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Alfred Nobel () (October 21, 1833 – December 10, 1896) was a Swedish scientist, engineer, and weapons manufacturer. He is well known for the invention of dynamite and for creating the Nobel Prize.
He left instructions in his will that his money should create the Nobel Prize after reading an article in a French newspaper that called him the "merchant of death" and said that he would be remembered for his invention of dynamite and its ability to kill more people than ever before. Nobel left 31 million kronor (the Swedish currency) to the awards after his death on December 10, 1896. The artificial element Nobelium is named for him.
Early life
Nobel was born on October 21, 1833. His father, Immanuel Nobel, was an engineer and inventor. His mother was Andriette Ahlsell Nobel. In 1833, Immanuel Nobel was forced into bankruptcy due to losses in his construction company.
References
Other websites
Alfred Nobel - Citizendium
1833 births
1896 deaths
Deaths from cerebral hemorrhage
Swedish scientists
Nobel Prize |
A pharmacy is a shop where therapeutic drugs are sold. Sometimes a pharmacy is also called a drug store or chemist and druggist store. The people working in a pharmacy are called pharmacists, druggist or chemists (British English). These people can recognise simple diseases and formulate or dispense drugs for some of them.
Certain drugs are special, because they can be addictive, or they change the way other drugs act, or they need to be taken in a special way. These drugs cannot simply be bought at a pharmacy. A prescription is necessary to get them. Medical doctors give out prescriptions, which can then be used to get the drug.
Many pharmacies do not sell drugs only. They also sell beauty products and hygiene-related products, like tampons for women and contraceptives.
Pharmacy is also a branch of chemistry that studies the molecular structure of drugs to find better drugs.
Related pages
Pharmacist
Pharmaconomist
Pharmacology
Online pharmacy
Medicine
Drugs
Health care |
People kiss each other, usually by using their lips and mouth to touch each other. However, there are many different types of kiss, with different meanings. Also, the meaning of kissing may be different in different cultures. Most often, people kiss to show love or affection for each other. Sometimes, people kiss as a sign of friendship, sometimes it is a ritual performed to greet someone.
Types of kisses
Greeting kisses
Greeting kisses are not given for sexual passion, but simply a sign of friendship. In many parts of the world, women often kiss on meeting female friends, but men do not. And the female greeting kiss may not actually touch the friend's face. In the past of many western countries men used to kiss the back of a woman's hand when being introduced. This suggests that a direct kiss from a man to a woman was too intimate to be just a greeting.
There are different ways of kissing. People might kiss on the cheeks to greet someone, or to bid them farewell. Depending on the culture it usually does not mean that the kisser loves the person he or she kissed. Kissing when female friends meet is usual in many countries, with some interesting variations. Parisian females often do a rapid double 'air kiss' or 'cheek kiss': a kiss on each side twice, but without lips touching flesh.
Sexual kisses
French kissing is an erotic gesture. It involves touching tongues while kissing. It is more intimate than other forms of kissing.
Ritual kisses
A kiss may be a ritual, that is, a symbolic or social gesture showing devotion, respect or greeting. Temples, religious books or icon are sometimes given a ritual kiss. A bride and groom kissing at the end of a wedding ceremony or national leaders kissing each other in greeting, are examples.
Kisses and health
It is possible to spread diseases through kissing, but it is also possible to exaggerate the danger. Exotic diseases like herpes and mononucleosis can be spread, but that is rare, and spreading HIV this way is almost unknown. Colds and the flu are much more likely to be spread. Mononucleosis is well known for being spread through kissing. Many diseases that can be spread by sharing drinks can also be spread by kissing.
The upside to this is that, usually, kissing makes people happier. That has health benefits.
References
Basic English 850 words
Non-verbal communication |
A brothel is a bar, nightclub or hotel where sex workers are found. People go there to buy sex for money. Different countries have different regulations as to sex work.
Legality
Some countries where prostitution is legal allow it to happen in a brothel, others allow it to happen "on the street", still others allow both forms. Generally, sex work in a brothel is seen as safer for the worker than sex work on the street.
In some countries operating brothels is legal, in other countries it is illegal. Examples of countries where brothels are illegal are Canada and most of the United States. Brothels are legal in some countries from Europe, for example. A country which has permissive laws regarding sex work is the Netherlands. Laws can be unclear on whether brothels with sexbots are legal or not.
Most of the time, where legal, brothels need to be registered like other businesses. However even if it is legal to run a brothel, there may still be conflicts with the law. Examples of problem cases are:
The sex workers do not have a work permit (the right to work in a country)
The sex workers are too young (underage)
The sex workers are dependent on the people who run the brothel, or on so called pimps
History
Brothels have been known for most of recorded history. At first there was temple prostitution in many Mediterranean and Middle Eastern countries.
In Ancient Greece and Roman civilizations, brothels were established. Sometimes they were licensed institutions. This was first recorded in Athens in 594 BC. Public sources of the time said it was good that Solon installed the brothel. People said this would reduce the problems caused by sexually unfulfilled sailors and workers. It would also fill money into the public purse. This first official brothel was soon followed by many others, and also influenced the creation of special schools in which various classes of prostitutes (from slavegirls to future courtesans) were trained for their profession. In 2017, a brothel was opened with sexbots instead of human workers.
Business models
Brothels use a variety of business models:
In some, sex workers are held like slaves without the option to leave. They only get a small portion (or none) of the money paid by the patron. This is typical where human trafficking procures a large percentage of sex workers. It is common in those countries where sex work is forbidden or repressed. In some cases, sex workers are bought and sold by their keepers, making them slaves. All of this is illegal in most countries.
In others the workers are employees. They receive a small fixed salary and a portion of the money spent by the customer. (Maison close French for "closed house")
In still others, the workers pay a fee for use of the facilities. The brothel owner is not involved in the financial transaction between the sex worker and their client, they simply rent rooms to the workers. (Maison de passe, French for "trick house")
The third option (the brothel owner renting space and facilities to sex workers) gives some way for the brothel owner to say they did not know what is going on. This is especially the case where sex work is forbidden or restricted. Brothel owners often disguise their actions as running a massage parlor, a bar or a similar venue.
Allowing such places (while forbidding se work) can also give politicians a way to save face when they do not want to put laws against sex work into practice.
References
Prostitution
Entertainment venues |
The latitude of the Earth gives the distance north or south of the equator. It is measured in degrees. Latitude is represented by the Greek letter phi, . It is usually used along with a measurement of longitude in order to pinpoint a location on Earth.
The equator is numbered 0 degrees. Everything north or south of the equator is designated either as north latitude or south latitude. The north pole is 90 degrees north, and the south pole is 90 degrees south. The Antarctic Circle, Tropic of Capricorn, Tropic of Cancer, and Arctic Circle are all circles of latitude.
Related pages
Longitude
References
Lines of latitude
Other websites
Latitude Citizendium |
Jaleel White (born November 27, 1976) is an American actor. He is best known for playing of Steve Urkel in the television series Family Matters and the first English voice of Sonic the Hedgehog.
1976 births
Living people
African-American voice actors
American movie actors
American television actors
American voice actors
American child actors
Actors from Culver City, California |
A chemical substance is any material with a known chemical composition. For example, water has the same properties and the same ratio of hydrogen to oxygen whether it came from a river or was made in a laboratory. Typical chemical substances found in the home include water, salt (sodium chloride) and bleach. Generally, substances exist as a solid, a liquid, or a gas, and may change between these phases of matter when there are changes in temperature or pressure.
Gallery
References
Chemistry |
The South China tiger (Panthera tigris amoyensis) is an almost extinct subspecies of the tiger. There are now 20-30 of them left in the wild and 60 left in captivity. It is one of the world's ten most endangered animals and the most endangered of the six surviving tiger subspecies. The South Chinae tiger is also known as the Chinese, Amoy, or Xiamen tiger.
Description
It can be distinguished from other tiger subspecies by its narrow face, its longer nose, more intense orange colour, short fur, longer legs, and shorter stripes which are spaced far apart from each other compared to other tiger subspecies. The South China tiger has the least amount of stripes out of all the tiger subspecies, and is the second smallest tiger.
A male South China tiger is around 2.3 to 2.65 m (91 to 104 in) long, and weighs 130 to 175 kg (290 to 390 lb). Females are smaller and are around 2.2 to 2.4 m (87 to 94 in) long, and weigh 110 to 115 kg (240 to 250 lb). The smallest length of the skull in males is 318 to 343 mm (12.5 to 13.5 in), and in females 273 to 301 mm (10.7 to 11.9 in).
Behaviour
The South China tiger is a carnivorous predator, hunting its prey by stalking it until the South China tiger has the opportunity to catch it off guard. South China tigers usually hunt large mammals like deer, wild boar, cattle and goats.
The South China tiger is found on mountains, and in temperate, upland forests of southern-China.
Reproduction
Females are pregnant for around 3 to 4 months before giving birth to around 5 cubs. Newborn South China tiger cubs weigh about 1 kg (2 lb) and are blind and helpless. The mother feeds them milk for about 2 months and then the South China tiger cubs are introduced to meat. South China tiger cubs depend on their mother for the first 18 months and then they start hunting on their own.
References
Tigers |
Windows XP is a version of the Microsoft Windows operating system for personal computers. The letters "XP" stand for eXPerience. Microsoft released Windows XP on October 25, 2001. Windows XP replaced Windows 2000 and Windows ME, which helped bring the NT and 9x versions of Windows together. It was replaced by Windows Vista in 2006. Windows XP was the second most used computer operating system in the world as late as April 2012. Following the release of Windows XP, many computer manufacturers including (but not limited to) Dell, Hewlett Packard, Acer, IBM, Compaq, and Toshiba rebadged their computers (mostly laptops) to Windows XP from Windows 2000. You can tell a laptop from that time was initially sold with Windows 2000 if the Windows (WIN) key on the keyboard has the previous Windows logo.
Microsoft stopped supporting Windows XP on April 8, 2014 (except some security updates e.g. in 2019, to address ransomware threats, and to address major malware threats, such as BlueKeep) and Microsoft and authorities warn users against using Windows XP. However, Windows XP remained a popular operating system around the world for a long time. By August 2019, Microsoft (and others) had ended support for games on Windows XP. As of June 2021, 0.6% of Windows PCs run Windows XP. Windows XP became the most popular operating system from 2001–2007, the operating system, individually and pre-installed, selling over 500 million copies.
Editions
Home Edition is an edition that was made for home users.
Professional was made for business users, as well as power users. It had advanced management features like backup recovery, Group Policy and could support two Central processing units.
Media Center Edition was for people who liked to use their computer as a television box. It has essentially the same features as Windows XP Professional but included Windows Media Center, a program which could manage TV shows and play music, and even Netflix.
Tablet PC Edition was for users with pen-based laptops and early tablet PCs.
64-bit Edition was for computers that ran on Intel's 64-bit Itanium platform. This should not be confused with Windows XP x64 Edition, as x64 and Itanium are completely different architectures. Unlike Windows XP x64 Edition, 64-bit Edition has fewer features than Windows XP Professional. Some of these features included NTVDM and Windows on Windows, which means that 16-bit MS-DOS applications will not be able to run. It also was missing Windows Media Player features, but Windows XP 64-bit Edition Version 2003, released on March 2003, added back these media features.
Professional x64 Edition was for users with 64-bit x86-based computers. It has the same features as Windows XP Professional except for NTVDM, and introduced Windows on Windows 64, which lets 32-bit applications run on a 64-bit operating system and processor.
Starter Edition was sold mostly in developing countries. The price was low because Microsoft wanted to fight the high software piracy rate in those countries. It could only be bought with a new computer.
System requirements
The system requirements for Windows XP Home and Professional editions are:
Related pages
List of operating systems
References
Other websites
Windows XP end of support in April: Three more questions answered
Service Pack 2
Windows XP Service Pack 2
Download - Windows XP Service Pack 2 from Windows Update for Home Users
Download - Windows XP Service Pack 2 Network Installation Package for IT Professionals
Order Windows XP Service Pack 2 on CD for the cost of shipping and handling
Support - Windows XP Service Pack 2 Support Site for Home Users
Support - Windows XP Service Pack 2 Support Site for IT Professionals
Changes to Functionality in Microsoft Windows XP Service Pack 2
Service Pack 3
Download - Windows XP Service Pack 3 from Windows Update for Home Users
Windows XP Service Pack 3 - The Washington Post
Further reading
Microsoft operating systems |
CROTRAM is a group of Croatian companies that make trams. They make a tram called TMK 2200.
Crotram is a consortium (a group of companies that cooperate) made of three companies: Elektroindustrija Koncar(cro. Končar) and Gredelj, both from city of Zagreb, and Duro Dakovic (cro. Đuro Đaković), from Slavonski Brod.
Crotram sells their trams to ZET, the company that is in charge of all the public transport for the city of Zagreb. So far Crotram has only sold TMK 2200s to Zagreb, but they are trying to sell them in other cities.
The TMK 2200 is 32 meters long, and it can go as fast as 70km/h. 202 people can ride at one time.
Other websites
pictures of TMK 2200
Gallery with pictures of TMK 2200 and some other Croatian trams
Rail transport in Europe
Companies of Croatia |
Star Wars: Episode IV: A New Hope (initially named Star Wars) is a science fiction movie. It is the first film in the Star Wars saga. The movie was released in 1977 and also incorporates adventure, action and drama.
Plot
Princess Leia Organa is a prisoner of the evil Empire. She was captured by Darth Vader, who is helping the Empire stop a rebellion, by using the Death Star. Luke Skywalker, Obi-Wan Kenobi and Han Solo work together to rescue her. They are helped by the droids (or robots) R2-D2 and C-3PO. With the princess, they try to stop the Empire and bring peace and happiness to the galaxy.
Cast
Mark Hamill as Luke Skywalker
Harrison Ford as Han Solo
Carrie Fisher as Princess Leia Organa
Alec Guinness as Ben (Obi-Wan) Kenobi
James Earl Jones as Darth Vader
Anthony Daniels as See Threepio (C-3PO)
Kenny Baker as Artoo-Detoo (R2-D2)
Peter Mayhew as Chewbacca
Peter Cushing as Grand Moff Tarkin
Denis Lawson as Red Two (Wedge)
Related pages
The Phantom Menace
Attack of the Clones
Revenge of the Sith
Solo
Rogue One
The Empire Strikes Back
Return of the Jedi
The Force Awakens
The Last Jedi
The Rise of Skywalker
Further reading
Other websites
Official website
Star Wars at the Movie Wiki
1977 movies
1977 science fiction movies
Movies directed by George Lucas
Screenplays by George Lucas
New Hope
United States National Film Registry movies |
The Federation of Saint Kitts and Nevis (, also known as the Federation of Saint Christopher and Nevis), is a federal nation made up of two small islands in the Caribbean Sea. It is the smallest independent country in the Western Hemisphere.
The capital city is Basseterre. It is on the main island of St Kitts, also called Saint Christopher. The island of Nevis has some rights of self-government and two seats in the federal parliament.
St Kitts and Nevis is about one-third of the way from Puerto Rico to Trinidad and Tobago.
The headquarters of the Eastern Caribbean Central Bank is in St Kitts. That bank controls the East Caribbean dollar.
History and Politics
The two islands were part of the Leeward Islands Colony from 1871 to 1956, and of the West Indies Federation from 1958 to 1962.
The Islands, plus Anguilla, got limited self-government in 1967. Anguilla objected and the Metropolitan Police were sent there in 1968 to stop rioting. Until 19 December 1980 the official name of St Kitts and Nevis was Saint Christopher, Nevis and Anguilla.
St Kitts and Nevis became an independent Commonwealth realm in 1983, Anguilla has stayed a British overseas territory.
In 1970, a movement to make Nevis separate from St Kitts started.
In 1983, the constitution set up a 15-member National Assembly. The Assembly is unicameral, that is, it only has one chamber. 3 members of the Assembly are appointed by the Governor General, on the advice of the Prime Minister and the Leader of the Opposition. The other members are elected. If the Speaker decides to stand for re-election he is automatically elected, without a contest.
Nevis
Nevis is responsible for its own internal affairs. There is an eight-member Nevis Island Assembly, and an Island administration headed by the premier.
Geography
The country has two main islands, Saint Kitts and Nevis. The highest peak, at 1,156 metres, is Mount Liamuiga. There is also a smaller island named Booby Island. No one lives on Booby Island.
The islands are of volcanic origin. There are large central peaks covered in tropical rainforest. People do not live on the steeper slopes leading to these peaks. Most of the people on both islands live closer to the sea. There are many rivers coming from the mountains of both islands. These give fresh water to the people. St. Kitts also has one small lake.
Parishes
The federation of Saint Kitts and Nevis is divided into fourteen parishes. There are nine divisions on Saint Kitts and five on Nevis.
Cities and Towns
These are some of the more important cities and towns in Saint Kitts and Nevis.
Sports
Cricket is common in Saint Kitts and Nevis. Top players go to the West Indies cricket team. The late Runako Morton was from Nevis. Saint Kitts and Nevis is the smallest country on Earth to ever host a World Cup event. It was one of the host venues of the 2007 Cricket World Cup.
The St. Kitts and Nevis national football team, also known as the "Sugar Boyz", has had some international success. They went to the semifinal round of qualification for the 2006 FIFA World Cup in the CONCACAF region. Led by Glence Glasgow they defeated U.S. Virgin Islands and Barbados. They then lost to Mexico, Saint Vincent and the Grenadines, and Trinidad and Tobago.
The St. Kitts and Nevis Billiard Federation, SKNBF, is the governing body for cue sports across the two islands.
Kim Collins is the country's best known track and field athlete. He has won gold medals in the 100 metres at both the World Championships in Athletics and Commonwealth Games. At the 2000 Sydney Olympics he was the country's first athlete to reach an Olympic final. He and three other athletes represented St. Kitts and Nevis at the 2008 Summer Olympics. The four by one hundred metre relay team won a bronze medal in the 2011 world championships.
American writer and former figure skater and triathlete Kathryn Bertine was given dual citizenship. She tried to qualify for the 2008 Summer Olympics representing St. Kitts and Nevis in women's cycling. She did not make enough points to go the Olympics.
St. Kitts and Nevis had two athletes ride in the time trial at the 2010 UCI Road World Championships. Athletes included Reginald Douglas and James Weekes.
Related pages
List of rivers of Saint Kitts and Nevis
Saint Kitts and Nevis at the Olympics
Saint Kitts and Nevis national football team
Other websites
Official website of the Government of St. Kitts and Nevis
References
English-speaking countries
Caribbean Community
Commonwealth realms |
Danish is the Germanic language spoken in Denmark, the Faroe Islands, and parts of Greenland and Germany (Southern Schleswig). Around 5.5 million people speak Danish. It is used as a second language in Greenland and the Faroe Islands. The Danish people, or Danes, call their language dansk.
Here are some simple words in Danish:
References
Germanic languages
Denmark
Languages of Europe |
Niger or the Niger ( or ; ), officially the Republic of the Niger, is a country in western Africa. The capital is Niamey, and the official language is French. It is surrounded by Algeria and Libya to the north, Chad to the east, Nigeria and Benin to the south, and Burkina Faso and Mali to the west. Niger is landlocked, meaning it has no coastline. Niger gets its name from the Niger River, whose name possibly comes from the Berber word "River of Rivers".
The Mali Empire and the Songhai Empire both had land in what is now Niger. Later France controlled the land that is now Niger. Niger has a population, or the number of people living in an area, of 15,306,252 and an area of 1,267,000 square kilometres. Much of Niger is desert.
After a military coup in 2010, Niger is now a democratic, multi-party state. Most of the people live in rural areas, and have little access to advanced education.
Niger is one of the poorest countries in the world with a lack of contraception. 41.4% live in poverty. Hunger plagues the country.
Niger’s main exports are uranium ore, livestock, cowpeas and onions. Millet and sorghum are grown in the south, as well as cassava and sugarcane. Rice is grown in the Niger River valley. Peanuts are the most important cash crop. Other important crops are cotton and pulses.
Niger is home to the critically endangered addax antelope. West African giraffes are the only giraffes in West Africa that exist in Niger.
Geography
Niger is on the border between the Sahara and Sub-Saharan regions. Niger's area is of which is water. It is the world's twenty-second largest country. Niger borders seven countries. The longest border is with Nigeria to the south.
The lowest point is the Niger River, with an elevation of . The highest point is Mont Idoukal-n-Taghès in the Aïr Mountains at .
Cities
This table shows cities with a population over 10,000, according to 2001 census.
Climate
Niger's subtropical climate is mainly very hot and dry. Much of it is covered by desert. In the extreme south there is a tropical climate on the edges of the Niger River basin. The land is mostly desert plains and sand dunes. There is flat to rolling savanna in the south and hills in the north.
Wildlife
Demographics
There are several ethnic groups in Niger:
Hausa 53.1%
Zarma/Songhai 21.2%
Tuareg 11%
Fulani (Peuhl) 6.5%
Kanuri 5.9%
Gurma 0.8%
Arab 0.4%
Tubu 0.4%
other/unavailable 0.9%
Education
The literacy rate (the amount of the adult population who can read or write) of Niger is among the lowest in the world. In 2005 it was estimated to be only 28.7% (42.9% male and 15.1% female). Primary education in Niger is required for six years. The primary school enrollment and attendance rates are low, particularly for girls. Children are often made to work rather than attend school. This is particularly true during planting or harvest periods.
Related pages
List of rivers of Niger
Niger at the Olympics
Niger national football team
References
Other websites
Niger - CIA world factbook
French-speaking countries
Least developed countries
Members of the Organisation of Islamic Cooperation |
Zealand (Danish: Sjælland) is an island in the eastern part of Denmark. It is just west of Sweden and a strait called the Øresund lies between the two. It has an area of 7,031 km² and is the largest island in the country.
About 2,268,000 people were living in Zealand as of 2016. Most of these people live in and around Copenhagen, the capital of Denmark, which is on the eastern shore of Zealand.
A number of bridges and tunnels link Zealand to other parts of Denmark. They include:
the Great Belt Bridge, which links Zealand to Funen, an island to the west.
the Storstrøm Bridge, which links Zealand to Lolland, an island to the south.
the Øresund Bridge, which links Zealand (actually the island of Amager) to Sweden to the east, near Malmö.
Islands of Denmark |
Brunei (officially called the Nation of Brunei, the Abode of Peace) is a country in Southeast Asia. It is north of Malaysia on the island of Borneo. The country is rather landlocked by Malaysia. To the north is the South China Sea and the Philippines to the northeast. The capital of Brunei is Bandar Seri Begawan. The country is small and has a small population. The leader of the country is the Sultan of Brunei. Due to the sale of his oil, he is one of the richest people in the world. The official religion in Brunei is Islam. There are also minorities of people who follow Buddhism or Animism. The native language of Brunei is Malay and English is the second language. Brunei is one of the smallest Muslim countries in the world.
History
From the 14th to the 16th centuries Brunei Darussalam was the seat of a powerful sultanate extending over Sabah, Sarawak and the southern Philippines. Thus, the current Sultan represents one of the oldest continuously ruling dynasties in the world. By the 19th century, the Brunei Darussalam Empire had been whittled away by wars, piracy and the colonial expansion of European powers.
In 1847, the sultan ended a treaty with Great Britain and in 1888 Brunei Darussalam officially became a British protectorate. In 1906, the Residential System was established in Brunei Darussalam. A British Resident was nominated as a representative of the British government to advise the sultan in all matters except Malay customs, traditions and Islamic religion.
The 1959 Agreement established a written constitution which gave Brunei Darussalam internal self-government. In 1971, the agreement was amended and revised to assert full internal independence except defence and external affairs.
In June 5, 1966 His Highness Sultan Haji Sir Muda Omar Ali Saifuddien abdicated in favour of his son Pengiran Muda Mahkota Hassanal Bolkiah. On January 1, 1984 Brunei Darussalam resumed full independence and the Sultan took office as Prime Minister, Finance Minister and Home Affairs Minister, presiding over a cabinet of six. In October 1986, the cabinet was expanded to 11 members, with His Majesty relinquishing the portfolios of Finance and Home Affairs and taking over the Defence portfolio which his late father had held since 1984. In 1988 another reshuffle brought about the elevation of the deputy minister to a full minister and the creation of the Ministry of Industry and Primary Resources designed to boost the country's development.
In spite of the sizable non-Muslim population (about 1/3 of the population) and criticism by the international community, the Sultan still announced Brunei's adoption of Sharia law in 2013 to fully enforce on the Muslim majority and partially enforce on non-Muslims. It was expected to take full effect in 2016 after 3 phases, and had begun partial enforcement in its first phase in 2014. It is the first country in East and Southeast Asia to practice Sharia law.
Divisions
Brunei is divided into four districts (daerahs) and 38 subdistricts (mukims).
The daerah of Temburong is physically separated from the rest of Brunei by the Malaysian state of Sarawak.
Over 90% of Brunei's total population lives in 15 of the 38 mukims.
Cities
Officially, there are no places in Brunei that have "city" status. Some of the important places are:
Bandar Seri Begawan (Pop. ~181,500, Bandar Seri Begawan Municipal Council)
Kuala Belait (Pop. ~38,000, Bandar Seri Begawan Municipal Council)
Seria (Pop. ~35,400, Kuala Belait/Seria Municipal Council)
Jerudong (Pop. ~30,000, Kuala Belait/Seria Municipal Council)
Tutong (Pop. ~27,500, Tutong Municipal Council)
Bangar - administrative centre of the Temburong district
Muara Town - has the only deep sea port of Brunei
Sukang
Panaga
Revenue
Given that Brunei is an oil-rich country, Brunei gets most of its income from selling natural resources. .
Currency
Brunei uses the Brunei Ringgit to trade. However, the Singapore dollar can be used here as both currencies are of the same value.
Related pages
Brunei at the Olympics
Brunei national football team
List of rivers of Brunei
References
Other websites
Commonwealth member states
Current monarchies
Members of the Organisation of Islamic Cooperation
1984 establishments in Asia |
The Taka is the currency of Bangladesh. The most commonly used symbol for the Taka is Tk and ৳. This is used on receipts while purchasing goods and services. One taka is divided into 100 poisha.
In Bengali, the word taka is also used to mean any money, currency, or notes.
Bangladesh Bank, the central bank of the country, prints the currency, except for one taka and two taka notes, which are made by the Ministry of Finance.
Other websites
Banknotes of Bangladesh
References
Economy of Bangladesh
Currency of Asia |
Bogota is the capital (city) of Colombia. As of 2009, more than 7 million people live in Bogota, which makes it the largest city in Colombia. It is about 2,640 meters above sea level, on top a plateau (a mountain with a flat top). This makes it the third highest capital in the world. With many universities and libraries, Bogotá has become known as "The Athens of South America".The weather is usually nice during the day and cool at night. It has a series of bike paths (trails that are made for bikes) that wind through the city. It has many recreational and amusement parks open to the public. The current mayor is Claudia López.
History
Originally, Native Americans called Muisca lived in the area. Then, in 1538, Gonzalo Jimenes de Quezada, a Spanish conqueror, founded Bogota. Bogota became a center of trade, art, and education. Some of the oldest universities in the Americas are in Bogota. After Independence from Spain, Bogota became the capital of Gran Colombia in 1819.
Bogota has had extremely awful moments. In 1948, a presidential candidate, Jorge Eliécer Gaitán, was murdered while doing a speech in front of hundreds of persons. This tragic moment brought with it terrible consequences: one of the most remembered one is the "Bogotazo". The "Bogotazo" started as a political party war, the blue party, self named the "conservatives", began to hunt and kill every single member of the red party, the "liberals". The remaining blue party members decided to create the "Fuerzas Armadas Revolucionarias de Colombia" (FARC); however, this group was ironically created to protect the oppressed people from their oppressors. Nowadays, this group is known as terrorists and murderers;nevertheless, Colombia's capital city, Bogota, has not being attacked in the last few years.
References
1538 establishments
1530s establishments in the Spanish Empire |
The Aymara are members of a tribe of Native Americans that live in Bolivia and Peru. They are native to the area around Lake Titicaca. They speak the Aymara language. They call themselves Aymaras.
The president of Bolivia, Evo Morales, is Aymara.
The many-colored flag of the tribe is called the Wiphala.
South American people
Native American |
The perihelion is the point in the orbit of a planet, asteroid or comet that is nearest to the sun. It is the opposite of aphelion, which is the point farthest from the sun.
The word perihelion stems from the Greek words "peri," meaning near, and "Helios," meaning the Greek god of the sun. So it referred to as perihelion. (The similar word, perigee, refers to the nearest point in some object's orbit of Earth.)
All planets, comets and asteroids in our solar system have approximately elliptical (a kind of non-circular) orbits. Thus, they all have a closest and a farthest point from the sun: a perihelion and an aphelion. Orbital eccentricity measures the flatness of the orbit. Any single revolution of a body around the sun is only approximately elliptical, because the precession of the perihelion prevents the orbit from being a simple closed curve such as an ellipse. This causes Milankovich cycles.
Earth comes closest to the sun every year around January 3. It is farthest from the sun every year around July 4. The difference in distance between Earth's nearest point to the sun in January and farthest point from the sun in July is 3.1 million miles (5 million kilometers). Earth is about 91.4 million miles (147.1 million kilometers) from the sun in early January, in contrast to about 94.5 million miles (152 million kilometers) in early July.
When Earth is closest to the sun, it is winter in the northern hemisphere and summer in the southern hemisphere. Thus it is possible to see that Earth's distance from the sun does not noticeably cause the seasons to change; the relatively minor effects of differences in distance is somewhat masked by the mainly oceanic southern hemisphere vs the half- continental northern hemisphere. Therefore, the Earth's seasons come and go mainly because Earth does not rotate with its axis exactly upright with respect to the plane of our world’s orbit around the sun. Earth's axial tilt is 23.5 degrees. This puts the Sun farther south in December and January, so the north has winter and the south has summer. Thus winter falls on that part of the globe where sunlight strikes least directly. Summer falls on that part of the globe where sunlight strikes most directly.
Orbits |
Johnston Atoll is an island in the Pacific Ocean. It is a property of the United States. The military used the Island for many things including a re-fueling location for planes going overseas, a chemical weapons ammunition storage facility, and a test launch location for nuclear testing. It was inhabited by all forces of the US military and government contract workers.
The island is named after Captain James Johnston, who discovered it in 1807. The island was mined for guano until 1890. After that, it was used as an army base.
Other websites
Johnston Island Memories Site, the personal website of an AFRTS serviceman stationed there in 1975-6
Coast Guard Medevac from Johnston Island, photo from December 2007 medevac operation
JACADS - Johnston Atoll Chemical Agent Disposal System, history of nuclear testing, and JACADS Sarin and VX nerve agent disposal
U.S. Fish & Wildlife Johnston Island National Wildlife Refuge Contains additional information on wildlife and clean-up efforts
Atolls
United States Minor Outlying Islands
Pacific islands
Islands of Oceania |
A Llama (Lama glama) is a mammal of the Camelidae family. It is from South America, the Andes Mountains of Peru and Ecuador.
Sometimes the name llama is used for all four South American camelids.
Llama and humans
The llama was domesticated about 5000 years ago. It was and is used for carrying things, and for wool. The llama was very important for the Incan people. Even today, llamas are used for similar reasons, but will more commonly be used as domesticated pets.
Related animals
The llama's close relative is the alpaca, who is a more demure, petite animal in comparison to the llama. Llamas have three related cousins - the alpaca, the guanaco, and the vicuña. The llama is the national symbol of Bolivia.
Llamas spit, and travel together. Llamas also have a high content of hemoglobin which causes their blood cells to be oval and not circular.
References
Other websites
Camelids
Domesticated animals
Animals used for transport
Mammals of South America |
Events
Treaty of Nanking between China and the United Kingdom(1842)
Irish Potato Famine(1845–1848)
Mexican-American War (1846–1848)
The Communist Manifesto (1848)is published
European Revolutions of 1848 (1848)
California Gold Rush (1849)
World leaders
Emperor Ferdinand I (Austria)
Chancellor Klemens Wenzel von Metternich (Austria)
Emperor Franz Josef (Austria-Hungary)
King Louis-Philippe (July Monarchy France)
Frederick William IV of Prussia (Prussia)
Pope Gregory XVI
Pope Pius IX
Emperor Nicholas I (Russia)
Queen Isabella II (Spain)
Queen Victoria (United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland)
Prime Minister Lord Melbourne (United Kingdom)
Prime Minister Sir Robert Peel (United Kingdom)
Prime Minister Lord John Russell (United Kingdom)
President Martin Van Buren (United States)
President William Henry Harrison (United States)
President John Tyler (United States)
President James Knox Polk (United States)
President Zachary Taylor (United States)
Sultan Abd-ul-Mejid I (Ottoman Empire)
Shahs of Persia (Qajar dynasty)
Mohammad Shah Qajar, (b. 1810 – d. 1848) Shah from 1834 to 1848
Nasser-al-Din Shah, 1848–1896
Births
Edvard Grieg (1843)
Wyatt Earp (1848)
Deaths
Edgar Allan Poe (1849) |
The Mexican–American War took place between 1846 and 1848 between United States and Mexico.
Causes
When Mexico got independence from Spain in 1821, Texas was part of Mexico. Americans and other settlers came into Texas when Mexico allowed non-Spanish settlers to settle there.
After many settlers came to Texas, disputes led to the Texas Revolution in 1836, when Texas became independent. Mexico refused to recognize the Republic of Texas, as an independent country. Texas soon asked to join the United States.
The United States moved quickly to annex Texas after the 1844 election of James K. Polk. In his campaign, Polk had called for the "re-annexation" of Texas and the "re-occupation" of the Oregon Territory. Polk also wanted California and the rest of what is now the Southwestern United States.
In 1845, the United States annexed Texas. However, Mexico still did not recognize its independence or recognize the annexation. The US offered to buy from Mexico the land extending from Texas to the Pacific Ocean, but Mexico wanted to keep the vast area.
In 1846, a dispute over the border between Texas and Mexico resulted in armed conflict, and the Mexican–American War began. After offering to buy the territory, Polk moved US troops into a place that Mexico said was not in Texas but in the Mexican state of Coahuila. The Mexican army attacked them.
The main cause of the war was the westward expansion of the United States. In the 19th century Americans believed it was their right to expand westward. They believed they could take over the people already living on the land and have it for the United States. Southerners wanted to have more slave states.
Antonio López de Santa Anna became president again. Many Mexicans hated him and did not want to follow him into war. Many Americans, including the young Abraham Lincoln, also disliked the war since they thought that it was to expand slavery.
War
In addition to small units sent to California and New Mexico, the US sent two major armies into Mexico under the commands of General Winfield Scott and future US President General Zachary Taylor.
After the US had entered Mexico, Mexican General Antonio López de Santa Anna took command of the Mexican soldiers in early 1847. The US forces fought Santa Anna near Monterrey and Buena Vista. After Buena Vista, the Mexican army had many problems, including starvation, disease, and desertion. The Mexican government was unstable.
In March 1847, Scott landed at Veracruz. His force included future Civil War Generals Robert E. Lee, Ulysses S. Grant, Stonewall Jackson and George G. Meade as well as Commodore Perry. Scott took Puebla in May and took Mexico City in September after the Battle of Chapultepec.
When American soldiers came to California, the Bear Flag Revolt was happening. Some Californians were trying to leave Mexico and to form their own country, as had happened in Texas. In July and August 1846, American soldiers captured Monterey, Yerba Buena, and Los Angeles. After a counterattack by the Californios, the Americans had taken much of California by 1847. The Mexican governor of California, Pio Pico, left the state.
Aftermath
The US won the war, and Mexico signed the Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo in 1848, which gave the US the area that would become the states of Arizona, California, New Mexico, Nevada, Utah, southwestern Colorado, and southwestern Wyoming. Mexico received 15 million US dollars and gave up its claims to Texas.
The slavery debate in the United States became more intense with the addition of the new territory and the question of whether slavery would be legal in the new territories. Also, many of the officers who would lead troops in the American Civil War fought in the Mexican-American War would use their experiences.
Nevada and California became part of the US with the signing of the Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo. Before then, Nevada was part of Alta California, which is now California, Baja California, Utah, about a quarter of Colorado, parts of Arizona, Wyoming and New Mexico.
The Act of Congress establishing California as the 31st state was part of the Compromise of 1850.
References
Other websites
Library of Congress Guide to the Mexican War
The Handbook of Texas Online: Mexican War
Manifest Destiny and the U.S.-Mexican War: Then and Now
The Mexican War
Mexican-American War Citizendium
1840s in the United States
1840s in Mexico
Wars involving the United States |
The European Revolutions of 1848 were a series of revolts in Europe. In some places they are called Spring of Nations or the Year of Revolution.
These revolutions started in January with a Palermo republican uprising. The larger French Revolution of 1848 in February was followed in March by several other revolutions amongst them the Hungarian Revolution of 1848 and the Revolutions of 1848 in the German states. In Ireland, the rebellions began because of famine conditions in their country.
People in the various countries tried to take over their governments.
References
1848 in Europe |
Edvard Grieg (born 15 June 1843 Bergen, Norway; died 4 September 1907) was a Norwegian composer and pianist who composed in the Romantic period. He is Norway’s most famous composer. He is best known for his Piano Concerto in A minor and for his incidental music to Henrik Ibsen's play Peer Gynt, which includes movements called Aubade and In the Hall of the Mountain King. He wrote many pieces for piano, including a collection of 66 pieces called Lyric Pieces. He also wrote songs to Norwegian and to German words.
Early Life
Grieg was born in Bergen on 15 June 1843. His ancestors were Scottish people who had moved to Norway around 1770. The original family name was spelt "Greig".
Grieg came from a musical home. His mother was his first piano teacher. He went to several schools, and started composing when he was young. He used to take his compositions to school, but the teacher did not show much interest in them.
In the summer of 1858 Grieg met the great Norwegian violinist Ole Bull, who was a friend of the family, and whose brother was married to Grieg's aunt. Bull noticed the 15-year-old boy's talent and persuaded his parents to let him go to Leipzig in Germany to study music.
Grieg enrolled in the conservatory, concentrating on the piano, and enjoyed all the concerts and recitals given in Leipzig. He did not like the discipline of the conservatory course of study, but he still got very good grades. The first piano recital he gave was in Sweden. In 1862 he finished his studies in Leipzig and went back to Bergen where he gave another recital.
In 1863 Grieg went to Copenhagen, Denmark, and stayed there for three years. He met the Danish composers J. P. E. Hartman, and Niels Gade. Gade told him to go and write a symphony. Grieg did not feel happy writing a long symphony although he did try. He also met the Norwegian composer Rikard Nordraak who had composed the Norwegian national anthem. Nordraak showed Grieg how wonderful Norwegian folk music was. Grieg had hardly heard any Norwegian folk music until then. When Nordraak died, Grieg composed a funeral march in his honour.
Mature years
On 11 June 1867, Grieg married his first cousin Nina. The next year their only child, Alexandra, was born. The following summer, Grieg wrote his Piano Concerto in A minor while on holiday in Denmark. Edmund Neupert gave the concerto its first performance on 3 April 1869 in the Casino Theater in Copenhagen. Grieg himself was unable to be there because he was conducting in Christiana (now called “Oslo”).
In the summer of 1869, Grieg's daughter Alexandra became ill and died, at the age of 13 months.
In 1870, he met Franz Liszt in Rome. Liszt had made it possible for Grieg to get a travel grant. They played Grieg's Violin Sonata No. 1 together, which Liszt liked very much. On a second visit, in April, Grieg brought with him the manuscript of his Piano Concerto which Liszt played by sight. Liszt gave him some advice about the orchestration.
Grieg spent most of his time conducting and playing the piano in concerts. He often travelled, and in 1876 he went to Bayreuth to hear the first performance of Wagner’s Ring cycle. He wrote a review of the operas for a Norwegian newspaper.
In 1876, Ibsen asked Grieg to write some incidental music for the first performance of the play he had written about the Norwegian hero Peer Gynt. Many of the pieces from this work became very popular. They are played by orchestras as well as in arrangements for piano or for piano duet.
Later life
In 1883 he and wife parted for a while, although friends managed to persuade the couple to come together again and they spent four months in Rome. They built a house called Troldhaugen in Bergen, with a view of the fjord. They moved into the house in 1885 and Grieg lived there for the rest of his life. They continued to travel and give concerts. Nina had a good voice and sang her husband’s songs. Grieg only performed his own works at concerts. During his last years he received many honours.
In his later life Grieg became famous, although never rich. The Norwegian government gave him a pension. Grieg made some recordings of his piano pieces. These are some of the very first gramophone recordings that were made. The sound is not very good, but they show that Grieg was an excellent pianist. He also recorded music rolls on a pianola.
Edvard Grieg died in the autumn of 1907, aged 64, after a long illness. He had suffered from respiratory problems ever since he was very ill in 1860 as a student in Leipzig. At his funeral thousands of people went out on the streets of his home town to honour him. Following his wish, his own funeral march for Rikard Nordraak was played, as well as the funeral march by Frederic Chopin. His and his wife's ashes are buried in a mountain crypt near his house, Troldhaugen.
Music
Grieg was often inspired by Norwegian folk music. This can be heard in his songs and some of his instrumental music. His chamber music includes 3 violin sonatas and a cello sonata as well as a piano sonata and many shorter piano pieces. However, he has become very well known all over the world through his Piano Concerto and his music for Peer Gynt. Another popular work is his Holberg Suite which was originally written for the piano but later arranged for string orchestra.
Trivia
The famous opening of Grieg’s Piano Concerto featured in a comedy sketch by Morecambe and Wise in the 1970s. The conductor André Previn was their special guest in the sketch which has become a classic.
1843 births
1907 deaths
Disease-related deaths in Norway
Norwegian composers
People from Bergen
Romantic composers |
Palmyra Atoll is an island in the North Pacific Ocean. No one lives there, but 4 to 20 people use this island, mainly scientists. It is managed as a nature reserve by the United States. It is known as the Palmyra Atoll National Wildlife Refuge.
In 2005, a team of scientists from around the world started to build a research station on the island. They wanted to gain a deeper understanding of the environment of the island.
History
Palmyra Atoll was claimed by the Kingdom of Hawaii in 1862, and was taken by the United States in 1898 along with Hawaii. The atoll was not included in the Hawaii Admission Act of 1959, which made Hawaii a state, so it remained a US territory.
References
https://www.cia.gov/library/publications/the-world-factbook/geos/um.html
Other websites
Palmyra atoll
Palmyra Island
Palmyra Atoll NWR
The Curse of Palmyra Island – article
The Curse of Palmyra Island – free book
The Nature Conservancy in Palmyra Atoll
Palmyra Atoll Research Consortium
United States v. Fullard-Leo (Supreme Court opinion; includes a history of the island's ownership)
WorldStatesmen- U.S.
History of Palmyra Atoll
The Palmyra Gazette
Atolls
United States Minor Outlying Islands
Pacific islands
Uninhabited regions |
Kingman Reef is a coral reef in the North Pacific Ocean, owned by the United States.
It is the farthest north of the Northern Line Islands. It is only sometimes above water.
Palmyra Atoll is the other U.S. territory in the Northern Line Islands.
Gallery
References
Other websites
K5K Amateur Radio Expedition to Kingman Reef
Kennedy Warne: "An Uneasy Eden" — National Geographic Magazine, July 2008
United States Minor Outlying Islands
Pacific islands
Uninhabited regions |
Jarvis Island (; formerly known as Bunker Island) is an uninhabited island owned by the United States. The small island is a part of the United States Minor Outlying Islands, a group of mostly uninhabited islands.
Jarvis Island was officially made part of the United States in 1858. People used to mine guano there, but they then abandoned it. The United States treats it as a nature reserve.
Located 25 miles south of the equator, Jarvis Island, is an uninhabited coral island located in the South Pacific Ocean. Jarvis has no known natural freshwater sources, and very little rain. This creates a very bleak, flat landscape with plants no larger than shrubs. Jarvis Island has no ports or docks, other than a reef the guano miners blew up in order for the cargo boats to be able to drop anchor. Its grass, vines and low-growing bushes are primarily a nesting, roosting, and foraging habitat for wildlife. The island has a tropical desert climate, with high temperatures in the day, constant wind, and a very hot sun. There is no evidence that the island has ever supported a native human population, but on August 30, 1913, the Amaranth was carrying a cargo of coal from Newcastle, New South Wales, to San Francisco when it crashed on Jarvis' southern shore. Ruins of ten wooden buildings, and a two-story house among them, could still be seen by the Amaranth crew, who left Jarvis aboard two lifeboats. Also, Settlers were moved to Jarvis Island in 1935 to maintain a weather station and plan a landing field. A settlement called Millersville was established on the west coast of the island because of it was the highest elevation. The Japanese shelled the island in 1942 and the men living on Jarvis were evacuated soon afterward. The United States claimed possession of Jarvis under the Guano Islands Act of 1856. The Act gave American citizens the right to claim any unclaimed, uninhabited islands for the purpose of mining guano. Because at the time guano was a very valuable asset used for fertilizer.
References
Other websites
Jarvis Island Home Page Website with photos, weather, and more.
Jarvis Island information website Has several photos of the old Millersville settlement, together with more modern photos of the island.
WorldStatesmen Offers brief data on Jarvis island.
U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service Jarvis Island National Wildlife Refuge The Jarvis Island refuge site.
United States Minor Outlying Islands
Pacific islands
Islands of Oceania
Uninhabited regions |
Robert Edward Lee (January 19, 1807 – October 12, 1870) was a colonel in the United States Army. He became the General-in-chief of the Confederate States Army during the American Civil War. He led the Army of Northern Virginia in the Eastern Theater of the American Civil War. He started out as an engineer but then moved up the ranks. Before the Civil War, Lee was an officer in the Mexican-American War. He was also head of West Point. As a colonel in the United States Army he led a battalion of marines to put down the rebellion at Harpers Ferry Armory and captured their leader, John Brown.
Early years
Lee was born at Stratford Hall in Westmoreland County, Virginia, on January 19, 1807. His parents were American Revolutionary War General and Governor of Virginia, Henry "Light Horse Harry" Lee, and his wife, Anne Carter Lee. In 1818, Lee's father died in the West Indies without ever seeing his son again. Robert was raised by his mother in Alexandria, Virginia.
Washington ancestry
Lee and George Washington were both descendants of Augustine Warner, Sr. and his wife, Mary Towneley Warner. Lee was descended through their daughter, Sarah. Washington was descended through their son, Augustine, Jr. Lee and Washington were third cousins, twice removed.
Education
Lee attended Eastern View, a school in Fauquier County, Virginia. He may have attended schools in Shirley, Virginia, and in Alexandria, Virginia. His mother instructed him in the Episcopalian faith. Lee attended the United States Military Academy at West Point, and graduated second in the class of 1829.
Marriage
On June 30, 1831, Lee married Mary Custis at Arlington House. She was the granddaughter of George Washington's stepson, John Parke Custis. They made their home at Arlington House. They had seven children.
Middle years
Lee fought in the Mexican–American War under General Winfield Scott as a captain. Later, Scott wrote about Lee calling him "the very best soldier I ever saw in the field." After the war, Lee helped the army build forts. In 1855, Lee became a lieutenant colonel, and joined a cavalry regiment. As a Colonel, Lee was called on to stop the "slave rebellion", otherwise known as John Brown's raid on Harpers Ferry. Brown's raid was ended in less than an hour by Lee.
Civil War
Lee inherited a number of slaves with Arlington House. He proved not to be a very good slave master. He tried kindness and refused to use torture. But the slaves knew their freedom had been granted them in the will and refused to work. Lee wanted to grant them their freedom but needed them to help him see out the work at Arlington House. Personally, Lee hated slavery calling it an "evil" to both blacks and whites. But he thought it had to be ended gradually or the economy of the South would wikt:collapse. But Lee did agree with other Southerners thinking that blacks were inferior. He believed God would work out the problem in his own time. Lee, like Thomas Jefferson had mixed feelings about slavery.
The election of Abraham Lincoln in 1860 caused several states to secede in protest. This put Lee in a difficult position. The newly formed Confederate States of America offered Lee the rank of brigadier general. Lee did not respond to the offer. Winfield Scott offered him command of the army of U.S. volunteers. He didn't answer this offer, either. Between April 12–14, 1861, U.S. troops were bombarded at Fort Sumter at Charleston, South Carolina. The same day Virginia seceded from the Union. Lee did not support secession but he could not fight his own state of Virginia. Lee resigned his U.S. Army commission on April 22, 1861, at Arlington House. He told his friends that he would not be a part of an invasion of the South. Several days later he accepted command of all Virginia forces.
At first, Lee did not command any soldiers in battle. Instead, he helped Confederate president Jefferson Davis make military decisions. In 1862, he became the commander of the Army of Northern Virginia. He would lead the army for the rest of the war. He would win many battles, even though the Union army in the battles had more men and weapons. At the Battle of Gettysburg, he tried to invade the Union in order to end the war. But his army was defeated and he had to retreat back into Virginia.
During 1864 and 1865, Lee fought Union general Ulysses S. Grant in Virginia. During the end of 1864 and the beginning of 1865, Lee and Grant fought near Richmond, Virginia in a series of battles called the Siege of Petersburg. In April 1865, Grant forced Lee to retreat from Richmond. After a series of battles, Grant surrounded Lee near Appomattox Courthouse and forced Lee to surrender. Before he surrendered, he said "I would rather die a thousand deaths than surrender".
After the war
President Andrew Johnson issued a proclamation granting amnesty and pardon to those Confederates who were a part of the rebellion against the United States. It contained 14 exempted classes and members of these groups had to make an application to the President of the United States asking for a pardon. Lee sent an application to General Grant. On June 13, 1865, Lee wrote to President Johnson:
On October 2, 1865, Lee became president of Washington College in Virginia. That same day Lee signed his Amnesty Oath as required by President Johnson. But Lee was not pardoned and his citizenship was not restored.
His amnesty oath was found over a hundred years later in the National Archives. It appears United States Secretary of State William H. Seward had given the application to a friend to keep as a souvenir. The State Department had simply ignored Lee's application and it was never granted. In a 1975 Joint resolution by the United States Congress, Lee's rights as a citizen were restored with the effective date of June 13, 1865. The act was signed into law by President Gerald R. Ford on August 5, 1975.
Lee had a stroke on September 28, 1870 and died on October 12, 1870. Washington College changed its name to Washington and Lee University in Lee's honor. Lee's birthday is celebrated in several southern states as a holiday.
References
Other websites
Civil War Journal - Robert E. Lee; YouTube
Robert E. Lee in the Post-War Years (Lecture); YouTube
Document for October 2nd: Robert E. Lee’s Amnesty Oath, 10/02/1865; National Archives
Surrender at Appomattox, 1865
1807 births
1870 deaths
Confederate Army generals
Deaths from pneumonia |
Events
Ayya Vaikundar appeared after the incarnation, above the sea of Thiruchendur.
Croquet invented in Ireland.
Mormon religion founded in New York.
Belgium founded.
Ecuador declares independence.
Queen Victoria becomes ruler of Great Britain.
World leaders
Emperor Francis II (Austria)
Emperor Ferdinand I (Austria)
Chancellor Klemens Wenzel von Metternich (Austria)
King Louis-Philippe (July Monarchy France)
Frederick William III of Prussia (Prussia)
Pope Gregory XVI
Emperor Nicholas I (Russia)
King Ferdinand VII (Spain)
King William IV (United Kingdom)
Queen Victoria (United Kingdom)
Prime Minister Lord Grey (United Kingdom)
Prime Minister Lord Melbourne (United Kingdom)
President Andrew Jackson (United States)
President Martin Van Buren (United States)
Shahs of Persia (Qajar dynasty)
Fath Ali Shah, 1797–1834
Mohammad Shah Qajar, 1834–1848
Births
Emily Dickinson, writer
Gustave Eiffel, engineer
Johannes Brahms, German musician
Alfred Nobel, inventor
Grover Cleveland, politician
Deaths
Simón Bolívar, leader
Jean-François Champollion, Egyptologist
Sir Walter Scott, writer
James Weddell, explorer
Alexander Puskin, writer |
Events
Greek War for Independence
Much of South America declares independence from Spain.
World leaders
Emir Dost Mohammad Khan (Afghanistan)
Supreme director José Rondeau (Argentina)
Acting supreme director Juan Pedro Julián Aguirre y López de Anaya (Argentina)
President Bernardino Rivadavia (Argentina)
President Vicente López y Planes (Argentina)
General Manuel Dorrego (Argentina)
General Juan Manuel de Rosas (Argentina)
Emperor Francis II (Austria)
Chancellor Klemens Wenzel von Metternich (Austria)
Sheikh Sulman ibn Ahmad Al Khalifah (Bahrain)
Sheikh Khalifah ibn Sulman Al Khalifah (Bahrain)
Administrative leader Tendzin Drugdra (Bhutan)
Administrative leader Choki Gyaltshen (Bhutan)
President Simón Bolívar (Bolivia)
President Antonio José de Sucre (Bolivia)
President José María Pérez (Bolivia)
President José Miguel de Velasco (Bolivia)
President Pedro Blanco (Bolivia)
President Andrés de Santa Cruz (Bolivia)
Emperor Pedro I (Brazil)
Sultan Muhammad Kanzul Alam (Brunei)
Sultan Muhammad Alam (Brunei)
Sultan Omar Ali Saifuddin II (Brunei)
King Ang Chan II (Cambodia)
President Bernardo O'Higgins (Chile)
President Agustín Eyzaguirre (Chile)
Provisional triumvirate of the three provinces Congreso de Plenipotenciarios (Chile)
Interim Supreme Director Ramón Freire (Chile)
Acting Supreme Director Diego José Benavente (Chile)
President Manuel Blanco Encalada (Chile)
President Francisco Antonio Pinto (Chile)
President Francisco Ramón Vicuña (Chile)
President José Tomás Ovalle (Chile)
Emperor Daoguang (China)
President Simón Bolívar (Greater Colombia)
King Frederick VI (Denmark)
Governor Muḩammad ‘Alī (Egypt)
Emperor Iyoas II (Ethiopia)
Emperor Gigar (Ethiopia)
Emperor Baeda Maryam III (Ethiopia)
President José Cecilio del Valle (Federal Republic of Central America)
President Manuel José Arce (Federal Republic of Central America)
President José Francisco Barrundia (Federal Republic of Central America)
King Louis XVIII (Restoration France)
King Charles X (Restoration France)
Governor Ioannis Kapodistrias (Greece)
King Henri Christophe (Haiti)
President Jean Pierre Boyer (Haiti)
Pope Pius VII
Pope Leo XII
Shogun Tokugawa Ienari (Japan)
Khan Omar Beg (Kokand)
Khan Mohammed Ali (Kokand)
Emperor Sunjo (Korea)
Emir Jaber I Al-Sabah (Kuwait)
Emperor Agustín de Iturbide (Mexico)
President Guadalupe Victoria (Mexico)
President Vicente Guerrero (Mexico)
President José María Bocanegra (Mexico)
President Pedro Vélez (Mexico)
Sultan Slimane (Morocco)
Sultan Abderrahmane (Morocco)
Fath Ali Shah of Qajar dynasty (Persia)
King Frederick William III (Prussia)
Emperor Alexander I (Russia)
Emperor Nicholas I (Russia)
King Victor Emmanuel I (Sardinia)
King Charles Felix (Sardinia)
King Rama II (Siam)
King Rama III (Siam)
King Ferdinand VII (Spain)
Pasha Yusuf Karamanli (Tripoli)
King George IV (United Kingdom)
King William I (United Kingdom of the Netherlands)
President James Monroe (United States)
President John Quincy Adams (United States)
Emperor Minh Mang (Vietnam)
Births
Clara Barton
Louis Pasteur
Deaths
Carl Maria Von Weber
Thomas Jefferson
John Adams |
Events
Simon Bolivar finds Gran Colombia.
The United States buys Florida from Spain.
The U.S. State of Alabama got its statehood.
Singapore was founded by Sir Stamford Raffles.
Births
May 24 – Queen Victoria, British royal (d. 1901)
August 26 – Albert, Prince Consort, Husband of Queen Victoria (d. 1861)
date unknown
George Eliot, English writer (d. 1880)
Charles Kingsley, writer (The Water Babies) (d. 1877) |
Isaiah was a prophet of God in Judaism, Islam, Christianity and Bahá'í. He lived from about 740 to 681 BC. The name Isaiah means "the Lord is salvation" in the Hebrew language.
Isaiah is also the name of a book in the Old Testament of the Bible, which tells the story of the Israelites in Isaiah's time. According to Christianity, Isaiah predicted in this book, the birth and then death of Jesus, hundreds of years before it actually happened. Judaism does not agree with that interpretation.
Isaiah was known to be the Shakespeare of the Bible due to his good education and the quality of the passages he wrote. He was cut in half by King Manasseh which led to his gruesome death. Most of Isaiah's Bible passages begin with 'God's message to'.
Old Testament people
Ancient Israeli people |
Leopold Poetsch was a German antiSemitic professor and a high school teacher of Adolf Hitler who influenced the future leader's later views.
Poetsch came from the southern German border area. There, political fights between Slavs and ethnic Germans angered him and made him one who was for the Pan-German movement. He started to teach in Maribor, Slovenia and later moved to Linz, Austria to teach history.
Hitler was very interested in what Poetsch said. Poetsch hated the Habsburgs and argued that all ethnic Germans should be united by a single government. He said that the Aryan race was stronger, in better health, and more fit to rule than all other people. Poetsch said that Jews and Slavs were what he called "inferior races". (This view was held a lot in Germany after World War I.)
Hitler began reading an anti-Semitic newspaper in his area. In his later years, Hitler spoke of Poetsch as a "great man." As dictator of Germany, Hitler tried to get all German-speaking people together and persecuted Slavs, Jews, Gypsies, and others. Hitler later tried to kill them all in the "Final Solution."
References
Shirer, William L. Rise and Fall of the Third Reich: A History of Nazi Germany. Simon & Schuster, 1990. ISBN 0-671-72868-7
German people |
The Armenian Genocide was the forced deportation and the killings of most Armenians from 1915 to 1917 in the Ottoman Empire, which was ruled by the Young Turks.
Planning
In November 1914, the Ottoman Empire joined World War I on the side of the Central Powers. İsmail Enver, the Minister of War, launched a disastrous military campaign against Russian forces in the Caucasus in the hope of capturing Baku. His forces were routed at the Battle of Sarikamis, and many of his men froze to death.
Returning to Istanbul, Enver largely blamed the Armenians living in the region for actively siding with the Russians. Despite the tensions, the Armenians had thrived under Ottoman rule. Most Armenians were better educated and wealthier than their Turkish counterparts, who were jealous of their success. The resentment was fuelled by suspicions that the Christian Armenians would support fellow Christian governments, especially Russia, which shared an unstable border with the Ottoman Empire, as opposed to the Muslim Ottoman caliphate.
In 1914, the Ottoman War Office had already begun a propaganda drive to present Armenians as a liability and a threat to the Ottomans' security. An Ottoman naval officer in the War Office described the planning:
The Ottoman government, moving quickly, arrested an estimated 250 Armenian intellectuals on the night of 24 April 1915. The acts of genocide against the Armenians continued for nine years until 1922, with around 388,000 Armenians remaining.
The massacres of Armenians in 1894, 1895, 1896 and 1909 were still fresh in their minds.
Acts committed by Turks
In the beginning, around 1915-1916, Armenians were kicked out of their homes, which were claimed by Turks. During a Turkification campaign, the government squads kidnapped children, converted them to Islam and gave them to Turkish families. In some places, they raped and forced women to join Turkish “harems” or serve as slaves. Women would mar their bodies with scars or burn a part of their face to be unfit to join a harem. Muslim families moved into the homes of deported Armenians and seized their property.
At the same time, the Turks created a 'Special Organization', which in turn organized 'killing squads' or 'butcher battalions' to carry out, as one officer put it, “the liquidation of the Christian elements”. The killing squads were often made up of murderers and other ex-convicts. People were drowned in rivers, threw off cliffs, crucified and burned alive.
Foreign accounts
Denial of killings
Guenter Lewy claims in his book,The Armenian Massacres in Ottoman Turkey: A Disputed Genocide, that there is not enough evidence of the Young Turk regime organizing the killings of Armenians in the Ottoman Empire.
According to Lewy, even though their fate in World War I proved tragic, it was not a "real" genocide because "there were no centrally organized and state-sponsored premeditation and genocidal intention".
A major obstacle for the wider recognition of the genocide in the world is the official position of Turkey, which states that there was no systematic attempt to annihilate the Armenian population and that the 1915 massacres happened because of the Tehcir Law and the war. In December 2008, a group of Turkish scholars launched an online petition for people who wanted to apologize for what happened. The people who created the petition failed use the word "genocide" but used "the Great Catastrophe" regarding the event. Many Turks viewed the Armenians as a threat to the Ottoman Empire in a time of war and argued that people of various ethnicities were killed during the violence. Turkey and its leaders fear that recognizing the word "genocide" could cost considerable sums of money in reparations, as well as public embarrassment.
Gallery
Related pages
Pontic Greek Genocide
Adana massacre
Hamidian massacres
References
Other websites
Encyclopedia Entries on the Armenian Genocide, Armenian National Institute
Armenian National Institute: the 1915 Armenian Genocide
Armenian Genocide - ArmeniaPedia
Armenian Genocide |
The prime minister of the United Kingdom or British prime minister is the head of government in the United Kingdom. The prime minister controls the Government of the United Kingdom through the cabinet. The prime minister is the chairman of the British cabinet and a member of the Privy Council. It is normal for the prime minister to be the leader of the political party that has a majority in the House of Commons.
The prime minister is not the head of state, but is the most important politician in the British politics. By tradition, the monarch of the United Kingdom chooses as prime minister. The monarch chooses the leader of the political party with enough votes to get the Parliament of the United Kingdom's approval for the British monarch's speech from the throne.
Boris Johnson (Conservative Party) became prime minister after the 2019 Conservative Party leadership election.
Background
The prime minister is usually the leader of the political party which wins most seats after a general election. There are 650 are available in the United Kingdom. Voters vote for their own local member of parliament, not for the prime minister. Voters in their constituency choose their member of parliament. The prime minister is a member of parliament, and only voters in one constituency can vote for them.
The first prime minister was Robert Walpole in the eighteenth century. He was known as the "First Lord of the Treasury". The first person to be use the title "prime minister" officially was Henry Campbell-Bannerman in 1905.
Well-known prime ministers in the 20th century include Neville Chamberlain, Winston Churchill, Clement Attlee, Margaret Thatcher, and Tony Blair. The prime ministers usually live and work at 10 Downing Street or Chequers while in office. Chequers was donated to the country by Winston Churchill.
There are several other official residences, some owned by the government, others held by trusts. The Chevening House estate, in Kent is an example. Dorneywood is another.
Living former prime ministers
There are five living former British prime ministers:
Related pages
List of prime ministers of the United Kingdom
Deputy Prime Minister of the United Kingdom
References
Politics of the United Kingdom |
The River Forth is a river in Scotland.
The source is Loch Ard, in Kinlochard. The river flows through the city of Stirling, and the city of Edinburgh is on the south of the Firth of Forth estuary.
Rivers of Scotland |
Alejandro Toledo is a former president of Peru. He won the 2001 election for president. He gained international prominence after leading the opposition against president Alberto Fujimori, who held the presidency from 1990 to 2000.
Early life
He pursued his undergraduate and graduate education at the University of San Francisco and Stanford University. He originally joined the technical and academic field, from where he participated as an analyst on politics and economics on some occasions.
Political career
He entered politics when he founded the País Posible party, participating for the first time in the 1995 general election. In 2000, he managed to become in the largest opposition leader to the government of Alberto Fujimori, before whom in the midst of a controversial and bumpy process, lost the election for a second time. After the transition stage and the return of democracy in Peru, he participated for the third time in the 2001 elections against Lourdes Flores of National Unity and Alan García of the Peruvian Aprista Party; he competed with the latter in the second round, winning with 53.1% of the popular vote.
Arrest
On 16 July 2019, Toledo was arrested in the United States. On 19 March 2020, he was released on bail.
Personal life
He is from the town of Chimbote in Ancash Region, Peru. He is married to Eliane Karp of Belgium.
References
Presidents of Peru
1946 births
Living people |
Inuktitut is a language of the Arctic, spoken by Inuits in Canada and in Greenland. Inuktitut is a very complex language. It is an official language in Nunavut and the Northwest Territories.
The Inuit write Inuktitut in two ways. One way to write Inuktitut is by using the Roman alphabet. The other way to write Inuktitut is by using an abugida, which is a kind of alphabet which has letters based on syllables.
The Inuktitut syllabary uses a small part of the Unified Canadian Aboriginal Syllabics, a set of letters made up for writing down many of the languages of the First Nations people in Canada.
Some words in English come from Inuktitut or another Inuit language. Among them are the words anorak, igloo, and kayak.
References
Eskimo-Aleut languages |
Fall Out Boy (often shortened to FOB) is an alternative rock band from Chicago, Illinois, USA. The members are Pete Wentz (bassist), Patrick Stump (vocals), Andy Hurley (drums), and Joe Trohman (guitar). They have written successful songs, including "Thnks fr the Mmrs", "Sugar, We're Goin Down" and "Dance, Dance".
Overview
Their music is mostly like the pop-punk style, or genre, of music. The band got the name "Fall Out Boy" from a character who appeared in one episode of The Simpsons. "Sugar, We're Goin' Down" was the first single from their album From Under the Cork Tree. It has peaked at number eight on the Billboard charts. The second single was "Dance, Dance" which picked up major airplay in the U.S. The third single was "A Little Less Sixteen Candles, a Little More Touch Me." Their third album is Infinity on High and it had lots of success around the world.
Two songs from the album were very popular across the world. They are "This Ain't a Scene, It's an Arms Race" and "Thnks fr th Mmrs". The second song's title is "Thanks for the Memories" without the vowel letters, which is meant to look as if it were from a text message.
The third single from Infinity on High is called "The Take Over, The Breaks Over". The fourth is "I'm Like a Lawyer With the Way I'm Always Trying to Get You Off (Me & You)". Their fourth album Folie à Deux, was released on December 16, 2008. "I Don't Care" was the first song released from the album. In late 2009 the band took a rest. Patrick Stump went solo and released his debut album Soul Punk on October 18, 2011.
His EP Truant Wave was released on February 22, 2011. Bassist Pete Wentz formed the electropop band Black Cards. Guitarist Joe Trohman and Andy Hurley formed a rock band The Damned Things with people from Anthrax and Every Time I Die.
Fall Out Boy came off hiatus in 2013, releasing a new single "My Songs Know What You Did in the Dark (Light 'Em Up)" and an album Save Rock and Roll, along with a supporting tour, They went on the Save Rock and Roll Arena Fall Tour September of 2013 with fellow rock band Panic! at the Disco in support of the album as well. In September 2014, they released a new single, called "Centuries".
Discography
Fall Out Boy's Evening Out with Your Girlfriend (2003)
Take This to Your Grave (2003)
From Under the Cork Tree (2005)
Infinity on High (2007)
Folie à Deux (2008)
Save Rock and Roll (2013)
PAX AM Days (2013)
American Beauty/American Psycho (2015)
Make America Psycho Again (2015)
MANIA'' (2018)
References
Other websites
Fall Out Boy's MySpace Profile
Official Website
2001 establishments in the United States
2000s establishments in Illinois
American pop rock bands
American punk bands
Musical groups established in 2001
Musical groups from Chicago
Pop punk bands |
The modern Greek alphabet has 24 letters. It is used to write the Greek language. The Greek alphabet is also frequently used in science and mathematics to represent various values or variables. Most letters in the Greek alphabet have an equivalent in the English language.
The twenty-four letters (each in uppercase and lowercase forms) are:
Α α, Β β, Γ γ, Δ δ, Ε ε, Ζ ζ, Η η, Θ θ, Ι ι, Κ κ, Λ λ, Μ μ, Ν ν, Ξ ξ, Ο ο, Π π, Ρ ρ, Σ σ or ς, Τ τ, Υ υ, Φ φ, Χ χ, Ψ ψ, and Ω ω.
The Greek alphabet is thought to be where most European alphabets came from. The alphabet was borrowed from the Phoenician alphabet around the 10th century BC, with many changes to make it fit the Greek language.
Some of the Phoenician letters for sounds not used in Greek were turned into vowels. The Phoenicians had written their abjad without any vowels, and this is the case with Hebrew and Arabic to the present day. Obviously, their peoples knew how to say the words, so that worked well for them. But the Greek addition of vowels was better for countries where it might be a second language.
The Greek change made reading easier for trading with other cultures. In general, Indo-European languages did not use consonant-based roots (where the word's central meaning is based on the consonants) like those in Semitic languages such as Phoenician, Arabic, Hebrew, and Aramaic.
At first, Greek was written from right to left, same as Phoenician, but after the 6th century BC, it was written from left to right.
There were some differences in the early Greek alphabet depending on what part of the Greek world it was used in. But over time, all Greeks started to use the same alphabet, especially after the Ionic alphabet of Miletus was officially adopted in Athens in 403 BC. A little later, the rest of Greece did the same, and by 350 BC, during the life of Alexander the Great, almost all Greeks were using the same twenty-four letter Greek alphabet.
Later, Aristophanes of Byzantium (c. 257185 BC), a Greek scholar and grammarian, invented the three diacritics (accent marks): acute, grave, and circumflex, to mark the tone or pitch of Greek words.
Although the Greek letters accurately represented all the main sounds of the Greek language early on, the sounds of the Greek language changed over time. Some of the vowel sounds began to sound similar to one another, aspirated voiceless stops became voiceless fricatives, and voiced stops became voiced fricatives. One can get an idea of how older Greek pronunciations sounded, by looking at the Latin and English spellings of Greek loanwords like "philosopher", "Chimera", "Cyprus", and "Thessalonica".
Rough breathing or "H" sound
Another diacritic is a comma, usually above initial vowels. This signaled whether or not the sound of the letter 'H' was present. It is not available in the English standard character-set. If this comma-like diacritic above the vowel is reversed, it indicates the presence of an /h/ sound before a vowel, diphthong, or rho. Thus, the Greek name Ἕκτωρ is pronounced Hektōr, not Ektor. Another example is ἥρως, pronounced hḗrōs ("hero").
Modern orthography
In 1982, a new, simplified orthography, known as "monotonic", was adopted for official use in Modern Greek by the Greek state. It uses only a single accent mark, the acute accent. This marks the stressed syllable of polysyllabic words, that is, words with more than one syllable.
Related pages
Ancient Greek language
Greek language
History of the alphabet
References
Other websites
Greek alphabet
Greek Unicode Issues |
Good Charlotte is an American punk music band. They are from Waldorf, Maryland. They have many popular songs, including "The Anthem", "Girls and Boys", and "Lifestyles of the Rich and Famous".
Their third album is unique. The Chronicles of Life and Death came in two different versions: the Life version, and the Death version. The only difference between them is the last song on the CD. The Life version has "Falling Away", and the Death version has "Meet My Maker".
The lead singer of the band is Joel Madden. His twin brother, Benji, is also in the band. But besides them, there is Billy (guitarist), Paul (bassist) and Dean (drums).
Discography
Studio albums
Good Charlotte (2000)
The Young and the Hopeless (2002)
The Chronicles of Life and Death (2004)
Good Morning Revival (2007)
Cardiology (2010)
Youth Authority (2016)
Other websites
Official Site
Good Charlotte Fan Site
Official Good Charlotte Myspace
Interview: Joel Madden of Good Charlotte
1990s American music groups
2000s American music groups
2010s American music groups
American punk bands
Musical groups established in 1996
Musical groups from Maryland
1996 establishments in Maryland |
Battle Creek is a city in western Michigan, USA. The headquarters of the Kellogg's cereal company is located in this city.
Other websites
Official website
Cities in Michigan |
Grand Rapids is a large city in western Michigan, United States. About 200,000 people were living here in 2018.
Former American president Gerald Ford grew up in Grand Rapids. Grand Rapids is also the birthplace of Amway and the Meijer store chain.
Grand Rapids is the county seat of Kent County. It is the second largest city in the state, after Detroit. The third largest is Warren.
The city has many attractions, including the Frederik Meijer Gardens and Sculpture Park and John Ball Park, which is a zoo. Grand Valley State University has a campus in downtown Grand Rapids.
Many Reformed Christians from Dutch ancestry live in Grand Rapids.
Other websites
County seats in Michigan |
Juan Evo Morales Aima (born October 26, 1959) was the President of Bolivia from 2006 through 2019. He is an Aymara Native American, and is politically a leftist. He is the founder and leader of the Movement toward Socialism (or MAS) political party. Movimiento al Socialismo is its Spanish name.
Presidency
On January 22, 2006, he became President of Bolivia. His party has declared that he is the first indigenous person to be president of Bolivia. Not everyone believes this to be true because of his mestizo heritage and similar backgrounds of several past Bolivian presidents. Nonetheless, he is likely the first culturally indigenous president of Bolivia.
Policies
Born in Oruro, Morales was a leader in a union of coca growers. Morales has said he does not like United States policy toward Latin America, criticizing the country's past failures to stand up for democracy, trade agreements which he feels have not helped Bolivia, and especially for the US's anti-drug policies. Coca is a component in cocaine, but is also an important part of Bolivian culture. Morales became well known for this, and he was elected to Congress.
Even though he was forced out of Congress in 2002, he became a very popular person in Bolivia, and won the country's presidential election in 2005. As president, he focused on economic changes that moved the country toward a more socialist economy, instead of a capitalist one. He also worked with other leaders in South America like Rafael Correa and Nestor Kirchner. Morales has been a popular president, and has been reelected in 2009 and 2014. During this time he has criticized both George W. Bush and Barack Obama and has had arguments with the United States.
In 2016, Morales wanted to pass a Constitutional amendment that would allow him to run for another term in 2019. Many people in Bolivia saw this as a power grab, and the amendment lost the election.
2019 political crisis
On 20 October 2019 Morales won 47.1% of the vote in the first round of the 2019 Bolivian general election. The results were immediately challenged and led to widespread protests. On 9 November 2019 the Organization of American States published a preliminary report that there were "clear manipulations". The police joined the protests against Morales and on 10 November the military forced him to resign.
References
1959 births
Living people
Presidents of Bolivia
Democratic socialists
Native American people |
Lake Titicaca (, "Titiqaqa Lake") is a large, deep lake in the Andes mountains. The eastern part is in Bolivia and the western part of it is in Peru. It is the largest lake in South America.
Lake Titicaca is at above sea level. It is often called the "highest navigable lake" in the world. It means that it is the highest lake that boats use for trade. There are many other lakes in the world that are higher. The lake has 41 islands. Some of the islands are home to many people.
Ecology
Lake Titicaca is home to more than 530 species of water animals.
Several threatened species such as the huge Titicaca water frog and the Titicaca grebe, a bird which cannot fly, only live in or near the lake.
Since 2000, the water level of Lake Titicaca has gone down. This is because of shorter rainy seasons and the melting of glaciers. The Global Nature Fund (GNF) says that the natural life in and around Lake Titicaca is under threat from water pollution and the introduction of new species by humans.
Islands
Uros
The "Floating Islands" are small islands made by the Uros (or Uru) people. They use layers of cut totora, a thick reed that grows in Lake Titicaca. The Uros make the islands by continuously bending over the reeds that grow in the lake.
Legend says that the Uru people came from the Amazon river area, and moved to Lake Titicaca. The local people did not allow them to have their own land. They then built the reed islands, which could be moved into deep water or to different parts of the lake for safety.
The islands are a golden colour. Many are about big. The largest are about half the size of a football field. Each island has a few houses. The people living together on an island are usually all related. Some of the islands have watchtowers and other buildings, also made out of reeds.
, about 1,200 Uros lived on 60 islands. They are mostly in the west corner of the lake near Puno, a large port town in Peru. The islands have become one of Peru's tourist attractions. This means that the Uros can earn money by bringing visitors to the islands by motorboat and selling crafts.
Amantani
Amantani is another small island on Lake Titicaca. The people living here speak the Quechua language. About 4,000 people live in 10 communities on the nearly circular island. It has two mountain peaks, called Pachatata (Father Earth) and Pachamama (Mother Earth). Both peaks have ancient ruins on the top. The hillsides planted with wheat, potatoes, and vegetables. Most of the small fields are worked by hand. Long stone fences divide the fields, and cattle and sheep also graze on the hillsides.
Taquile
Taquile is a hilly island located east of Puno. About 2,200 people live here. It is narrow and long and was used as a prison during the Spanish Colony and into the 20th century. In 1970, it became property of the Taquile people, who have inhabited the island since then. There are pre-Inca ruins on the highest part of the island.
Taquile is famous for its weaving and knitting. "Taquile and Its Textile Art" were honoured by UNESCO with the label "Masterpieces of the Oral and Intangible Heritage of Humanity".
Isla del Sol
Isla del Sol (Spanish for "island of the sun") is one of the largest islands of the lake. It is a rocky, hilly island. There are no cars or paved roads on the island. About 800 families live here.
There are over 180 ruins on the island. Most of these are from the Inca period around the 15th century AD. Among the ruins on the island are the Sacred Rock, a labyrinth-like building called Chicana, Kasa Pata, and Pilco Kaima. The island is also mentioned in Inca mythology.
Isla de la Luna
Isla de la Luna (Spanish for “island of the moon”) lies east of the bigger Isla del Sol. Legends say that this is where Viracocha told the moon to rise.
Archaeological excavations show that the Tiwanaku peoples (around 650–1000 AD) built a large temple on the Island of the Moon. The buildings on the island today were built by the Inca on top of the earlier Tiwanaku ones.
Suriki
Suriki lies in the Bolivian part of Lake Titicaca. Suriki is the last place where they still make reed boats.
References
Other websites
Lake Titicaca – The Highest Navigable Lake in the World
Bolivian Navy and Naval Ensign
Management issues in the Lake Titicaca and Lake Poopo system: Importance of developing a water budget
Peru Cultural Society – Lake Titicaca History
References
Geography of Bolivia
Geography of Peru
Titicaca |
Howland Island is a small island in the north Pacific Ocean, just north of the Equator. It is owned by the United States.
Weather
Howland island is a very hot and sunny island with wind blowing almost all the time. It only rains every once in a while.
Location
Howland Island is located at 0 48 N, 176 38 W.
Gallery
References
Other websites
Howland in Google Maps
Geography, history and nature on Howland Island
Howland Island National Wildlife Refuge
'Voyage of the Odyssey' – pictures and travelogue
Howland Island at Infoplease
Howland Island – Small Island, Big History
Pictures of the 1993 expedition to Howland island
United States Minor Outlying Islands
Pacific islands
Islands of Oceania |
The 2005 Atlantic hurricane season was the time from June 1 to November 30, 2005 when hurricanes officially formed in the Atlantic Ocean. Storms sometimes form before and after these dates but most storms form during the season. Tropical Storm Zeta formed on December 30 and dissipated on January 6, which is after the November 30 end of the season. It was the most active Atlantic hurricane season in recorded history.
2005 broke many records set. There were 28 storms that were tropical storms which was broken by 2020 and 15 that became hurricanes. For the first time ever storms were named by the Greek alphabet as the normal name list had been used up. The storm which caused the most damage was Hurricane Katrina, which hit New Orleans, USA, and killed over 1000 people. The strongest storm of the season was not Katrina, it was Hurricane Wilma. Wilma was the strongest hurricane ever in the Atlantic Ocean, reaching a record low pressure of 882 mbar.
Storms
STORM CLASSIFICATIONS: Numbers 1 - 5 indicate Hurricanes, from 1 (weakest) to 5 (strongest)TS Tropical Storm | TD Tropical Depression | SS Subtropical Storm | SD Subtropical Depression
Tropical Storm Arlene
Arlene, the first storm of the season, formed near Honduras on June 8 and moved north. It came close to western Cuba on June 10 before entering the Gulf of Mexico. Arlene strengthened just below hurricane strength before making landfall on western Florida. The storm quickly weakened while moving inland, and later became an extratropical remnant on June 13.
Tropical Storm Bret
Tropical Storm Bret was a weak tropical storm that formed as Tropical Depression Two in the western Gulf of Mexico, then quickly became Tropical Storm Bret. The storm made landfall in Tuxpan, Veracruz, Mexico the next morning. It dissipated on June 30. The storm cause 2 deaths and $9 million in damage.
Hurricane Cindy
Hurricane Cindy was a tropical cyclone that reached minimal hurricane strength for a very short time in the Gulf of Mexico during July and made landfall in Louisiana. It was the third named storm and first hurricane of the 2005 Atlantic hurricane season. Hurricane Cindy left 3 deaths and $320 million in damage.
Hurricane Dennis
Hurricane Dennis was very powerful hurricane that reached a peak of 150 mph. Hurricane Dennis moved mostly northwestward in its track. It made landfall in Grenada, and almost made landfall in Jamaica, and also made landfall in Cuba, and Florida (United States).
Hurricane Emily
Hurricane Emily was the strongest and only known category 5 hurricane in July. It beat a record in strength set by Hurricane Dennis only 6 days before. Hurricane Emily was one of four category 5 hurricanes in 2005. Hurricane Emily caused about 17 deaths and $1.014 billion in damage.
Tropical Storm Franklin
Tropical Storm Franklin formed north of the Bahamas on July 21 and moved steadily across the western Atlantic while coming close to Bermuda on July 26. Later, Franklin became an extratropical cyclone near Newfoundland, before being absorbed by another non-tropical system. Franklin caused no damages and killed no people while it stayed in the ocean during most of its life.
Tropical Storm Gert
Tropical Storm Gert was a weak and short lived storm. Tropical Storm Gert formed in the Bay of Campeche on July 23. The storm made landfall in Mexico and dissipated on July 25.
Tropical Storm Harvey
Tropical Storm Harvey was a strong tropical storm that moved across the Atlantic Ocean from August 2 to August 8. Harvey caused no damages or deaths and was the eighth named storm of the 2005 Atlantic hurricane season. Tropical Storm Harvey only affected Bermuda.
Hurricane Irene
Hurricane Irene was a rather long lived storm (about 2 weeks). It took it a while to become a hurricane. The only effects from Irene were large waves. Irene caused no damage or deaths.
Tropical Storm Jose
Tropical Storm Jose was a strong but very short lived storm. It quickly formed in the Bay of Campeche and made landfall in Mexico. Tropical Storm Jose dissipated the next day. Tropical Storm Jose caused 8 deaths and $45 million in damages.
Hurricane Katrina
Hurricane Katrina was a powerful category 5 hurricane. Katrina was the costliest hurricane in U.S. history. Katrina devastated the U.S. Gulf Coast, especially New Orleans, a city in Louisiana. It beat the old record from Hurricane Andrew. Katrina left $125 billion in damage and 1,836 dead.
Tropical Storm Lee
Tropical Storm Lee formed east of the Lesser Antilles as a tropical depression on August 28. On the next day, the depression weakened into a tropical low. The low then moved north and became stronger. It became a tropical storm for a short time on August 31. Lee quickly weakened again into a remnant low and was absorbed by a cold front on September 2.
Hurricane Maria
Hurricane Maria was a major hurricane in September 2005. This storm was rare because it affected New Jersey, Iceland, Scotland, and Norway. Hurricane Maria caused 3 deaths and $3.1 million in damage.
Hurricane Nate
Nate was a category 1 hurricane. Hurricane Nate also helped Hurricane Maria kill one person in Bermuda, and another in New Jersey.
Hurricane Ophelia
Hurricane Ophelia was a category 1 hurricane in September of 2005. It moved strangely just offshore of the United States. In all, Ophelia killed 3 people and caused $70 million in damage, mostly to North Carolina.
Hurricane Philippe
Hurricane Philippe was a category 1 hurricane that moved near land, but did not affect land. This was the third of eleven uses of a "P" name.
Hurricane Rita
Hurricane Rita was a powerful category 5 hurricane that started east of the Bahamas on September 26. It moved south of Florida and into the Gulf of Mexico. Rita became a category 5 hurricane very fast, then made landfall. Hurricane Rita made landfall as a category 3 hurricane in Texas, on September 24. By September 26, Rita had died over the U.S. The hurricane killed about 120 people and caused $10 billion in damage. This was only the second time that an "R" name was used in the Atlantic, the first being Roxanne.
Hurricane Stan
Hurricane Stan was the sixth of the seven storms in 2005 to make landfall in Mexico. The storm caused $1 billion in Mexico and the Central American region. The exact number of people killed is unknown, but the guess is around 1,660, though it could be up to 2,000.
Tropical Storm Tammy
Tammy was a tropical storm that only existed for a total of two days and brought minor damages to the southeastern United States. It peaked with 50 mph (85 km/h) just before making landfall on the northern Florida coast. Tammy formed from a strong non-tropical low on October 5 just off the Floridan coast. It moved north, peaking with 50 mph (85 km/h) winds just before making landfall on Atlantic Beach, Florida on October 6. Tammy died shortly later. Most of the damages were losses from FEMA that totaled up to $30 million. Tammy also killed 10 people. This was only the second time that a name starting with the letter "T" in the Atlantic Ocean. The first use was from Hurricane Tanya in 1995.
Hurricane Vince
Hurricane Vince was a very rare and unusual hurricane. Hurricane Vince formed in the Atlantic, in a location where the water was too cold for a storm to form. It was only a hurricane for about 6 hours. The storm performed another rare feat, which was making landfall in Spain. This was the first time that a "V" name had been used in the Atlantic.
Hurricane Wilma
Hurricane Wilma was the strongest hurricane ever recorded in the Atlantic Ocean. Hurricane Wilma lasted as a storm from mid to later October in 2005. Wilma left $28.8 billion in damage, mostly to Florida and the Yucatán Peninsula.
Tropical Storm Alpha
Tropical Storm Alpha was the first tropical storm to get a Greek alphabet name. It caused 43 people to die over Haiti, Dominican Republic, and the Bahamas. All of this happened before Hurricane Wilma absorbed Alpha on October 24.
Hurricane Beta
Hurricane Beta was a category 3 hurricane in late October, 2005. It strengthened fast and made landfall in Nicaragua, before it died on October 31. Beta caused about 4 deaths and $3 million in damage.
Tropical Storm Gamma
Gamma was a tropical storm that started in the middle of November. It crossed the Caribbean Sea and dissipated during this time. Tropical Storm Gamma reformed north of Honduras, before it again died. The tropical storm killed about 41 people in Honduras.
Tropical Storm Delta
Tropical Storm Delta was a strong tropical storm. It killed at least 7 people in the Canary Islands and caused about $360 million in damage. The remains were last seen over Morocco.
Hurricane Epsilon
Epsilon was a rare December hurricane, the first since Hurricane Lili in 1984. Forecasters incorrectly guessed on how much time it would take for Epsilon to dissipate. Epsilon did not come anywhere near land.
Tropical Storm Zeta
Tropical Storm Zeta was the last storm of 2005. The storm formed on December 30 over cold waters in the Atlantic. Tropical Storm Zeta dissipated on January 6, 2006. It was only one of two storms to live in two different years (the other was Hurricane Alice, which was in 1954 and 1955). The storm did not affect land or cause any deaths or damage.
Other storms
There were also four storms in and around the 2005 Atlantic hurricane season that were not given any names: Tropical Depression Ten(10), Tropical Depression Nineteen(19), Subtropical Depression Twenty-two(22), and a subtropical storm that was not found until after it had happened. A subtropical cyclone is a storm that is not quite a tropical cyclone, but is more tropical than an extratropical cyclone.
Retirement
In the spring of 2006, Hurricane Dennis, Hurricane Katrina, Hurricane Rita, Hurricane Stan, and Hurricane Wilma were retired for the damages they caused, and were replaced by Don, Katia, Rina, Sean and Whitney for 2011.
References |
A Christian calendar can be any calendar used by various Christian Churches for the Church year, called "liturgical year". For example, it can be used to find out what day Easter will be on, even though it is not the same in every Church.
The church year is divided into seasons like Lent, Easter, Pentecost, Advent and Christmas, with other weeks being seen as ordinary time.
The Gregorian calendar, named after Pope Gregory XIII, is now a civil calendar that is used in many countries around the world.
Catholic, Anglican and Orthodox Christians also celebrate Saint's days - here is a Catholic list
calendar
Liturgical calendar |
Puberty is what happens in children's bodies that changes them into adults. After puberty, people are able to make children. A girl who has gone through puberty can become pregnant and have a baby. At puberty, a boy's body begins making sperm, and he starts to be able to ejaculate, which is semen coming out from his penis when he is sexually excited. If he has sexual intercourse (sex) with a girl, he can make her pregnant.
Puberty is started by hormones, which are chemicals that tell parts of the body to do things. Today, on average, girls start puberty at age 10 or 11, and boys at age 11 or 12. However, people all over the world start puberty at different ages. Changes that happen to boys and girls during puberty include the sex organs growing bigger, hair appearing on the body, and growing taller and stronger. These changes are called secondary sex characteristics. People often notice boys' voices getting deeper, and girls growing breasts and starting to menstruate (have periods).
Because puberty is the time in a child's life when he or she becomes able to make children, this is seen as very important. Therefore, people in many countries around the world have different ways of marking this event.
How the body controls puberty
Puberty is started and carried on by different hormones. Hormones are chemicals that tell parts of the body to do things. Hormones are made by glands in the body. Glands are organs (special parts) of the body that make hormones.
This is what happens during puberty:
A gland at the bottom of the brain called the hypothalamus sends gonadotropin-releasing hormone (GnRH) into a nearby gland called the pituitary gland.
GnRH causes cells in the pituitary gland to make two hormones, luteinizing hormone (LH) and follicle stimulating hormone (FSH). LH and FSH are types of hormones called gonadotropins. The bloodstream carries these hormones around the body.
LH and FSH make the gonads grow larger and start producing their own hormones, estradiol and testosterone. A girl's gonads are her ovaries, and a boy's gonads are his testicles (also called testes). Both ovaries and testicles produce estradiol and testosterone, but ovaries produce more estradiol and testicles produce more testosterone. Estradiol and testosterone are types of hormones called steroid hormones. Steroid hormones are also made by the body's two adrenal glands, which sit on top of the two kidneys.
When the amount of estradiol and testosterone in the body increases, various parts of the body change.
When puberty starts and ends
On average, girls begin puberty at ages 10–11; boys at ages 11–12. Girls usually complete puberty by ages 15–17, while boys usually complete puberty by ages 16–17. The major landmark of puberty for females is menarche, the onset of menstruation, which occurs on average between ages 12–13; for males, it is the first ejaculation, which occurs on average at age 13.
In rich countries in the 21st century, the average age at which children, especially girls, reach puberty is lower compared to the 19th century, when it was 15 for girls and 16 for boys. This can be due to improved nutrition resulting in rapid body growth, increased weight and fat deposition, or eating meat from animals which have been dosed up with oestrogen.
This is the general picture, but people round the world may start puberty at different ages. This is because their environment (things around them) may differ quite a bit. Here are some of the things that make puberty happen at different ages in people:
Genetics. Genetics is the study of how parents pass on to their children some of the way they are through their genes. Half of a person's genes come from the mother. The other half come from the father. Some studies have found that mothers and daughters tend to start puberty at about the same age.
Diet. Boys and girls who have a good diet – who eat healthy food – tend to start puberty earlier. Today, people start puberty younger than in the 1840s. For example, in Norway, girls born in 1840 had their first period (see below) at an average age of 17 years; in France the average age was 15.3 years; and in England it was 16.5 years. This may be because people have better food to eat today.
Exercise. Young people who exercise a lot, such as athletes and gymnasts, may start puberty later. It may also happen more slowly for them. This is thought to be because their bodies use up the food that they eat faster. This causes them to have less body fat, so there is less leptin to tell their brains to start puberty.
Obesity. Obesity is the state of being very overweight. A scientific study seems to say that girls who are obese start puberty early. Some obese girls have started growing breasts before the age of nine years and have had their first period before 12 years. This could be because a woman who is pregnant needs more nutrients (chemicals the body needs to stay alive) to support her baby. Therefore, if a girl is obese, her body fat sends signals to her brain that she is ready to become pregnant. Girls who have early puberty can have health problems later on in life.
Illness. Boys and girls who are sick for a long time, especially with illnesses that cause them to have a poor diet, tend to start puberty late. For example, this often happens to people who suffer from anorexia nervosa. Anorexia nervosa, often called "anorexia" for short, is an eating disorder. People with anorexia think that they are fat, or are very afraid of becoming fat. They try to lose weight by eating too little and doing too much exercise. To avoid gaining weight, they do not eat the amount of food their body needs. This causes them to stay at a weight that is not normal for their age and height.
Stress. It is thought that people who are under a lot of stress start puberty later. Some research seems to show that girls have their first period a bit later when their fathers are not around when they are young, when they have a stepfather, if they have been sexually abused for a long time, or if they were adopted by their parents from another country at a young age. On the other hand, the first period may happen a bit later when a girl grows up in a large family with her natural father around. However, scientists are not sure how correct these studies are. Not many studies have been done to find out if stress also causes boys to start puberty later.
Chemicals. Some scientists think people may start puberty earlier because their bodies are affected by chemicals such as estrogens and progestagens that are put in the environment by humans. Another chemical that may cause early puberty is Bisphenol A (BPA). It is used to make plastics, such as some types of baby bottles, water bottles and sports equipment.
Girls usually reach their adult height and become sexually mature (able to have babies) about four years after puberty starts. Boys keep growing for about six years after puberty starts. Puberty in boys starts off more slowly than in girls, but then speeds up later on. Although boys are usually about shorter than girls before puberty begins, men on average end up about taller than women.
Body changes in males
For most boys, puberty takes about six years and ends when they are about 17 or 18 years old. At the end of puberty, a teenager is usually about 10 to 30 centimetres (cm) (4 to 12 inches (in)) taller, 7 to 29 kilograms (kg) (15 to 65 pounds (lb)) heavier, and stronger. He is also able to make a woman pregnant (have a baby).
Sex organs grow bigger
The first sign of puberty in boys is that their testicles (also called the testes) and scrotum (the "bag" that the testicles are in) grow bigger. Before puberty, each testicle is about 1.5 to 2 cm (0.6 to 0.8 in) long and has a volume of about 2 to 3 cubic centimetres (cc) (0.1 to 0.2 cubic inches (cu in)). About six years after puberty starts, the testicles reach their adult size. The volume of an average adult man's testicle is about 18 to 20 cc (1.1 to 1.2 cu in). However, it is normal for some men to have testicles smaller than this size, and for other men to have larger testicles.
The penis also grows bigger during puberty. At the start of puberty, the average length of the penis is 6 cm (2.4 in). The penis reaches adult size about five years later. A study done in 1996 found the mean length of an adult man's penis is 3.5 in (8.9 cm) when it is flaccid (, ) (not erect or hard). The average length of an erect penis is about 12.9 to 15 cm (5.1 to 5.9 in).
The testicles have two main jobs: to make hormones and sperm. The testicles make the hormone testosterone, which spreads around the body. This causes the changes in the body that make a boy grow into a man. Testosterone also makes a man feel like having sex. One year after puberty begins, when boys urinate (pee) after waking up in the morning, some sperm can be found in the urine. When a boy is about 13 years old his testicles will have grown to the stage that he may be fertile (able to make a woman pregnant). However, it will be still be difficult for him to do so. Boys usually only become fully fertile when they reach about 14 to 16 years of age. The sperm in the testicles mixes with other liquids in the body to form a whitish or yellowish and sticky fluid called semen. During puberty, two glands in the body called the seminal vesicles and prostate also grow bigger. These glands make a lot of the liquid that is in semen.
When a man is sexually excited, he gets an erection – his penis becomes bigger, longer and harder. A male can become sexually excited if thinks about sex or sees a good-looking person, or if his penis rubs against something. During puberty, some boys also have spontaneous erections. These are erections that happen by themselves without any reason. This can be embarrassing when it happens in a public place.
When a man's penis is sexually stimulated for some time, he has an orgasm and semen shoots out from the penis. This is called ejaculation. Boys who have not begun puberty cannot ejaculate. A boy's first ejaculation usually happens about one year after he begins puberty. For some boys, the first ejaculation takes place when they are sleeping. This is called a nocturnal emission or a wet dream. It happens without the boy's control, often when he is having a dream about sex. Scientists believe that wet dreams are the body's way of removing too much semen. A study done of 5,300 white men in the United States in 1948 found that 13% of them had their first ejaculation through a wet dream, This seems to tell us that most boys have their first ejaculation after masturbating. A male masturbates when he rubs his penis to make himself feel good sexually. The study also found that most boys who have their first ejaculation by masturbating do this a year or more earlier than boys who have their first ejaculation through a wet dream. A 2004 survey by a magazine in Canada found that most males (43%) started masturbating when they were about 12 to 13 years old. When a boy begins masturbating, wet dreams often stop happening because semen is taken out from his body regularly.
When a boy starts to ejaculate, he usually produces only a small amount of semen. The semen is different from what an adult man produces. It is usually clear and stays sticky. It either has no sperm in it, or sperm that do not move properly or do not move at all. A boy's semen only becomes like an adult man's semen about two years after his first ejaculation.
Body hair and skin changes
Not long after a boy's testicles and penis start to grow, pubic hair (, ) begins to appear. Pubic hair is hair that grows in the pubic region, which is the part of the body where the penis is. Pubic hair is shorter, curlier and rougher than hair on the head. It usually starts growing on the abdomen above the penis at the place where it joins the body. (The abdomen is the part of the torso where the navel or bellybutton is.) There may also be some hair on the scrotum. After about six months to a year, there will be a large triangle of hair in the pubic region. Within three to four years after puberty begins, there is a lot of pubic hair in the area above the penis. Later on, pubic hair also grows on the abdomen upwards towards the navel and on the insides of the thighs.
About two years after pubic hair starts to appear, hair also grows on other parts of the body:
In the armpits.
Around the anus.
On the upper lip, forming a mustache (also spelled moustache in the United Kingdom and other countries).
On the sides of the face in front of the ears, forming sideburns.
Around the nipples.
On the lower part of the face, forming a beard.
The hair on the arms, legs, chest, abdomen and back may also become thicker. Different men have different amounts of body hair. Many boys begin shaving when hair starts growing on their faces.
A larger amount of male hormones in the body cause changes to perspiration (sweat). This gives it a more "adult" body odor or smell. The hormones also cause sebaceous glands in the skin to make more sebum, a type of oil that keeps the skin from getting too dry. Sebum and dead skin cells can mix with a type of germ called bacteria and block pores (tiny openings) in the skin. This causes a skin problem called acne. Most people get acne during puberty. When a person has acne, he gets swellings on his skin called blackheads, whiteheads and pimples. Blackheads and whiteheads are painless, but pimples can be red and painful. They usually form on the face but can also appear on the neck, shoulders, upper back and chest. Oil glands on scalp – the part of the head on which hair grows – also make a lot of sebum. This can cause dandruff, in which small white bits of skin fall from the scalp.
Voice changes
During puberty, a boy's larynx or voicebox also grows larger. This makes the laryngeal prominence or Adam's apple – the lump that sticks out of the front of his neck – larger too. As the larynx grows the vocal folds become longer and thicker, so they vibrate (move back and forth) more slowly. This causes the voice to lower in pitch or tone and become deeper. When this happens, it is sometimes said that the boy's voice has "broken". However, it actually does not happen overnight but over some time. During this time, the voice may sound scratchy. On average, a boy's voice normally reaches its adult sound when he is around 15 years old.
Body growth
Towards the end of puberty, boys go through a "growth spurt" which lasts for about two to three years. During this time, their body grows taller very quickly. When the growth spurt is at its fastest point, some people grow or more a year. This happens about two years after puberty starts, usually between the ages of 13 and 15. When a boy reaches the end of his growth spurt when he is about 18 years old, he will be at his adult height. His body will not grow much taller after that. Because of their growth spurt, boys' muscles can feel sore. These "growing pains" can feel worse if boys are active and do a lot of exercise. They go away after a while.
Boys grow more slowly than girls, but for a longer time. That is why most men are taller than women. By the end of puberty, adult males have heavier bones and more muscle than females. In an average adult man, muscle makes up 50% and fat 15% of his weight. On the other hand, 40% of an average adult woman's weight is made up of muscle while 27% is made up of fat. Because men have less body fat than women, their hips do not grow bigger. Some bones like those in the jaw and shoulders grow more in males than in females. That is why males have wider faces and shoulders but narrower hips.
Body changes in females
The changes in a girl's body during puberty usually take place between the ages of eight and 18 years. Most girls will have finished puberty around the age of 15. They will have breasts and pubic hair, will menstruate (have a period) every month, and will be able to get pregnant. They will usually also have reached their full adult height.
Breasts grow
When the breasts start to grow, this is normally the first sign of puberty that can be seen on the outside of a girl's body. This usually happens when girls are about the age of 10.5 years. A lump that is a bit hard appears in each breast under the areola, which is the dark ring around the nipple. The lump in one breast may grow before the other one. This is called breast budding. Within six to 12 months, both breasts will have started growing. The swelling can be felt and seen outside the edges of the areolae. About one and a half to two years after the breasts first start growing, they are close to the shape and size of an adult woman's breasts. The nipple and areola may be on a smaller mound on each breast. This small mound usually goes away when each breast is fully grown. Whether the breasts are small or large depends on how much fat there is in the body.
Body hair and skin changes
Between the ages of about eight and 14 (on average, at 11 or 12 years), pubic hair begins to grow along the labia (the "lips" of the vulva), usually a few months after the breasts start growing. At first the hair is thin and straight instead of curly, and there is not much of it. Within a year, the pubic hair becomes rough, dark and curly and grows in a triangle shape in the pubic region. About one year after pubic hair begins appearing, underarm hair also grows. The hair on the arms and legs also gets thicker, and some girls may have hair appearing on their upper lip and in front of their ears.
Like boys, higher amounts of hormones in the body cause girls' perspiration (sweat) to change. This gives them a more adult body odor or smell. The hormones also cause the skin to produce more sebum (oil), which usually leads to acne.
Changes to the sex organs and menstruation
When girls are between eight and 11 years old, the two ovaries in their body begin to grow bigger. Each ovary is egg-shaped, and is attached to the side wall of the pelvis. The pelvis is a large set of bones in the hips. The ovaries are organs that make female hormones. These hormones cause a girl to grow into a woman, and make her feel like a woman. The hormones also make it possible for females to become pregnant and have babies. Inside the ovaries are about 200,000 ova (egg cells). For a baby to be formed, a woman's ovum and a man's sperm must come together. During puberty, the ova also grow bigger.
Between the ages of nine and 15 years (on average, at 12 to 13 years), the vagina and uterus (womb) become bigger. The uterus is the organ in which a baby grows. The vagina is a tube leading from the uterus to the outside of the body. The opening of the vagina is inside the vulva, in between the legs. A clear or whitish fluid may start to flow out of the vagina to keep it clean. Then, about two years after the breasts start to grow, when a girl is between ten and 16 years old (on average, at 13 to 14 years), hormones made by her ovaries cause the ovaries to release an ovum, which moves into the uterus. Usually, only one ovum is released at a time. The hormones also tell the uterus to get ready for a baby, in case the ovum meets a sperm and gets fertilized. The walls of the uterus become thicker with extra tissue. Inside the thick part of the uterus are blood vessels and other nutrients that a baby will need to grow. If an ovum in the uterus gets fertilized, it sticks to the wall of the uterus and starts to grow. However, if the ovum is not fertilized, it does not stick. The uterus then gets rid of the ovum and the extra tissue by releasing it from the body. The tissue and blood flows out of the uterus through the vagina. This is called menstruation or having a period. The bleeding normally lasts for about three to five days, though some girls may bleed for longer or have a bit of bleeding between periods. The uterus then starts preparing for another ovum. For most girls, the time between their periods is about one month. For about two years after menstruation starts, the time between periods is not always the same. Some girls may skip a month, or have two periods close to each other. It is also normal to have cramps (rather painful squeezing feelings) or to feel bloated (swollen up) in the abdomen during periods. When many girls start having periods, they begin using sanitary napkins (also called sanitary pads) or tampons to soak up the blood and tissue. A sanitary napkin is a piece of material that is absorbent (able to take in liquids) which is worn between the vulva and underpants. A tampon is a stick of absorbent material that is placed inside the vagina.
In 2004, a survey by a Canadian magazine found that most females (25%) started masturbating when they were about 12 to 13 years old.
Body growth
Because of more hormones in the body, girls start to have more fat in their breasts, abdomen, hips and thighs. At the age of ten years, the average girl has 6% more body fat than the average boy, but by the end of puberty the difference is nearly 50%. The fat makes sure that a baby growing inside a pregnant woman will have enough nutrients. Also, the bones in the pelvis move further apart to make room for a larger uterus and ovaries, and so there is space for a baby to grow in the uterus and to pass out of the body when it is born. The extra fat and wider hip bones that girls have give them a curvier shape.
Girls also experience a growth spurt during puberty. In the first year after puberty begins, they grow about . They grow even faster the next year or so, then the growth slows down and almost stops when they start menstruating. After a girl's periods begin, she usually does not grow more than taller.
Emotional changes in males and females
The large amounts of hormones in the bodies of boys and girls during puberty can also affect their emotions. Young people begin to be attracted by (drawn to) each other and thinking about what it is like to have sex. They are often worried about what other people think about them. They can also feel an urge to do things that are dangerous, such as taking drugs or too many alcoholic drinks, or smoking. They sometimes want more independence – more power to decide things for themselves – and can get angry when their parents do not allow them to do things. The brains of teenagers are still growing, and it may take a while before they are mature enough to know how to make good choices about their lives. Therefore, it may be helpful for them to follow the advice of adults they trust, even if it does not make much sense to them at the time.
Culture
Because puberty is the time in a child's life when he or she becomes able to make children, this is seen as very important. Therefore, people in many countries around the world practice Rites of passage to mark this change.
Males
Australia. Among some aboriginal tribes in Australia, when young men go through puberty, their penises are cut or pierced (something sharp is used to poke through the skin), or they may be circumcised. Circumcision is cutting off the foreskin of the penis (the piece of skin that covers the glans penis or head of the penis). Young men are also sent away from home to go on a long trip on foot called a walkabout. During this trip, they learn how to hunt animals and survive in the open.
Females
America. Among the Navajo (, ), who are a Native American people, a young woman who has had her first period goes through a four-day ceremony called Kinaalda which shows that she has changed from being a girl to a woman. The young woman's mother combs her hair and ties it into a ponytail. The young woman's family then sings a prayer, after which she puts on a dress made of a rug and jewellery made of turquoise and seashells. The young woman then runs as fast as she can towards the east, and turns around and runs home. She usually does this once in the morning and once in the evening every day during the ceremony. On the first night, the young woman does not go to sleep but stays awake while more prayers are sung. During the ceremony, the young woman also stands straight or lies on the ground in front of her mother, and her mother passes her hands over the young woman's body to make sure that she grows up beautiful. On the last day of the ceremony, the young woman does a final run; her mother passes her hands over her body one last time; and the young woman gives alkaan, a large cake made of maize (corn) that she has made, to her whole tribe to eat.
Brazil. Among the Urubu-Kaapor people of Brazil, South America, when a young woman has had her first period, she goes into a room in her home covered with palm leaves to spend time alone for a month. She only eats cooked white cassava flour and white tortoise meat. She sleeps in a hammock (a type of bed made of rope that is hung above the floor) as it is believed that some magic will escape if her feet touch the ground. On the seventh day of her time alone, the young woman's father cuts her hair very short. Her legs are scratched with the tooth of an agouti, which is an animal that looks like a guinea pig. Pieces of cloth are wrapped around the woman's forehead and abdomen (tummy), and large ants are put inside the cloth. After the woman has been bitten by the ants a few times, the cloth is removed. The Urubu-Kaapor people believe that the woman will learn how to be strong if she suffers some pain. After the young woman has finished spending a month alone in her room, she makes a meal and a special drink from cassava and gives it to her family and other people in her village. The young woman is now considered an adult, and can wear a necklace of feathers and a waistband with flowers. She also puts pink makeup made from plants on her face.
Ghana. When young women of some tribes in Ghana, Africa, have had their first period, they spend two to three weeks away from their family and friends. The queen mother of the town or village where they live and other older women teach the young women about sex and birth control. The young women also learn how to relate to men so that they can have a good marriage. After this, the young women appear at an event attended by the chief and everybody in the town or village. Young men also come to choose women to marry.
Notes
References
Further reading
Articles
Books
.
.
.
Videos
Other websites
Growing Up Sexually: A World Atlas
NIH guide to puberty and adolescence
"Puberty in Girls" from AboutKidsHealth, The Hospital for Sick Children, Toronto, Canada
"Puberty in Boys" from AboutKidsHealth, The Hospital for Sick Children, Toronto, Canada
Teen Forums – Puberty
Physiology
Human sexuality |
Stamford Bridge could be
Stamford Bridge, East Riding of Yorkshire, a village in the East Riding of Yorkshire
The Battle of Stamford Bridge, a battle in England on 25 September 1066
Stamford Bridge (stadium), a stadium in London
Chelsea F.C., who are based in that stadium |
The Bali tiger, or Balinese tiger (Panthera tigris balica) is one of the three extinct sub-species of the tiger. They became extinct in 1937. They lived on Bali. This was the first sub-species of tiger to become extinct.
The Bali was also the smallest tiger sub-species. There is no record of a Balinese tiger ever being held in a zoo collection. The Balinese tiger's close sub-species were the Javan tiger and the Caspian tiger, which are now also extinct. The Balinese and Javan tigers were once the same, but during the Ice Age, Bali became isolated from Java by the Bali Strait. This split the tigers into two groups which then went onto develop alone.
The killing of the very last wild Balinese tiger is usually thought to have been at Sumbar Kima, West Bali on 27 September, 1937. It was an adult tigress. So the government of Bali made a strict law on killing tigers, but by then it was too late, because the Bali tiger had already become extinct.
References
Tigers
Extinct species |
Year 1507 (MDVII) was a common year starting on Friday of the Julian calendar.
Events
July 4 – Martin Luther is ordained a priest of the Catholic Church.
August 20 – Guru Nanak Dev becomes the first guru and leader of the Sikh religion.
Births
Anne Boleyn |
479 BC was a year in the 5th century BC.
Events
The Persian Wars end.
Deaths
Confucius (born 551 BC). |
Deaths
December 31 – Commodus, Roman Emperor (b. 161) |
1202 (MCCII) was .
Events
August 1 – Arthur of Brittany captured in Mirebeau, north of Poitiers
The chronicle of Roger of Wendover is of original value as of this year.
Founding of the Livonian Brothers of the Sword
Founding of Real Monasterio de Nuestra Senora de Rueda, Aragon Province, Spain
Leonardo Fibonacci published Liber Abaci, introducing the Arabian zero to Europe
First jesters in European courts
Fourth Crusade – Siege of Zadar
Births
Margaret II of Flanders (died 1278)
Deaths
March 8 – Sverre Sigurdsson, King of Norway
May 7 – Hamelin de Warenne, 5th Earl of Surrey
Cathal Carragh Ua Conchobair, King of Connacht
Canute VI of Denmark (born 1163)
Alain de Lille, French theologian and poet (born c. 1128)
Heads of states
England – John, King of England (reigned 1199 – 1216).
France – Philippe II, Auguste King of France (reigned from 1180 to 1223). |
Sitting Bull (about 1831 – December 15, 1890), real name Tatanka Yotanka, was the chief of a Native American tribe called Hunkpapa-Lakota-Sioux. At the age of about 14, Slow participated in a war party against the Crow (warriors).
At the age of 10, however, he killed his first buffalo.
He was a very important chief and fought for the freedom of Native Americans. He fought with Crazy Horse and Big Foot at the Little Bighorn River against General George A. Custer and won. They are the most deadly tribe.
He was shot and killed by Red Tomahawk, a police sergeant, during an attempt to arrest him.
References
1831 births
1890 deaths
Native American people |
Events
The Swedish king Adolft Gustav II started a university at Tartu, Estonia.
Births
October 31 – Johannes Vermeer, painter
Deaths
April 30 – Sigismund III, Vasa king of Polen
September 3 – Carlo Bonone, Italian painter |
Michelle Kwan (born July 7, 1980) is a retired American figure skater. She has won five world championships and nine U.S. championships.
Birth and childhood
Michelle Kwan was born on July 7, 1980, in Torrance, California. Kwan showed interest in figure stating when she followed Ron and Karen, her brother and sister, onto the ice, saying that all she could remember was "every day, tying up my skates and a big smile on my face, excited to go on the ice". She attended public school until eighth grade, when she began being homeschooled in 1994.
Junior world champion
Kwan won the world junior championship in 1994. The same year, at the age of 13, she came in the top 10 in the world senior championship. She became world champion in 1996, when she was 15.
Diplomatic career
On December 15, 2021, President Joe Biden announced that he planned to nominate Kwan to be United States Ambassador to Belize.
Olympics
World Championships: first place in 1996, 1998, 2000, 2001, 2003
Olympics: 1998 - silver; 2002 - bronze
U.S. Championships: first place in 1996, 1998, 1999, 2000, 2001, 2002, 2003, 2004, 2005
References
Other websites
United States Figure Skating Association (USFSA) Athlete Biography
International Skating Union (ISU) Skater Biography
US Olympic Committee Biography
Michelle Kwan Fan Site (1)
Michelle Kwan Fan Site (2)
Figure skaters from California
American Olympic bronze medalists
American Olympic silver medalists
Sportspeople from Los Angeles
1980 births
Living people |
Frank Jack Fletcher (29 April 1885 - 25 April 1973) was an Admiral in the United States Navy. He was born at Marshalltown, Iowa, of the same family line as Captain Frank "Pat" Fletcher and of Rear Admiral Frank Friday Fletcher, noted men in the Navy. He attended the Naval Academy at Annapolis, Maryland and had jobs on many warships. In 1914 he got the Medal of Honor at Vera Cruz. Then he was in control of a destroyer in World War I received the Navy Cross. Later he took Naval and Army War College training, became chief of staff Asiatic Fleet, aide to Secretary of the Navy Swanson, and Commanding Officer of battleship New Mexico. He became Rear Admiral in control of Cruiser Division 3 in 1939. He was Commander of Cruisers, Pacific Fleet at the time
of Pearl Harbor. In the very bad, first six months of the war, he was Task Force Commander at the Battle of Coral Sea, the Battle of Midway, and the Battle of Eastern Solomons. Vice Admiral Fletcher then became Commander North Pacific Forces where he took the surrender of the Imperial Northern Fleet. After the war he became Chairman of the Navy General Board till he retired. Admiral Fletcher rests at Arlington National Cemetery.
"Frank Jack Fletcher, was the best fighting commander in the U.S. Navy in the twentieth century. He came out best in all three aircraft carrier battles in which he fought -- there were only five such fights in of all history. Admiral Fletcher was outnumbered at all times and when the other side was at its highest point in the early years of the Pacific War. He did not let the other side take Australia, Midway, and Guadalcanal. He put down six of the ten Japanese carriers with four of the six great carriers that had attacked Pearl Harbor. His acts were completely his own, because there was no such thing as carrier fighting experience before him to learn to fight ships from the air. He kept the Pacific safe which let much support to go to Europe and started the Allied victory in World War II."
References
1885 births
1973 deaths
Admirals
American military personnel of World War I
American military personnel of World War II
Burials at Arlington National Cemetery
People from Iowa
United States Navy Medal of Honor recipients |
Irina Slutskaya (ru: Ирина Слуцкая) (born February 9, 1979 in Moscow), is a Russian figure skater. She has won two world championships and six European championships.
Irina began skating when she was four years old. She has had the same coach, Zhanna Gromova, since she was six years old. By 1996, she was European champion and came third in the world championships (at age 17). She went to school at the Moscow Academy of Physical Culture, graduating in the year 2000.
World Championships: first place in 2002 and 2005
Olympics: 2002 - silver
European Championships: first place in 1996, 1997, 2000, 2001, 2003, 2005
Russian Championships: first place in 2000, 2001, 2002, 2005
Other websites
Gold and tears
ISU Biography Page
1979 births
Living people
Slutskaya, Irina |
Lu Chen (Simplified Chinese: 陈露, Traditional Chinese: 陳露, Chen Lu in Chinese) (born November 24, 1976, in Changchun) is a Chinese figure skater. She was world champion in 1995.
Chen's mother played table tennis and her father coached ice hockey. She started skating at the age of five in Jilin, and also took ballet dancing. She won the bronze medal at the world junior championship in 1992, and came third at the world senior championships the same year, at the age of 16.
Her nickname is "Lulu," and she is also known as "Butterfly on Ice." She is admired for her artistic ability.
Chen skated for the professional show Stars on Ice for two years. Now she runs an ice skating club in Shenzhen. This club is named after her.
World Championships: 1991 – 12th, 1992 – 3rd, 1993 – 3rd, 1995 – 1st, 1996 – 2nd
Olympics: 1992 – 6th, 1994 – 3rd, 1998 – 3rd
Chinese National Figure Skating Competition: first from 1990 to 1995
Source
Figure Skating: A Celebration by Beverly Smith
1976 births
Living people
Chinese sportspeople
Figure skaters |
Oksana Baiul (born November 16, 1977 in Dnipropetrovsk) is a Ukrainian figure skater. She came first at the 1993 world championships and at the 1994 winter olympics.
Baiul's grandfather gave her first skates to her when she was three years old. When her mother died, she became an orphan (had no parents). But she kept skating, and won the world championships when she was only 15 years old. She became famous for her artistic ability when she skated as "the swan" to win the Olympics when she was 16.
She has skated for many professional shows such as Champions on Ice and Stars on Ice. A T.V. movie was made about her - A Promise Kept: The Oksana Baiul Story. She now lives in New Jersey. She still skates professionally, and also makes figure skating clothes.
Amateur competitions
World Championships: 1993 - 1st
Winter Olympics: 1994 - 1st
European Championships: 1993 - 2nd, 1994 - 2nd
References
Other websites
OksanaStyle.com Official Website
Golden Skate - Interview
View Zone - Interview
oksanabaiul.com - Additional info
1977 births
Living people
Ukrainian sportspeople
Figure skaters |
Hobo is a word for a homeless person who travels to different cities and towns to look for work. Hobos usually travel by train "hopping" (riding in empty train freight railcars without paying for a ticket), or sometimes "riding the rods" (lying dangerously near the train wheels, underneath the cars).
Hobos stay in very cheap hotels in cities, or camp in simple shelters ("shanties") in shanty towns near the rail yards. There were many hobos during the Great Depression in the United States because many people lost their jobs and homes. Many people blamed President Herbert Hoover for the Depression, so hobo camps were sometimes called "Hoovervilles".
Rail transport
People |
Wicca is a neo-pagan (meaning "new pagan") religion that was created by a British man named Gerald Gardner in the mid-to-late 1940s. Gardner popularized the new religion through books of his that were printed in 1949, 1954, and 1959. Those three books are High Magic's Aid, Witchcraft Today, and The Meaning of Witchcraft. Gardner called Wicca the "witch cult" and "witchcraft", and called its followers the "Wica" (or "Wicca"). In his 1959 book he also called them the "Wicca" (with two 'c's), which is where that word came from. The word "wicca" means "witch" in Old English. People who follow Wicca are called "Wiccans". Before the name "Wicca" was adopted, the religion was sometimes called simply "the craft".
Wicca is now used as an umbrella term for many different paths that have branched off from Gardner's original practices.
Origin
Some time from 1945 to 1949, Gerald Gardner changed, and added content to, the rituals of an earlier group, called the New Forest Coven. In so doing, Gerald Gardner created Wicca. The many elements from the grimoire (old hand-written book) called the Key of Solomon are present in Wicca. Those are also in Gardner's 1949 book, High Magic's Aid, and were most likely added by Gardner himself, rather than by the New Forest Coven that came before him.
The New Forest Coven was created in the city of Christchurch, England (on the southern coast of England), some time in the 1930s. It was created by a group of low-ranking rosicrucians who belonged to the Rosicrucian Order Crotona Fellowship. Members of that group read the books about witches by Margaret Murray and Charles Leland, which gave them the idea to create a witch coven.
Some time after Gerald Gardner joined the Rosicrucian Order Crotona Fellowship in Christchurch, he was drawn to the group of low-ranking rosicrucians. They initiated him into the New Forest Coven in September of 1939, shortly after Gardner had lost all faith in the rosicrucian order's leadership on September 3rd.
Beliefs
There are many different traditions of Wicca, yet many are common beliefs that are shared by all Wiccans, such as the afterlife, magic, and morality.
The God and The Goddess
Most Wiccans believe in a horned male god and a moon goddess. The only wiccans who do not believe in both the goddess and the god are those who belong to the unorthodox sect called Dianic Wicca; such wiccans believe in the existence of only the goddess. Some wiccans believe that the god and the goddess are equal. However, some other wiccans believe that the goddess is more important than the god.
Morality
The Wiccan Rede
The main Wiccan moral teaching is called the Wiccan Rede. The word rede means "advice" or "council" in Old German. "An ye harm none, do what ye will" is the very basic Wiccan Rede, which means, "Do what you want to do, but do not harm anything in the process." This is most likely based from Crowley's "Do what though wilt, shall be the whole of the law".This means that you must think about how your actions will affect other beings and yourself.
The Rule of Threefold Return
There is a rule in Wiccan (branched from Pagan belief) that is called "the rule of threefold return" or "the threefold rule" or "the rule of three", or called equivalent names that use the word "law" instead of "rule". The rule of threefold return is a belief that what you do for good or bad will return to you 3 times the original intent. Therefore, you should only send out or work with good intentions to avoid three-times the bad return as Karma. The rule of threefold return is revealed to second-degree initiates (though they are usually already familiar with it) during the second-degree initiation ritual, in which the initiator scourges the initiate, and then the initiate returns three times the number of scourgings to the initiator. That second-degree initiation ritual, along with the threefold rule within it, were made public by Gerald Gardner's 1949 book High Magic's Aid, in chapter 17.
In 1986, a wiccan named Raymond Buckland, through his popular wiccan book Buckland's Complete Book of Witchcraft, created a new definition for the rule of threefold return. In Buckland's definition, the rule of threefold return is not a rule of conduct, but a law of karma, which states that every beneficial action or harmful action that a person does returns to them three times as powerful. Buckland's definition of the threefold rule became more well-known than the original definition of the threefold rule.
There is a book that wiccans use, in which they read from and use to practice witchcraft with
Practices
Altars
Many Wiccans have special places at home where they perform rituals, magic, and worship. These places are called altars. Originally, there was only one altar that was used by the coven, when the coven was gathered. But as solitary wiccan practice became more popular, wiccans started to use personal altars.
Wiccans put holy and special objects on their altars, such as the following items:
A pentacle. A wiccan pentacle is a rigid disk, the size of a small saucer, that has a pentagram on it which spans across the disk. A wiccan pentacle may be made of any of a variety of materials, such as wood, ceramics, or metal. In wiccan rituals, the face of the pentacle is shown to the four cardinal directions (north, south, east, and west), so as to show the pentacle to the "lords of the watchtowers", which are believed to be in those directions.
An athame (pronounced ah-thah-may). This is a magical knife that is used in rituals. An athame traditionally has a black handle, but not every one does. It is never used to cut anything physical, but is used to make a circular 'cut' through the air, to cast the magic circle. In the 'cakes and wine' ritual and the symbolic 'great rite' ritual, the athame is used to symbolize the male penis.
A wand. This is normally wooden, but can also be glass, metal, or clay. It might also have decorations such as crystals, paint, ribbons, or wire. It is traditional for it to be the length from your elbow to your wrist. It is used to direct magical energy.
A chalice. This is a cup that is used in two rituals. People drink from it during the 'cakes and wine' ritual. In the 'cakes and wine' ritual and the symbolic 'great rite' ritual, the chalice is used to symbolize the female vagina.
Some Wiccans put other objects on their altars, such as statues of gods or goddesses, a bell, candles, incense, and/or a besom (an old-fashioned broom that is made of all-natural materials). A besom is often used to "sweep" away negative energy or spirits.
Those objects that are common on solitary altars are derived from the various objects that are used in the wiccan group rituals. Those ritual objects include a sword (also called a 'magic sword'), a black-handled knife (called an athame), a bowl containing water, a bowl containing salt, an asperger (an object that sprinkles water), candles, a bell, a white-handled knife (which is now usually called a 'bolline', due to being confused with a different object), a wand, a cup (also called a chalice), a pentacle, a censer (a container that burns incense), a scourge (a short whip with several whipping cords), and binding cords. Gerald Gardner, a founder of modern Wicca, started the practice of calling such objects by the misnomer 'tools' or 'working tools', because he was imitating Freemasonry, which used actual tools, such as a trowel.
Wiccan Holidays
Wiccans have two types of holidays, called sabbats and full moon esbats. There are eight sabbat holidays throughout the year. As the name suggests, full moon esbats take place during a full moon, so there are twelve or thirteen of them per year. Many post-Gardnerian wiccans use the neo-druidic term 'wheel of the year' to refer to the cycle of eight sabbats.
The eight sabbats are as follows:
Book of Shadows
In Wicca, a private book containing spells, rituals, potions, and occult knowledge, called a Book of Shadows, is kept. In some types of Wicca, such as Gardnerian Wicca, the contents of the book are kept secret from anyone but other members of the group, or . However, some versions of the book have been published. Some parts of these published versions, such as the "Wiccan Rede" and the "Charge of the Goddess" have been used by non-Wiccans or Wiccans. Many eclectics create their own personal books, and keep them to themselves.
Music
Wicca music or Wicca rock is music influenced by the Wicca religion and its beliefs relating to nature and conservation.
An early band called Themis toured Canada and the USA singing and talking about Wicca. The Themis body of works promotes things that are Wiccan, such as the divinity of nature; the Lord and Lady (dual deity aspect of Wicca) and an ethical credo (moral code) that resembles Wiccan philosophies.
Another Canadian band, a group of vocalists from Vancouver Canada, the Chalice and Blade , also perform original pieces based on the beliefs of Wicca and "sing songs which show (their) reverence for the earth and the balance of the God and Goddess" -Chalice and Blade
According to The Religion Newswriters Foundation "Wicca is moving into the mainstream" smashing stereotypes as their movement matures. Throughout America, Wiccans are organizing congregations and youth groups, training clergy, pursuing charity work, sharing parenting tips and fighting for civil rights
References
Other websites
Witchvox.org - Neopagan news and networking site
Covenant of the Goddess (U.S.)
Pagan Federation (UK), (Canada)
The Pomegranate: The International Journal of Pagan Studies
Religious Tolerance- Wicca
New religious movements
Paganism
Witchcraft |
The Indochinese tiger (Panthera tigris corbetti) is one of the six living tiger subspecies, and is found in Myanmar, Thailand, Laos, Cambodia, Vietnam, and southwestern China. The Indochinese tiger is also known as the Corbett's tiger, named after Jim Corbett. It has been listed as Endangered by the International Union for the Conservation of Nature. In Myanmar it is the National animal of the country.
Description
Males are around 8–9 ft (2.4-2.7 meters) long, and weigh around 330 to 430 pounds. Females are around 7–8 ft (2.1-2.4 meters) long, and weigh around 221 to 287 pounds. Indochinese tigers are darker in colour than the Bengal tiger, and have narrow stripes which usually break up into a row of spots. Their belly, chin and cheeks are white in colour.
Where they live
The Indochinese tiger is found throughout Cambodia, Laos, Thailand, Burma and Vietnam. It also lived in China, but no Indochinese tiger has been seen in China since 2007.
It is found mostly in lowland and highland tropical deciduous, semi-evergreen and evergreen forests. The Indochinese tiger is also found in hilly and mountainous areas.
Feeding
Indochinese tigers feed mainly on medium-sized and large-sized wild ungulates. Sambar deer, wild pig, serow, and large bovids such as banteng and young gaur make up most of the Indochinese tiger's diet. Some of its prey, like the kouprey and Schomburgk's deer, are extinct, but some, like the Eld's deer, hog deer and wild water buffalo, are still living but rare. Indochinese tigers also feed on muntjac deer, porcupines, macaques and hog badgers.
They have been known to supplement their diet with birds, fish, monkeys and reptiles.
Reproduction
Female Indochinese tigers are pregnant for around 3–4 months, before giving birth to about 5 cubs. Newborn Indochinese tigers weigh around 1 kg (2 lb), and are blind and helpless. The mother feeds them milk for about 2 months and then the Indochinese tiger cubs are introduced to meat. Indochinese tiger cubs depend on their mother for the first 18 months and then they start hunting on their own.
References
Tigers |
An office is generally a room or other area where administrative work is done. It may also be a position within an organization with specific duties attached to it. For example, the office of treasurer. An office is a design phenomenon. It can be a small office such as a bench in the corner of a very small business. It can also be anything up to and including large buildings full of offices. In modern use an office usually means the location where white-collar workers are employed.
There are mainly two types of office. They are large office and small office. A small office is small because the amount of work to be done is small. A large office is large because amount of work to be done is large.
As a work place
Men have done administrative work for many centuries. But it is not clear when the room where paperwork was created began to be thought of an office. In the earliest European history it may have been a room in a palace where some kind of accounting was done for the king. Earlier forms of keeping records were known but were not confined to a room or rooms. For example, in ancient China string was knotted to keep count of things as a record. But the record-keeper's "office" was not a room but wherever he needed to be to count something.
In the early Middle Ages many monasteries had a scriptorium. This was a place where texts of all kinds were written and copied. All of the work was done by hand. This may actually be one of the first uses of a room as an office.
The High Middle Ages (1000–1300) saw the rise of the medieval chancery. This was usually the place where most government letters were written and where laws were copied in the administration of a kingdom.
Dedicated office space
With the growth of large, complex organizations in the 18th century, the first actual office spaces were constructed. As the Industrial Revolution grew in the 18th and 19th centuries, the industries of banking, rail, insurance, retail, petroleum, and telegraphy grew dramatically. A large number of clerks were needed. As a result, more office space was needed for these activities. The time and motion study, pioneered in manufacturing by F. W. Taylor led to the “Modern Efficiency Desk” with a flat top and drawers below. This was designed to allow managers an easy view of the workers. However, by the middle of the 20th century, it became apparent that offices various degrees of privacy. Gradually the cubicle system evolved.
The main purpose of an office is to support its occupants in performing their job. Work spaces in an office are typically used for conventional office activities such as reading, writing and computer work. There are also meeting rooms, lounges, and spaces for support activities, such as photocopying and filing. Some offices also have a kitchen area where workers can make their lunches. There are many different ways of arranging the space in an office and whilst these vary according to function, managerial fashions and the culture of specific companies can be even more important.
While offices can be built in almost any location and in almost any building, some modern requirements for offices make this more difficult, such as requirements for light, networking, and security. The primary purpose of an office building is to provide a workplace and working environment primarily for administrative and managerial workers. These workers usually occupy set areas within the office building, and usually are provided with desks, PCs and other equipment they may need within these areas.
References
Basic English 850 words
Business |
A phenomenon (Greek: , pl. ) is an observable event or, quite literally, something that can be seen.
It comes from the noun (phainomenon, df. appearance) and is also related to the verb (phainein, df. to show). Its plural is phenomena. Its antonym is lathomenon, meaning "something lying beneath the surface".
Phenomenon can also mean a "surprising development" or "unusually successful person".
Use in science & technology
In science, phenomenon stands for any event which we can sense or detect or record. In science, the word "observe" means more than just "visible to the naked eye". It means "sensible", available to our senses. The senses we are born with are extended by a whole range of instruments which record things we cannot see, and make them visible to us.
So, while some events are easy to observe, others need technology to make observation possible.
References
Science |
Konstantin Ustinovich Chernenko (Russian language: Константи́н Усти́нович Черне́нко September 24, 1911 – March 10, 1985) was the leader of the Soviet Union for a short time. He became the leader in 1984. He had emphysema, hepatitis and cirrhosis. He ruled for 13 months until his death in from heart failure in Moscow in 1985. Chernenko had a son called Albert.
References
1911 births
1985 deaths
Deaths from heart failure
Disease-related deaths in the Soviet Union
Former dictators
Recipients of the Order of Lenin
Russian politicians
Soviet politicians |
A Shetland Sheepdog is a kind of small dog whose ancestors came from the Shetland Islands. Many people call them "Shelties". They are popular pets in many countries. Shelties have the same origins with Rough Collie and Border Collie. Shelties are a working dog and are sometimes used for herding.
A Sheltie can have a mix of several colors in its coat. Most shelties are sable and white (brown and white) or tri-color (black, white and tan). Their fur is long and they shed twice a year. Shelties range in size from 13 to 16 inches. They usually weigh about 25-30 pounds.
Shelties are very energetic dogs that run and bark a lot. They are great with children.
It was said that Shelties were sheep dogs so they try to please their master and have a strong sense of responsibility. They do not need very much discipline. Shelties rank in the top ten smartest dogs. They learn new things very quickly and remember them well. Shelties make great family pets as long as you do not mind a dog that barks.
Dog breeds
Shetland |
A belief is a firm thought that something is true, often based on revelation. Belief is usually a part of belonging to a religion. It is different to scientific knowledge that can be tested, but belief is not able to be tested. For example, a person may believe in God or gods.
The word is also used to describe what a person expects will happen based on limited information. For example, "I believe Amy will come around today". Belief is also something you believe in but you cannot prove exactly.
Related pages
Faith
Evidence
Epistemology
Karl Popper
Basic English 850 words
Religion
Social sciences
References |
The German Shepherd (), also known as the Alsatian, is a breed of medium-large dog. It was first developed in Germany. They are often used as police dogs, but they have many other uses. They have been used as herding dogs, guard dogs, military dogs, eyes for the blind and as pets between others. Because of their intelligence, speed, drive, eagerness and balance, they are now called 'multi-terrain' dogs as well as 'most complete dog breed' also considered the most versatile breed both in adaptability and suitability.
An important modern use is the dog's ability to perform search and rescue. In former times the American Rescue Dog Association only used air-scenting Alsatians to locate people who are missing or lost. They search in wilderness, disaster, human body remains and water search and rescue and recovery missions. The breed is smart, athletic and can live in a wide variety of climate conditions.
Male German Shepherds usually weigh around . Females usually weigh around .
The term Alsatian wolf dog, instead of German Shepherd dog, was first popularly used by the British in the First World War. This was because the country was at war with the German Empire. Adolf Hitler, a German dictator, was also known to have German Shepherds as companions.
The German Shepherd Dog breed, as it is currently known, was developed by the founder and the first president of the Association for the German Shepherd Dog breed Max Emil Friedrich von Stephanitz at the end of the 19th and the beginning of the 20th centuries.
Gallery
References
Dog breeds |
Star Wars: Episode V - The Empire Strikes Back is a science fiction movie and the second film in the Star Wars saga. The movie was released in 1980. It includes action, romance and drama.
Cast
James Earl Jones as Darth Vader
Anthony Daniels as C-3PO
Peter Mayhew as Chewbacca
Kenny Baker as R2-D2
Frank Oz as Yoda
Plot
The Rebels hide from the Empire on the icy planet Hoth. The Empire finds the Rebels and they have to leave the planet after a battle.
Luke Skywalker finds Yoda, a 900-year-old Jedi Master and begins the training to become a Jedi. Han Solo, Chewbacca, Princess Leia and C-3P0 are caught by the Empire and Solo is frozen in carbonite. In his Jedi training, Luke gets a vision that his friends are in danger and tries to help them. He has to confront Darth Vader, and the two of them fight. When Luke fights Vader, he cuts off Luke's hand and Luke also learns that Vader is his father. His hand is replaced with a prosthetic one, including nerves, muscles, and some other stuff.
Other websites
Official website
The Empire Strikes Back The Movie Database
1980 movies
1980 science fiction movies
Christmas movies
Empire Strikes Back, The
United States National Film Registry movies |
The Church of the SubGenius is a religion founded by Ivan Stang and Philo Drummond. Originally based in Dallas, Texas, it is now based in Cleveland Heights, Ohio. In 2009, Stang said that The Church of the Subgenius has 40,000 followers, but the real number of followers is not known.
The church's beliefs are said to be very complex. The church teaches that it was founded by a salesman named J. R. "Bob" Dobbs. In 1953 "Bob" was fixing his TV which he made, and the Space God JHVH-1 gave him knowledge of the past and future, and the idea of "Slack". The church teaches that there is a conspiracy to make humans work, so that they can't have "Slack". It says that its members are descended from Yetis. It also said that aliens would come to earth on 5 July 1998.
References
Other websites
Church of the Subgenius Official Website
Cults |
Terry Bradshaw is a former American athlete. He is also a sports presenter. He was born September 2, 1948 in Shreveport, Louisiana. Bradshaw is a former quarterback with the Pittsburgh Steelers in the National Football League, and a television and American football host. Over six years, he won four Super Bowl titles with Pittsburgh (1975, 1976, 1979 and 1980). He went into the Pro Football Hall of Fame in 1989.
1948 births
Living people
Pittsburgh Steelers players
American football quarterbacks
Sportspeople from Louisiana
People from Shreveport, Louisiana
He is related to Cory J.Bylsma |
thumb|right|A Caribbean reef squid
Squid are cephalopods of the order Teuthida. They are the sister group to the octopods. Squid are carnivores, but they are also hunted as prey. The largest squid, the giant squid and colossal squid, are eaten by sperm whales and sleeper sharks.
There are about 300 species of squid.
Characteristics
Squid, like cuttlefish, have eight arms arranged in pairs, and two longer tentacles with suckers.
All squid have a mouth with a radula, and jet propulsion with the siphon from the mantle. The radulla is a scraping organ in the mouth that scrapes nutrients from food sources.
Tentacles are used for locomotive power and capturing food sources. All squids are carnivores; they eat other animals, not plants.
Like other cephalopoda, squid are intelligent animals. Squids have a head-like structure, with sense organs and brains in the front end. Although the squids lack exterior shells they have a vestigial shell inside, made of chitin.
The skin is covered in chromatophores, which enable the squid to change colour to suit its surroundings, making it effectively camouflaged. Controlled by the nervous system, the camouflage can change in 'real time'.
Locomotion
Squids mainly rely on moving via jet propulsion, though deep sea squids may use their fins instead to save energy. A squid sucks in water through its mantle, than pushing it out through its siphon. Squids also have their gills inside the mantle to collect oxygen while moving.
Squid reproduction
After a male and female mate, the female squid lays eggs. The eggs are laid inside an egg case. Since the squid is usually a part of a shoal, it is laid with many other egg cases from many other squids, and then anchored to the sea floor. Because of this, squid eggs are often (many times) found in clumps, and those clumps often look like a flower.
Often, the male will die a short time after mating, and the female will die once she has released her eggs. Because of this, squids usually lay eggs only once. Squids do not live very long. Although there are some long-lived species, most squids live for only one or two years.
Size
Most squid are no more than long, although the giant squid may reach .
In 1978, sharp, curved claws on the suction cups of squid tentacles cut up the rubber coating on the hull of the USS Stein. The size suggested the largest squid known at the time.
In February 2007, a New Zealand fishing vessel caught a colossal squid weighing and measuring around off the coast of Antarctica. This specimen is the largest invertebrate ever found. Squid have the largest eyes in the animal kingdom.
Giant squid are featured in literature and folklore with a frightening connotation. The Kraken is a legendary tentacled monster possibly based on sightings of real giant squid.
References
Cephalopods
Mimicry |
The giant squid (Architeuthis dux) is a genus of deep-ocean dwelling squid. Giant squid can grow to a tremendous size: recent estimates put the maximum size at 12 metres (39 ft) or 13 metres (43 ft) for females and 10 metres (33 ft) for males from caudal fin to the tip of the two long tentacles.
There is a larger squid, known as the Colossal Squid.
Until 2005, nobody had ever seen a giant squid that was alive. Only dead giant squids had been found. On 30 September 2004, researchers from Japan took the first images of a live giant squid in its natural habitat. Several of the 556 photographs were released a year later. The same team successfully filmed a live adult giant squid for the first time on December 4, 2006.
There is no agreement as to how many species there are. The Kraken is also believed to be a giant squid,
History
For many years, people would hear stories from fishermen about giant squids at sea. According to the stories, an enormous squid would wrap its arms around a whale, causing a terrible fight to start. Whalers said that sometimes, when they caught a whale, it would have scars as big as dinner plates on its body. Other times, when they cut open the stomach of some of their whales, they would find squid arms as long as 30 ft with suckers up to four inches wide. The whalers who told these stories either chopped up the squid parts to eat or use as bait, or they threw them back out to sea before scientists were ever able to examine them. However, in 1861, a French ship was able to bring back parts of a giant squid so scientists could study them.
Then, in the late 18th century, several giant squids washed up on shore, proving that giant squids really exist. After that, many giant squids were found washed ashore or dead at sea. Scientists grew very interested in these mysterious creatures, but few ever saw them alive. Scientists think they spend most of their time in deep, cold ocean.
In December 2005, the Melbourne Aquarium in Australia got the intact body of a giant squid, preserved in a giant block of ice. It had been caught by fishermen off the coast of New Zealand's South Island that year.
The number of known giant squid specimens was close to 600 in 2004, and new ones are reported each year.
References
Cephalopods |
Googol officially known as ten-duotrigintillion or ten thousand sexdecillion is the number 10100 (or Ten duotrigintillion) (10,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000).
A 9-year-old Milton Sirotta, nephew of U.S. mathematician Edward Kasner, first used the word googol. Sirotta made this word in 1937, for the number represented by the numeral 1 followed by 100 zeros.
The company Google was named after the number "googol." Its creators originally called it BackRub because it used backlinks to tell how important each page was. Someone suggested "googolplex." They shortened it to "googol" and then spelled the word wrong when looking for a domain name that was not taken yet.
Related pages
Graham's number
Googolplex, which is 10googol
References
Integers |
The National Football League (NFL) is an American football league. There are 32 teams in the league. The league is one of the major professional sports leagues of the United States and Canada. The players are among the highest-paid athletes in the world. A league is a competition between a number of teams. The teams play other teams, and the results are used to list the teams in order of who is The team at the top of the list (called a league table) is the best team and the team at the bottom is the worst team.
It is now the most popular professional league in the United States by number of television viewers. The NFL also has the highest per-game attendance of any professional league in the world; in the most recently completed 2014 season, the average crowd at an NFL game was more than 67,000. Its championship game, the Super Bowl, is an unofficial national holiday in the U.S., and is seen by more people than any other American television program.
In terms of number of players and people involved, the NFL is the largest professional sports league in the world. It is widely considered the top level of competition in the world for American football.
History of the NFL
In 1920, an American football league was formed. It was called the American Professional Football Association. In 1921 it changed its name to the National Football League. In 1960 another league was formed, called the American Football League. In 1970 the National Football League and the American Football League joined together so that the teams from each league could play each other. The league called the National Football League changed its name to the National Football Conference (usually called the NFC) and the league called the American Football League changed its name to the American Football Conference (usually called the AFC). The two conferences together are now called the National Football League. People can also call it by the acronym NFL for short.
Teams
Because the U.S. is a big country and it would be hard for teams to travel a long way to play other teams, the teams are separated into smaller regional divisions based on where they are in the country. The teams are separated like this:
Teams in the AFC
AFC East
Buffalo Bills (playing in Orchard Park, New York, near Buffalo)
Miami Dolphins (playing in Miami Gardens, Florida, near Miami)
New England Patriots (playing in Foxborough, Massachusetts, about halfway between Boston and Providence)
New York Jets (playing in East Rutherford, New Jersey, near New York City)
AFC North
Baltimore Ravens (playing in Baltimore, Maryland)
Cincinnati Bengals (playing in Cincinnati, Ohio)
Cleveland Browns (playing in Cleveland, Ohio)
Pittsburgh Steelers (playing in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania)
AFC South
Houston Texans (playing in Houston, Texas)
Indianapolis Colts (playing in Indianapolis, Indiana)
Jacksonville Jaguars (playing in Jacksonville, Florida)
Tennessee Titans (playing in Nashville, Tennessee)
AFC West
Denver Broncos (playing in Denver, Colorado)
Kansas City Chiefs (playing in Kansas City, Missouri)
Las Vegas Raiders (playing in Paradise, Nevada)
Los Angeles Chargers (playing in Inglewood, California, in the stadium owned by the Rams)
Teams in the NFC
NFC East
Dallas Cowboys (playing in Arlington, Texas, near Dallas and Fort Worth)
New York Giants (playing in East Rutherford, New Jersey in the same stadium as the Jets)
Philadelphia Eagles (playing in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania)
Washington Commanders (playing in Landover, Maryland, near Washington, D.C.)
NFC North
Chicago Bears (playing in Chicago, Illinois)
Detroit Lions (playing in Detroit, Michigan)
Green Bay Packers (playing in Green Bay, Wisconsin)
Minnesota Vikings (playing in Minneapolis, Minnesota)
NFC South
Atlanta Falcons (playing in Atlanta, Georgia)
Carolina Panthers (playing in Charlotte, North Carolina)
New Orleans Saints (playing in New Orleans, Louisiana)
Tampa Bay Buccaneers (playing in Tampa, Florida)
NFC West
Arizona Cardinals (playing in Glendale, Arizona, near Phoenix)
Los Angeles Rams (playing in Inglewood, California, suburb of Los Angeles)
San Francisco 49ers (playing in Santa Clara, California, near San Francisco)
Seattle Seahawks (playing in Seattle, Washington)
Schedule
The teams in the NFL play games against each other from September to January. This time is called a season. Each team plays 17 games, most recently increased from 16 starting with the 2021 season. This is how which games a team will play are chosen:
Each team plays a game against all the other teams in their division twice, once at their own stadium (this is called playing "at home") and once at the other team's home stadium (this is called playing "away").
Each team will also play all the teams in another division in the same conference (AFC or NFC). They will play two of those teams at home and two of the teams away. The other division that they play changes every year. For example, a team in the AFC North will play teams in the AFC South one year, the AFC East the next year, the AFC West the year after that, and then the AFC South again the year after that.
Each team will also play all the teams in one of the divisions of the other conference. They will play two of these teams at home and the other two teams away. The regional league from the other conference changes every year too. For example, a team in the AFC North will play teams from the NFC North one year, then teams from the NFC South the next year, then teams from the NFC West the next year, then teams from the NFC East the next year, then teams from the NFC North again the next year.
Each team will also play two teams from the same conference in the division that they are not already supposed to play against. The teams that they play will be the teams that were about as good as they were last season and finished in the same position in their own division. For example, if we look at a team in the AFC North that finished 3rd out of the 4 teams in the AFC North, if this team is going to play all the teams in the AFC West this year anyway, they will play the teams that finished 3rd in the AFC East and the AFC South.
Finally, each team plays one game against a team in the other conference that finished in the same position within its division. The divisional matchups rotate every year, and each team will alternate home and away games—meaning that if a team played this specific game on the road in one season, it plays that game at home in the next.
Therefore, during the regular season, each team plays:
Teams in its own division twice a year
Teams in other divisions in its own conference at least once every 3 years, but on average once every 2 years
Teams in the other conference at least once every 4 years
Flexible scheduling
Since the 2006 season, the NFL has used a "flexible scheduling" system for the last seven weeks of the regular season where there is a Sunday night game. The system is designed so that the league has the flexibility in selecting games to air on Sunday night that will feature the current hottest, streaking teams.
Under the system, all Sunday games in the affected weeks will tentatively have the "early" start time of 1 p.m. ET/10 a.m. PT, except those played in the Pacific or Mountain time zones, which will have the tentative start time of 4 p.m. ET/1 p.m. PT. On the Tuesday 12 days before the games, the league will move one game to the prime-time slot, and possibly move one or more 1 p.m. slotted games to the 4 p.m. slot. During the last week of the season, the league could re-schedule games as late as six days before the contests so that as many of the television networks as possible will be able to broadcast a game that has playoff implications.
Playoffs
At the end of every NFL season, the eight teams that finish the season at the top of their divisions and three teams from each conference that were the best teams apart from the eight division winners (these six teams are called Wild Cards) enter a competition to see who is the best team in the whole league. This is called the Playoffs. There are a total of 14 teams in the Playoffs, seven from both the AFC and NFC. The seven teams in each conference are listed in order of how well they played in the season. This is called seeding and it is done to make it easier for the better teams to win. The teams that did not win their leagues (the Wild Cards) are always the bottom three seeds in the list, even if one or more had a better record than a team that won its division.
Wild Card games
The first round of the playoffs, known as Wild Card Weekend, features six games. The matchups by seed are the same in both conferences.
The fifth seed visits the fourth seed.
The sixth seed visits the third seed.
The seventh seed visits the second seed.
The winners of each game advance to the next round; the losers' seasons end. This leaves 8 teams.
Division playoffs
The second round, called the Divisional Playoffs, has four games. Again, the matchups by seed are the same in both conferences.
The lowest seed among each conference's three Wild Card Round winners visits the top seed in its conference.
The remaining two teams in each conference play, with the team with the higher seed (i.e., the lower number) hosting.
As in the previous round, only the winners advance to the next round.
Conference championships
The third round, the Conference Championship Games, involves two games.
The two survivors of the AFC Divisional Round play in the AFC Championship Game, with the winner being AFC Champion.
Similarly, the two survivors of the NFC Divisional Round play in the NFC Championship Game, with the winner being NFC Champion.
Super Bowl
The last part of the playoffs is called the Super Bowl. The AFC Champion and the NFC Champion teams play each other to decide who is the best team in the NFL. The team that win the Super Bowl claims the Lombardi trophy. Also, each player of the winning team gets a bonus up to $150,000.
References
Other websites
Official NFL website
NFL Playoffs News
NFL
1920 establishments in the United States
Sports in the United States |
The Super Bowl is a special American football game played every year to decide the winner of that National Football League (NFL) season. The best team from the National Football Conference plays the best team from the American Football Conference to win the Vince Lombardi Trophy, which was named after the first coach to win a Super Bowl. For most American football fans, it is a very special event.
Some people who do not like American football still watch it for the television advertisements and the half-time show. The TV advertisements during Super Bowl are the most expensive in the world in per second value. Because of the high cost of advertising, companies usually produce unique advertisements. As a result, watching advertisements has been a well publicized event in itself.
The Pittsburgh Steelers and New England Patriots are the teams with the most Super Bowl Wins with six victories each. The San Francisco 49ers and Dallas Cowboys currently are tied for the second-most Super Bowl wins with five. The Cleveland Browns, Detroit Lions, Houston Texans, and the Jacksonville Jaguars have never played in a Super Bowl. The New York Jets have not played in the Super Bowl since the American Football League (AFL) and the NFL joined together in 1970.
Champions
AFL-NFL World Championships
NFL Championships
Notes
References
Other websites
Official website of the Super Bowl
America's Game - America's Game: The Super Bowl Champions, an NFL Films documentary of all Super Bowl winning teams
Sports in the United States |
"We Will Rock You" is a song by Queen. It is one of their most famous songs. It is used at a lot of sports events. The main song has the band stamping their feet twice, and clapping once. At the end, a short guitar part is played.
Musicians:
Freddie Mercury - lead and backing vocals, handclaps, footstamps
Brian May - electric guitar, backing vocals, handclaps, footstamps
Roger Taylor - backing vocals, handclaps, footstamps
John Deacon - handclaps, footstamps
Queen songs
1977 songs
Rock songs |
Lagos is the second largest city in Africa and the most populous city in Nigeria and in West Africa. There are about 12.5 million to 18 million people living in Lagos, which makes it one of the biggest cities in Africa. Lagos is surrounded by the Atlantic Ocean. The city is made of several local government areas. Some of these areas are Somolu Koshofe, Ifelodun, Surulere, Agege, Ikeja, Ikorodu, Ajegunle, Oshodi, and Maryland.
Each Local government area has a presence of the central government with the establishment of general hospital, judiciary and police stations.
Lagos was the capital of Nigeria until 1992, when the capital became Abuja. Lagos is still the commercial capital of Nigeria and a gateway to West Africa. Lagos is made up of different islands like Victoria island, Bananna island, Snake island, and the mainland
Notes
References
Former national capitals
15th-century establishments
Establishments in Africa |
The infinitive is a verb form. It has no person, number, mood, or tense.
The infinitive in English
In English, there are two main forms of the infinitive:
the full infinitive (to-infinitive) has the word to at the beginning. For example: I want to run
the bare infinitive does not have the word to. For example: I must go.
After a modal verb you must use an infinitive. For example, I must go, he must go (he must goes is not correct)
To express time relationships, here are 6 types of infinitives:
simple infinitive, for example, to write
continuous infinitive, for example, to be writing
perfect infinitive, for example, to have written
perfect continuous infinitive, for example, to have been writing
passive infinitive, for example, to be written
passive perfect infinitive, for example, to have been written
The infinitive in other languages
In German, the infinitives end with -en, -eln or -ern. There are 2 exceptions - (to be) and (to do).
In Esperanto, the infinitives end with -i, for example (to sleep)
References
Grammar |
Cartridge can mean:
Cartridge (electronics), an object that is used in a larger piece of equipment
4-track cartridge, a music storage format popular from the late 1950s to the early 1970s
8-track cartridge, a music storage format popular from the late 1960s to the early 1980s
Cartridge (firearms), a round of charge-and-bullet ammunition
Magnetic cartridge, the removable part of a record player arm holding the needle
Ink cartridge, a replaceable part of an inkjet printer that contains the ink |
A real number is a rational or irrational number, and is a number which can be expressed using decimal expansion. Usually when people say "number", they usually mean "real number". The official symbol for real numbers is a bold R, or a blackboard bold .
Some real numbers are called positive. A positive number is "bigger than zero". Real numbers can be thought of as an infinitely long ruler. There is a mark for zero and every other number, in order of size. Unlike a physical ruler, there are numbers below zero. These are called negative real numbers. Negative numbers are "smaller than zero". They are like a mirror image of the positive numbers, except that they are given minus signs (–) so that they are labeled differently from the positive numbers.
There are infinitely many real numbers, because there is no smallest or biggest real number. No matter how many real numbers are counted, there are always more which need to be counted. There are no empty spaces between real numbers, which means that if two different real numbers are taken, there will always be a third real number between them. This is always true no matter how close together the first two numbers are.
If a positive number is added to another positive number, then that number gets bigger. If zero, which is also a real number, is added to a number, then that number does not change. If a negative number is added to another number, that number gets smaller.
The real numbers are uncountable, which means that there is no way to put all the real numbers into a sequence. Any sequence of real numbers will miss out a real number, even if the sequence is infinite. This makes the real numbers special, because even though there are infinitely many real numbers and infinitely many integers, there are "more" real numbers than integers. This is often expressed by saying that the integers are countable and that the real numbers are uncountable.
Some simpler number systems are inside the real numbers. For example, the rational numbers and integers are all in the real numbers. There are also more complicated number systems than the real numbers, such as the complex numbers. Every real number is a complex number, but not every complex number is a real number. Similarly, 3/7 is a rational number but not an integer.
Different types of real numbers
There are different types of real numbers. Sometimes all the real numbers are not talked about at once. Sometimes only special, smaller sets of them are talked about. These sets have special names. They are:
Natural numbers: These are real numbers that have no decimal and are bigger than zero.
Whole numbers: These are positive real numbers that have no decimals, and also zero. Natural numbers are also whole numbers.
Integers: These are real numbers that have no decimals. These include both positive and negative numbers. Whole numbers are also integers.
Rational numbers: These are real numbers that can be written as fractions of integers. Integers are also rational numbers.
Transcendental numbers cannot be obtained by solving an equation with integer components.
Irrational numbers: These are real numbers that can not be written as a fraction of integers. Transcendental numbers are also irrational.
The number 0 (zero) is special. Sometimes it is taken as part of the subset to be considered, and at other times it is not. It is the Identity element for addition, which means that adding zero does not change the original number. For multiplication, the identity element is 1.
One real number that is not rational is the square root of 2. This number is irrational. If a square is drawn with sides that are one unit long, then the length of the line between its opposite corners will be the square root of 2.
Related pages
Imaginary number
Number line
References
Number theory |
Elvis Stojko (born March 22, 1972 in Newmarket, Ontario ) is a Canadian figure skater. He was world champion three times, and Canadian champion seven times.
Stojko was named after Elvis Presley, and sometimes skates to Presley's music. He grew up in Richmond Hill, Ontario. He started skating when he was four years old. He also became a black belt in karate (which has influenced some of his skating). Stojko was the first person to do a quadruple-triple jump combination. He became known for his athletic ability.
Today he is a professional skater, and also competes in karate.
Amateur competitions
World Championships: first place in 1994, 1995, and 1997.
Olympics: silver in both 1994 and 1998.
Canadian Championships: first place in 1994, 1996, 1997, 1998, 1999, 2000, and 2002.
Other websites
Elvis Stojko: Heart of Gold
References
Sportspeople from Ontario
Canadian figure skaters
1972 births
Living people |
An album is a collection of sound recordings. It is usually made by a musician, and is sold in stores. Albums were originally a collection of gramophone records, each having one or two songs. Today an album is usually in the form of a compact disc, although many artists also release their albums on vinyl records.
Types of albums
There are two main types of albums, studio albums and live albums. Studio albums are recorded at a recording studio. Live albums are normally recorded while the musicians are performing for an audience. Live albums are usually recorded at concerts.
Other types of albums include:
Compilation album: Compilation albums are usually made of songs that first came from many different albums. These songs can all be from the same musicians (often called "Greatest Hits" albums) or they can each be from different musicians.
Debut album: the first album from a musician or musical group.
Solo album - A solo album is an album by a single musician. This often happens when a singer or musician who is a part of a band creates an album without the rest of the band. It may also happen when the person leaves the band and starts performing alone. For example, most of Beyoncé's albums after she stopped performing with Destiny's Child are solo albums.
Tribute album: Tribute albums or "cover albums" are albums where a second group or musician plays songs which were first played by another, often more famous, group or musician. The second group is usually called a "Tribute band" when most or all of the music they play is from another band. For example, a Slipknot tribute band would mostly play songs that were written and played by the band Slipknot.
Live album: Live albums are made from songs that are performed live, such as during tour.
Tracks
Albums are normally separated into Tracks. Each track is a part of the album which has one song in it. The term is often used to mean a specific song on the album by number. For example, the "fourth track" or "track four" from an album is the fourth song on the album when it is played from the beginning.
Related pages
Extended play
Single (music) |
The Nobel Prize in Chemistry is awarded by the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences. It awards people who have made progress in the scientific area of chemistry, those who have worked hard to learn more and have succeeded.
The Prize is given every year. It is just one of many Nobel Prizes. A famous winner of this prize was Marie Curie. She won the prize in 1911 after she discovered radium with her husband Pierre. She was the first person to win the prize twice; the first time was for physics in 1903.
List of winners
1901 1909
1901 - Jacobus Henricus van 't Hoff for work on chemical dynamics and osmotic pressure in solutions.
1902 - Hermann Emil Fischer for work on sugar and purine syntheses.
1903 - Svante Arrhenius for his electrolytic theory of dissociation.
1904 - Sir William Ramsay for discovering inert gases in the air.
1905 - Adolf von Baeyer for work on organic dyes and hydroaromatic compounds.
1906 - Henri Moissan for the discovery of fluorine and the Moissan electric furnace
1907 - Eduard Buchner his discovery of cell-free fermentation
1908 - Ernest Rutherford for his work on radioactive substances
1909 - Wilhelm Ostwald for his work on catalysis, chemical equilibria and rates of reaction.
1910 1919
1910 - Otto Wallach for his work on alicyclic compounds.
1911 - Marie Curie for her discovery of radium and polonium.
1912 - Victor Grignard for his discovery of the Grignard reagent.
1912 - Paul Sabatier for his method of hydrogenating organic compounds.
1913 - Alfred Werner for his work on atoms and molecules.
1914 - Theodore Richards for his work on finding the atomic weight of chemical elements.
1915 - Richard Willstätter for his work on chlorophyll.
1916 - 1917 - No Award
1918 - Fritz Haber for synthesis of ammonia from its elements.
1919 - No award
1920 1929
1920 - Walther Nernst for his work on thermochemistry.
1921 - Frederick Soddy for his work on radioactive substances and isotopes.
1922 - Francis Aston for his discovery of isotopes and the mass spectrograph.
1923 - Fritz Pregl for discovering the way to do micro-analysis of organic substances.
1924 - No award
1925 - Richard Zsigmondy for discovering a basic method in colloid chemistry.
1926 - Theodor Svedberg for his work on disperse systems.
1927 - Heinrich Wieland for his work on bile acids.
1928 - Adolf Windaus for his work on sterols and vitamins.
1929 - Arthur Harden and Hans von Euler-Chelpin for their work on fermenting sugar and fermentative enzymes.
1930 1939
1930 - Hans Fischer
1931 - Carl Bosch, Friedrich Bergius
1932 - Irving Langmuir
1933 - No award
1934 - Harold C. Urey
1935 - Frédéric Joliot, Irène Joliot-Curie
1936 - Peter Debye
1937 - Norman Haworth, Paul Karrer
1938 - Richard Kuhn
1939 - Adolf Butenandt, Leopold Ruzicka
1940 1949
1940 - 1942 No award
1943 - George de Hevesy
1944 - Otto Hahn
1945 - Artturi Virtanen
1946 - James Sumner, John Northrop, Wendell Stanley
1947 - Sir Robert Robinson
1948 - Arne Tiselius
1949 - William F. Giauque
1950 1959
1950 - Otto Diels, Kurt Alder
1951 - Edwin McMillan, Glenn Seaborg
1952 - Archer Martin, Richard Synge
1953 - Hermann Staudinger
1954 - Linus Pauling
1955 - Vincent du Vigneaud
1956 - Cyril Hinshelwood, Nikolay Semenov
1957 - Lord Todd
1958 - Frederick Sanger
1959 - Jaroslav Heyrovsky
1960 1969
1960 - Willard Libby
1961 - Melvin Calvin
1962 - Max Perutz, John Kendrew
1963 - Karl Ziegler, Giulio Natta for Ziegler-Natta catalyst
1964 - Dorothy Hodgkin
1965 - Robert Woodward "for his outstanding achievements in the art of organic synthesis"
1966 - Robert S. Mulliken
1967 - Manfred Eigen, Ronald Norrish, George Porter
1968 - Lars Onsager
1969 - Derek Barton, Odd Hassel
1970 1979
1970 - Luis Leloir
1971 - Gerhard Herzberg
1972 - Christian Anfinsen, Stanford Moore, William Stein
1973 - Ernst Otto Fischer, Geoffrey Wilkinson for sandwich compounds
1974 - Paul Flory
1975 - John Cornforth, Vladimir Prelog
1976 - William Lipscomb
1977 - Ilya Prigogine
1978 - Peter Mitchell
1979 - Herbert Brown, Georg Wittig
1980 1989
1980 - Paul Berg, Walter Gilbert, Frederick Sanger
1981 - Kenichi Fukui, Roald Hoffmann for Isolobal Principle
1982 - Aaron Klug
1983 - Henry Taube
1984 - Bruce Merrifield
1985 - Herbert Hauptman, Jerome Karle
1986 - Dudley Herschbach, Yuan Lee, John Polanyi
1987 - Donald Cram, Jean-Marie Lehn, Charles Pedersen
1988 - Johann Deisenhofer, Robert Huber, Hartmut Michel
1989 - Sidney Altman, Thomas Cech
1990 1999
1990 - Elias James Corey
1991 - Richard R. Ernst
1992 - Rudolph A. Marcus
1993 - Kary Mullis, Michael Smith
1994 - George Olah
1995 - Paul Crutzen, Mario Molina, F. Sherwood Rowland
1996 - Robert Curl, Sir Harold Kroto, Richard Smalley
1997 - Paul D. Boyer, John E. Walker, Jens C. Skou
1998 - Walter Kohn, John Pople
1999 - Ahmed Zewail
2000 2009
2000 Alan Heeger, Alan G. MacDiarmid, Hideki Shirakawa for their discovery and development of conductive polymers.
2001 – William S. Knowles, Ryoji Noyori, for their work on chirally catalysed hydrogenation reactions., K. Barry Sharpless for his work on chirally catalysed oxidation reactions.
2002 – John B. Fenn and Koichi Tanaka for their work on mass spectrometry. Kurt Wüthrich for ways to study biological macromolecules with nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR).
2003 – Peter Agre for discoveries concerning channels in cell membranes [...] for the discovery of water channels. Roderick MacKinnon for discoveries concerning channels in cell membranes [...] for structural and mechanistic studies of potassium ion channels.
2004 – Aaron Ciechanover, Avram Hershko, Irwin Rose for the discovery of ubiquitin-mediated protein degradation.
2005 – Yves Chauvin, Robert Grubbs, Richard Schrock for metal-catalyzed alkene metathesis.
2006 – Roger Kornberg for studying eukaryote transcription.
2007 – Gerhard Ertl for surface science and for discovering how crystals react to experiments.
2008 – Osamu Shimomura, Martin Chalfie, Roger Tsien for the discovery and development of the green fluorescent protein, GFP.
2009 – Venkatraman Ramakrishnan, Thomas Steitz, Ada Yonath for studies of the structure and function of the ribosome.
2010 2019
2010 – Richard F. Heck, Ei-ichi Negishi, Akira Suzuki for their work in palladium-catalyzed coupling reactions in organic synthesis.
2011 – Dan Shechtman for the discovery of quasicrystals.
2012 – Robert Lefkowitz and Brian Kobilka for studies of G-protein-coupled receptors.
2013 – Michael Levitt, Martin Karplus and Arieh Warshel for the development of multi scale models for complex chemical systems.
2014 – Eric Betzig, Stefan Hell and William E. Moerner for the development of super-resolved fluorescence microscopy.
2015 – Tomas Lindahl, Paul Modrich and Aziz Sancar for mechanistic studies of DNA repair.
2016 – Jean-Pierre Sauvage / Fraser Stoddart / Ben Feringa for supramolecular chemistry.
2017 - Jacques Dubochet/ Joachim Frank / Richard Henderson for cryo-election microscopy
2018 - Frances Arnold / George P. Smith / Greg Winter for directed evolution and bacteriophage.
2019 - John B. Goodenough / M. Stanley Whittingham / Akira Yoshino for the development of lithium-ion battery
2020
2020 - Emmanuelle Charpentier and Jennifer Doudna for the development of a method for genome editing.
2021 - David MacMillan and Benjamin List for the development of asymmetric organocatalysis.
Related pages
List of Nobel Prize winners by country
List of Nobel Prize winners in Economics
List of Nobel Prize winners in Physics
List of Nobel Prize winners in Physiology or Medicine
List of Nobel Prize winners in Literature
List of Nobel Peace Prize winners
References
Nobel Prize Chemistry
Chemistry |
Baker Island is a small coral island, or atoll, in the North Pacific Ocean. It is just above the equator. It belongs to the United States. The United States Department of the Interior is in charge of the island. It is called the Baker Island National Wildlife Refuge.
The island has no trees. The island is surrounded by a coral reef. This makes the atoll hard to approach in a boat.
Gallery
Related pages
List of uninhabited regions
References
Other websites
Baker Island National Wildlife Refuge
Atolls
United States Minor Outlying Islands
Pacific islands
Islands of Oceania
Uninhabited regions |
Hermaphrodite is a term which comes from Hermaphroditus, the son of Hermes and Aphrodite. It is used as a scientific term in biology.
In zoology, an animal which can produce both sperm and ova is a hermaphrodite. As an example, most earthworms are hermaphrodites. A simultaneous hermaphrodite has both sets of sex organs throughout life. A sequential hermaphrodite has ovaries at first, replaced by a testis later, or the other way round.
In botany, hermaphrodite is used for 'complete' flowers with both male and female parts, and for plants which have bisexual reproductive units. See flowering plant sexuality for details.
With people, the term hermaphrodite is not correct, because true functioning hermaphrodites are not possible in humans. What sometimes happens is errors in development which lead to intersex persons. A definition of intersex is :
"... individuals of a bisexual species that have characteristics intermediate between the male and female".
People who are intersex may have a very small penis and no testicles, or a very small and short vagina and a large clitoris that looks like a penis.
References
Biology
Sexuality |
The epididymis is the part of the human male reproductive system. It is the tube that holds the testicles in place. It stretches from the back of each testicle to the van deferens.
Parts
The dinges is made up of three parts:
The head (Caput)
The body (Corpus)
The tail (Cauda)
Uses
Sperm made in the testis go into the head (caput) of the epididymis, go through the body (corpus) and stop at the tail (cauda), where they are stored. When sperm are first made and travel to the head, they are not yet ready to be ejaculated. They cannot swim or fertilize an egg. By the time they reach the tail, the sperm can fertilize an egg. The sperm are transferred to the Seminal visicle through the vas deferens. The sperm can not swim yet, so muscle contractions push the sperm to the seminal vesicle where final development is finished. .
When the sperm are ejaculated, they move through the tail of the epididymis. There are so many sperm that they cannot swim, but use peristalsis from muscles in the vas deferens.
Disease
An injury or infection of the epididymis causes epididymitis, a painful condition that can take months to heal. Sometimes the testicle has to be removed. There does not seem to be any single cause, or treatment for this condition. Some doctors treat it with antibiotics, some take a "wait and see" attitude. At times just one testicle is affected and at others, both.
Removal
Sometimes males get their epididymis removed either as a form of birth control or for other reasons (such as for post-vasectomy pain syndrome) in a surgery known as an epididymectomy.
Pictures
References
Anatomy of the male reproductive system |
Events
The War of 1812 between Great Britain and the United States.
Napoleon defeated at Waterloo in Belgium. (1815)
Denmark lets Norway go; Norway declares independence.
Congress of Vienna changes Europe.
Volcano Mount Tambora explodes in the Dutch East Indies (1815)
Year without a Summer (1816)
Births
James Strang, Mormon. (1813)
John A. Macdonald, first prime minister of Canada (1815)
Elizabeth Cady Stanton, American women's rights activist (1815)
Mary Todd Lincoln, First Lady of the United States
Frederick Douglass, writer. (1818)
World leaders
Emperor Francis II (Austria)
Chancellor Klemens Wenzel von Metternich (Austria)
King Frederick William III of Prussia (Prussia)
Jiaqing Emperor (China)
Emperor Napoleon I (First French Empire)
King Louis XVIII (Restoration France)
Pope Pius VII
Emperor Alexander I (Russia)
King Ferdinand VII (Spain)
King George III (United Kingdom).
President James Madison (United States)
President James Monroe (United States)
Fath Ali Shah of Qajar dynasty (Persia)
Deaths
Paul Revere, silversmith. (1818)
Jemima Wilkinson, preacher. (1819) |
Mammary glands are the part of the female body designed for the making milk for baby mammals to drink. In humans they are in the breasts.
Integumentary system
Glands
Breasts |
Kurt Browning (born June 18, 1966 in Rocky Mountain House, Alberta) is a Canadian figure skater. He won four world championships and four Canadian championships.
Browning did the first ever quadruple jump (four turns) in competition. He is well known for his footwork. As a professional, he has skated for Stars on Ice and Tom Collins Tour of Champions, won several professional championships, and did some T.V. skating specials. He has also talked during skating events on T.V. He has helped the charity Muscular Dystrophy.
Browning was raised in Caroline, Alberta. He married a dancer with the National Ballet of Canada, Sonia Rodriguez, in 1996. They have a son Gabriel, born in 2003.
Amateur Competitions
World Championships: came first in 1989, 1990, 1991, and 1993
Winter Olympics: 1988 - 8th, 1992 - 6th, 1994 - 5th
Canadian Championships: came first in 1989, 1990, 1991, and 1993
1966 births
Living people
Canadian figure skaters |
Airbus SE (, , , ) is a company which makes aircraft. It is owned by EADS, a European aerospace company. Airbus has its headquarters in Blagnac, France.
Airbus began as a consortium (a group) of aircraft makers called Airbus Industrie. Later, in 2001, it became a joint-stock company. It was owned by EADS (80%) and BAE Systems (20%). BAE sold its part of the company to EADS on 13 October 2006, so EADS now completely owns the company.
Around 55,000 people work for Airbus in sixteen places in four European Union countries: France, Germany, the United Kingdom and Spain. The final part of Airbus aircraft making is done in Toulouse, France; Hamburg, Germany; Seville, Spain; and, since 2009, Tianjin, China.
Airbus makes and sells the first digital fly-by-wire airliner, the Airbus A320. Airbus also makes the biggest airliner in the world, the Airbus A380.
History
Origins
Airbus Industrie started as a consortium (group) of European aircraft makers. The companies came together to compete with American companies like Boeing, McDonnell Douglas and Lockheed.
Even though a lot of European planes had a lot of new features, even the most successful planes were not made for long. In 1991, Jean Pierson, who was then the CEO and managing director of Airbus Industrie, gave some reasons why American plane makers were bigger: because the United States is so big, people preferred to fly; a 1942 agreement between the United Kingdom and the United States meant that the United States would make transport planes; and World War II had given the United States "a profitable, vigorous, powerful and structured aeronautical industry."
In the 1960s, some plane makers were thinking about coming together. Some aircraft companies had already thought that this would need to happen. In 1959, Hawker Siddeley thought about making an "Airbus" version of the Armstrong Whitworth AW.660 Argosy. This version would "be able to lift as many as 126 passengers on ultra short routes at a direct operating cost of 2d. per seat mile." However, European aircraft makers knew that making this plane would be dangerous. They knew that they would have to work together to make a plane like this. At the 1965 Paris Air Show, big European airlines began to think about the specifications for the "airbus". In that same year, Hawker Siddeley joined with Breguet and Nord to design the airbus. By 1966, Sud Aviation (became Aérospatiale) (France), Arbeitsgemeinschaft Airbus (became Deutsche Airbus) (Germany) and Hawker Siddeley (UK) were all working together. The partners asked for money from the French, German and British governments in October 1966. On 25 July 1967, the three governments gave the money and decided to continue with the airbus.
In the two years after this, both the British and French governments thought the project would fail. 75 orders were needed before 31 July 1968. The French government thought about leaving the partnership, because it was worried about the costs of the Airbus A300, Concorde and the Dassault Mercure. The French government was persuaded to stay. The British government left the partnership on 10 April 1969. Hawker Siddeley was helping until the British government left, and France and Germany did not want to design the airbus' wing (which Hawker Siddeley was doing). Hawker Siddeley was allowed to keep helping, but it did not have any help from the British government.
Beginning of Airbus Industry
Airbus Industrie was officially started as a Groupement d'Interet Économique (Economic Interest Group or GIE) on 18 December 1970. The name "Airbus" was taken from a word used by airlines in the 1960s. It meant an aircraft with a certain size and range. Aérospatiale and Deutsche Airbus each owned 36.5% of the company, Hawker Siddeley owned 20% and Fokker-VFW owned 7%. Each company made its own parts of the plane, and they were completely ready when they were delivered. In October 1971, the Spanish company CASA took 4.2% of Airbus Industrie. Aérospatiale and Deutsche Airbus lowered their share to 47.9%. In January 1979, British Aerospace, which had taken over Hawker Siddeley in 1977, took 20% of Airbus Industrie. Aérospatiale and Deutsche Airbus lowered their share even more, to 37.9%. CASA kept its 4.2%.
Designing the Airbus A300
The Airbus A300 was to be the first aircraft which was designed, made and sold by Airbus Industrie. By 1967, the "A300" label was given an airliner which Airbus Industrie was thinking about making, with 320 seats and two engines. Roger Béteille was made the technical director of the A300 design. Béteille decided which companies would make which parts of the plane: France would make the cockpit, flight controls and part of the fuselage; Hawker Siddeley made the wings; Germany made part of the fuselage; the Dutch made the flaps and spoilers; and Spain made the horizontal tailplane. On 26 September 1967 the German, French and British governments signed an agreement in London, which allowed Airbus Industrie to continue designing the plane. Rolls-Royce made the engines.
Airlines did not really want a 300+ seat Airbus A300, so Airbus Industrie made the A250 proposal. This later became the A300B, which had 250 seats and did not need a new engine design. This made the plane much cheaper to design, as the Rolls-Royce RB207 which would have been used in the A300 made up a lot of the costs. The RB207 had also had design problems and delays, since Rolls-Royce was concentrating on designing a different jet engine, the RB211, for the Lockheed L-1011 The A300B was smaller but lighter than its American rivals.
In 1972, the A300 made its first flight. The first type of A300, the A300B2, began being used by airlines in 1974. However, not much attention was paid to the A300 because of the launch of Concorde. At first, the A300 was not very successful. However, airlines began to order more and more. Part of this was because of the Airbus Industrie CEO Bernard Lathière, who tried to sell the plane to airlines in America and Asia. By 1979, Airbus Industrie had 256 orders for the A300. Airbus Industrie had also designed a more advanced aircraft, the Airbus A310, the year before. It was the A320 in 1981 which made Airbus Industrie a very big aircraft maker. More than 400 orders were made for the A320 before it even flew. Only 15 were made for the A300 before it first flew.
Change to Airbus
Since Airbus Industrie's planes were made by different companies, Airbus Industrie really only sold and advertised the planes. It became obvious that Airbus was no longer a temporary group made just to make one plane. It had become a big company which could make more planes. By the late 1980s, Airbus Industrie was working on two medium-sized planes: the Airbus A330 and the Airbus A340.
In the early 1990s, the Airbus CEO Jean Pierson said that the partnership should be closed, and Airbus Industrie should become its own company. However, the difficulties of integrating and valuing the assets of four companies, as well as legal issues, delayed the initiative. In December 1998, when British Aerospace and DASA were close to merging with each other, Aérospatiale stopped the negotiations. The French company thought that if BAe and DASA merged, that company would own 57.9% of Airbus. Aérospatiale insisted that each company own half of Airbus each. However, the problem was fixed in January 1999, when BAe merged with Marconi Electronic Systems instead. This company became BAE Systems. Then in 2000, three of the companies which made Airbus Industrie (DaimlerChrysler Aerospace, the new Deutsche Airbus; Aérospatiale-Matra, the new Sud-Aviation; and CASA) merged. This merger made EADS. EADS now owned Airbus France, Airbus Deutschland and Airbus España, which was 80% of Airbus Industrie. BAE Systems and EADS created the new company, Airbus SAS. Both companies owned part of Airbus.
Designing the Airbus A380
Throughout 1988, some Airbus engineers, led by Jean Roeder, began secretly designing a very big plane. It was made to allow Airbus to rival Boeing, whose 747 had been the only very big plane since the 1970s. Airbus made the project public at the 1990 Farnborough Air Show. Airbus wanted to make this plane 15% cheaper to use than the Boeing 747-400. In June 1994, Airbus named the plane the A3XX.
Five A380s were made for testing, and also to demonstrate the plane to airlines and the public. The first A380 was shown to the public on 18 January 2005, and it first flew on 27 April 2005. The head test pilot said that flying the A380 was like "like handling a bicycle". On 1 December 2005, the A380 reached its maximum speed, Mach 0.96. On 10 January 2006, the A380 made its first flight across the Atlantic, to Medellín, in Colombia.
On 3 October 2006, Airbus' CEO Christian Streiff said that the Airbus A380 was delayed because of problems with the software used to design the aircraft. The Toulouse factory used the latest version of CATIA (made by Dassault), but the people who were designing the plane in the Hamburg factory were using an older version. The 530 km of cables which go through the aircraft had to have their design completely changed. No airlines cancelled their orders, but Airbus still had to pay a lot of money because of the delay.
The first A380 was delivered to Singapore Airlines on 15 October 2007. It began to be used on 25 October 2007, when it flew between Singapore and Sydney. Two months later, Singapore Airlines' CEO Chew Choong Seng said that the A380 was better than both the airline and Airbus thought. It used 20% less fuel per passenger than the Boeing 747-400. Emirates was the second airline to get an A380 on 28 July 2008, and it used the A380 to fly between Dubai and New York on 1 August 2008. Qantas got the A380 on 19 September 2008, and its A380s flew between Melbourne and Los Angeles on 20 October 2008.
BAE sells its part of Airbus
On 6 April 2006, it was announced that BAE Systems would sell its 20% of Airbus. Its share was worth about €3.5 billion (US$4.17 billion). At first, BAE wanted to agree a price with EADS informally.
On 2 July 2006, BAE's part of the company was thought to be worth about £1.9 billion (€2.75 billion), which was much less than what BAE, analysts, and even EADS thought. In September 2006, BAE sold its part of Airbus for £1.87 billion (€2.75 billion, $3.53 billion). On 4 October, BAE's shareholders decided that the sale should go ahead, meaning that Airbus is now completely owned by EADS.
2007 restructuring
On 28 February 2007, CEO Louis Gallois said that Airbus was planning to make some changes. The programme was called Power8, and it got rid of 10,000 jobs over four years: 4,300 in France, 3,700 in Germany, 1,600 in the UK and 400 in Spain. Airbus factories in Saint Nazaire, Varel and Laupheim could be sold or closed, while Meaulte, Nordenham and Filton are "open to investors". Unions in France and Germany threatened to go on strike because of the job cuts.
2011 A320neo record orders
At the 2011 Paris Air Show, Airbus got 730 orders for Airbus A320neo family planes. These orders were worth $72.2 billion, and the number of orders is a new record in aviation. The A320neo was announced in December 2010, and it got 667 orders. Together with the orders before that time, there were 1029 orders made within six months after the plane was launched, which is also a new record.
Civilian planes
The first Airbus plane was the A300, the world's first twin-engined aircraft to have two aisles. A shorter version of the A300 is called the Airbus A310. Airbus launched the A320, which is special as it is the first commercial plane to use a digital fly-by-wire control system. The A320 has been, and still is, a very big success. The A318 and A319 are shorter versions, and the A321 is a longer version, of the A320. The A320's main rival is the Boeing 737 family.
The long-range wide-body planes, the Airbus A330 and the Airbus A340, have efficient wings, which also have winglets. The Airbus A340-500 can fly for , which is the second-longest range for any commercial plane, after the Boeing 777-200LR. All Airbus aircraft after the A320 have similar cockpits, which makes it easier to train pilots. Airbus stopped making A340s in 2011 because not enough planes were being sold compared to other planes like the Boeing 777.
Airbus is studying a replacement for the A320. This plane is called the Airbus NSR, for "New Short-Range aircraft". Those studies said that the NSR could burn 9–10% less fuel than the current A320. Instead of making a brand new plane, Airbus decided to make changes to the current A320 by adding winglets and other improvements. This updated type of A320 is called the "A320 Enhanced" and it should use 4–5% less fuel.
In July 2007, Airbus gave the last A300 to FedEx, which was when Airbus stopped making A300/A310s.
Airbus made parts and helped maintain Concorde until it was retired in 2003.
Airbus Executive and Private Aviation is the part of Airbus which makes private jets. After Boeing started the Boeing Business Jet, Airbus made the A319 Corporate Jet in 1997. As of December 2008, 121 corporate and private jets are being used and 164 aircraft have been ordered.
Military planes
In the late 1990s Airbus became interested in designing and selling aircraft to the military. Airbus made planes for aerial refuelling with the Airbus A310 MRTT and the Airbus A330 MRTT, and tactical airlift with the A400M.
In January 1999, Airbus started another company, Airbus Military SAS, to design and make a tactical transport aircraft, the Airbus Military A400M. The A400M was designed by several NATO members: Belgium, France, Germany, Luxembourg, Spain, Turkey, and the UK, so that these countries did not have to use foreign transport planes. The A400M has had many delays.
Orders and deliveries
* All models included.
Data as of 31 May 2013.
Rivalry with Boeing
Airbus is in a fierce rivalry with Boeing. NAirbus won more plane orders in 2003 and 2004. In 2005, Airbus got 1111 orders, and Boeing got 1029. In 2006, Airbus had its second-best year ever, when it got 824 orders. The year before that was even better. In August 2010, Airbus said that it would be making more A320 airliners, so that 40 would be made every month by 2012, when Boeing was making more 737s, so that 35 would be made every month.
As of April 2013, 7,264 Airbus aircraft are being used. There are 21% more Boeing aircraft than Airbus, because Airbus has not existed as long as Boeing. However, Airbus is catching up, as older Boeings are being retired.
Recently, more Boeing 777s have been sold than Airbus planes like the A330-300. The A330-200 is the main rival of the 767, and the A330-200 has sold more than the 767.
Airbus has also made the Airbus A350 XWB to be a rival to the Boeing 787 Dreamliner. This was done because airlines were asking Airbus to make a plane to rival the 787.
Boeing has complained that Airbus gets unfair help from European governments. However, Airbus has said that Boeing gets money illegally from the United States government, as the U.S. government buys many of Boeing's military products.
The WTO said in August 2010 and in May 2011 that Airbus was given unfair help by governments of European countries. In February 2011, the WTO found that Boeing had been given help by U.S. governments which broke the WTO rules.
Factories around the world
Airbus has many different factories for different planes. These are:
Toulouse, France (A320, A330, A350 and A380)
Hamburg, Germany (A320 series)
Seville, Spain (A400M)
Tianjin, China (A320 series).
Mobile, Alabama, (proposed for construction) (A320)
Airbus uses the "Beluga" to move different parts of Airbus planes from one factory to the other. Boeing also uses some Boeing 747s to do this to transport parts for the 787. However, some parts of the Airbus A380 are too large to be carried by the Beluga. These big A380 parts are brought to Bordeaux on a ship. They are then taken to Toulouse on the Itinéraire à Grand Gabarit.
Airbus opened a factory in Tianjin, People's Republic of China in 2009.
Airbus started making a $350 million factory in Harbin, China in July 2009. When it is finished, 1,000 people will work there.
Environment
Airbus has started "Flightpath 2050", which will lower the amount of noise, CO2 and NOx made by Airbus planes.
Biofuel
Airbus has joined Honeywell and JetBlue Airways to lower the amount of pollution and how much oil planes need to use. They are trying to make a biofuel which could be used by 2030.
Airbus recently had the first flight using special fuel. It used 60% kerosene and 40% gas to liquids (GTL) fuel. It gave out the same amount of carbon, but less sulphur. The special fuel worked with Airbus' engine, so this type of fuel should not need new engines. This flight is thought to be a good advance towards environmentally-friendly planes.
Employees
Employees in different factories
(Data as of 31 December 2006)
Airbus plane numbering system
Airbus names its planes in a special way. The format is: the plane name, a dash, and a three-digit number.
The three-digit number after the plane name means the aircraft series, the company which makes the engines, and the version of the engines. For example, an A320-200 with version one International Aero Engines (IAE) V2500 engines would be called the A320-231.
Engine codes
Related pages
Boeing
References
Bibliography
Other websites
Official Airbus website
Airbus North America
Airbus on Twitter
Aircraft companies
1970 establishments in Europe
Companies |
Rapid City is the second-largest city in the U.S. state of South Dakota. It is in the western part of the state on the eastern edge of the Black Hills. Rapid City is the county seat of Pennington County.
It is a good starting point for the area around it, which is a tourist area. Local tourist sites include Mount Rushmore, the Black Hills, the Badlands, and Custer State Park.
Other websites
Rapid City government website
County seats in South Dakota
Cities in South Dakota |
The Year without a Summer was 1816. The year before that, in 1815, a volcano had erupted in the Dutch East Indies. The volcano's name was Mount Tambora. The volcanic ash from the eruption spread across the world. It darkened the sky, and made the Earth's surface colder.
In much of Europe and northern North America, summer never came. In New England and Germany, there were frozen lakes in the middle of June. Flowers never bloomed, and every day was cold. These places and China suffered famine.
1816
Weather |
A capitol building (or just capitol) is a building in a capital city. People who control government work there to make laws. The building may have many offices.
Some offices are for legislators, the people who make the laws.
Some offices are for people who enforce laws, for example a president or governor. These people lead all people, and help them obey the laws.
Sometimes, there are offices for judges, people who help all people understand the laws. These judges are very powerful. A group of these judges can be called a supreme court or superior court.
Buildings similar to capitols are in other places. A smaller government like one in a county can be in a court house. A city government can be in a city hall.
Government buildings
Administrative buildings
pl:Kapitol |
The word dissolve can mean:
In chemistry, it is the act of solvation, when a solid is mixed into a liquid, creating a solution. Mixing salt into water is an example. Upon evaporation, the dissolved parts usually come out of solution and reform the solid.
In film and video editing, it is one way of changing the view. For example, a scene fades (changes slowly) from a bright day to all black. |
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