dropped.
At the final trial, Wilde and Alfred Taylor were convicted of gross indecency and sentenced to two years' hard labour. The judge described the sentence as "totally inadequate for a case such as this", although it was the maximum sentence allowed for the charge under the Criminal Law Amendment Act of 1885. Wilde's response "And I? May I say nothing, my Lord?" was drowned out in cries of "Shame" in the courtroom.
Quotations
I have the simplest tastes. I am always satisfied with the best.
A thing is not necessarily true because a man dies for it.
Consistency is the last refuge of the unimaginative.
A poet can survive everything but a misprint.
We have really everything in common with America nowadays, except, of course, language.
On George Bernard Shaw: An excellent man: he has no enemies, and none of his friends like him.
Hard work is simply the refuge of people who have nothing whatever to do.
Life imitates art far more than art imitates Life.
Anybody can make history. Only a great man can write it.
Truth, in the matters of religion, is simply the opinion that has survived.
The one duty we owe to history is to rewrite it.
I can resist everything except temptation. (Lord Darlington in Lady Windermere's Fan)
Life is far too important a thing ever to talk seriously about it. (Lord Darlington in Lady Windermere's Fan)
We are all in the gutter, but some of us are looking at the stars. (Lord Darlington in Lady Windermere's Fan)
What a pity that in life we only get our lessons when they are of no use to us. (Lady Windermere)
In this world there are only two tragedies. One is not getting what one wants, and the other is getting it. (Mr Dumby)
Experience is the name everyone gives to their mistakes. (Mr Dumby)
The English country gentleman galloping after a fox—the unspeakable in full pursuit of the uneatable. (Lord Illingworth)
Children love their parents. Eventually they come to judge them. Rarely do they forgive them. (Mrs. Arbuthnot)
To love oneself is the beginning of a lifelong romance.
Be yourself, everyone else is taken.
Bibliography
Prose
The Canterville Ghost (1887)
The Happy Prince and Other Stories (1888)
Lord Arthur Savile's Crime and Other Stories (1891)
Intentions (1891)
The Picture of Dorian Gray (1891)
A House of Pomegranates (1891)
The Soul of Man under Socialism (First published in the Pall Mall Gazette, 1891, first book publication 1904)
De Profundis (1905)
The Letters of Oscar Wilde (1960) This was rereleased in 2000, with letters uncovered since 1960, and new, detailed, footnotes by Merlin Holland.
Teleny or The Reverse of the Medal (Paris,1893)
Plays
Vera; or, The Nihilists (1880)
The Duchess of Padua (1883)
Lady Windermere's Fan (1892)
A Woman of No Importance (1893)
Salomé (French version) (1893, first performed in Paris 1896)
Salomé: A Tragedy in One Act: Translated from the French of Oscar Wilde by Lord Alfred Douglas, illustrated by Aubrey Beardsley (1894)
An Ideal Husband (1895) (text)
The Importance of Being Earnest (1895) (text)
La Sainte Courtisane and A Florentine Tragedy Fragmentary. First published 1908 in Methuen's Collected Works
Dates are dates of first performance.
The Importance of Being Earnest and Other Plays. Penguin Classics, 2000. Edited with an Introduction, Commentaries and Notes by Richard Allen Cave. Contains all from above save the first two. Salome is in English. As an appendix there is one excised scene from The Importance of Being Earnest.
References
1854 births
1900 deaths
Deaths from meningitis
Bisexual people
Disease-related deaths in France
Irish LGBT people
Irish novelists
Irish playwrights
Irish poets
LGBT novelists
LGBT playwrights
LGBT poets
Writers from Dublin |
11632 | https://simple.wikipedia.org/wiki/U2%20%28band%29 | U2 (band) | For the aircraft, see Lockheed U-2.
U2 are an Irish rock band. The four members of the band are lead singer Bono (born Paul David Hewson), lead guitarist The Edge (born David Howell Evans), bassist Adam Clayton, and drummer Larry Mullen Jr. U2 are a very popular band all over the world and have been since the 1980s. They have sold more than 170 million albums and have won 22 Grammy Awards. This is more than any other rock band.
U2 formed in Dublin in 1976, when none of the members were very good musicians. However, they got better as they got older. They were more popular for playing live shows than for releasing albums. This changed with their hit record in 1987, The Joshua Tree. In 1991, U2 released a new album called Achtung Baby. This album sounded very different from their other albums because it was inspired by alternative rock and dance music. Achtung Baby and its worldwide Zoo TV Tour were both very popular. U2 experimented for the rest of the 1990s, making two other very different albums, Zooropa and Pop.
In the 21st century, U2 returned to a more traditional sound, but they continue to be very popular and successful. They are involved in charities and helping people with groups such as Amnesty International, Make Poverty History, the ONE Campaign, Live Aid, Live 8, Bono's DATA (Debt, AIDS, Trade in Africa) campaign, and Music Rising.
In 2014, the group won a Golden Globe Award for Best Original Song and was nominated for an Academy Award for Best Original Song for their song Ordinary Love which was used in the movie Mandela: Long Walk to Freedom.
History
Formation (1976-1979)
U2 was formed in the city of Dublin, Ireland on September 25, 1976. It was founded by 14-year-old drummer Larry Mullen Jr. He posted a note on his school's notice board, asking for musicians to create a new band. There were seven teenage boys who went to their first practice. At first, the bandBand", but they later changed their name to "Feedback" and then "The Hype". The band became smaller over time, eventually becoming just four people, and they finally changed their name to "U2" once Bono, The Edge, Clayton, and Mullen were left.
Albums
Boy (1980)
October (1981)
War (1983)
The Unforgettable Fire (1984)
The Joshua Tree (1987)
Rattle and Hum (1988)
Achtung Baby (1991)
Zooropa (1993)
Pop (1997)
All That You Can't Leave Behind (2000)
How to Dismantle an Atomic Bomb (2004)
No Line on the Horizon (2009)
Songs of Innocence (2014)
Songs of Experience (2017)
References
Other websites
U2 official website
20th-century establishments in the Republic of Ireland
1980s Irish music groups
1990s Irish music groups
2000s Irish music groups
2010s Irish music groups
Irish rock bands
Musical groups established in 1976
Musical groups from Dublin
Musical quartets
1976 establishments in Europe |
11633 | https://simple.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bono | Bono | Paul David Hewson (born 10 May 1960), known by his stage name Bono, is an Irish singer-songwriter, activist, businessman, and philanthropist. He is best known as the lead singer of rock band U2.
Career
He became a member of the band U2 on 25 September 1976, when he responded to a message that was placed by Larry Mullen Jr. to form a rock band.
The name Bono was a type of hearing aid and in Latin means good voice.
Bono married Alison Stewart. They have four children. Jordan (b. 1989), Eve (b. 1991), Elijah (b. 1999) and John (b. 2001).
Bono is known for doing a lot of charity work. For this, he was named Time Person of the Year in 2005. Bono has even been nominated for the Nobel Peace Prize, though he did not win it.
References
Other websites
1960 births
Living people
Honorary Knights Commander of the Order of the British Empire
Irish guitarists
Irish rock musicians
Irish singer-songwriters
Musicians from Dublin
Rock guitarists
Time People of the Year
U2 |
11634 | https://simple.wikipedia.org/wiki/Adam%20Clayton | Adam Clayton | Adam Clayton (born 13 March 1960 in Chinnor, Oxfordshire, England) is the bassist for the rock band U2. He lives in County Dublin now, and he has a house in Southern France too.
Life
When Adam was five years old, he and his family moved to Malahide near Dublin. He started playing guitar when he went to school. He joined the other members of the future U2 band in the same time. Their band was first named "Feedback" and then they changed its name to "The Hype". However, they released their second album on 1981 under the name of U2.
All other U2 members were married by 2006, and Adam was the only member who was still single. In 2006, it was announced that Adam was going to marry Suzanne "Susie" Smith; they dated for almost 10 years before this news was announced. They were planning to marry in the summer of 2007, but they split up in February 2007.
In January 2011, Adam revealed that he was the father of a baby boy, born in 2010. On September 4, 2013, Adam married Mariana Teixeira de Carvalho, in a wedding in Dublin. She is a fashion model from Brazil.
References
1960 births
Living people
Bassists
U2
English guitarists |
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