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The Taj Mahal is an Islamic religious building, mosque and tomb built in the 17th century by king Shah Jahan in memory of his wife, Mumtaz Mahal. Its chief architect was Ustad Ahmad Lahauri.
The building is in the city of Agra, Uttar Pradesh. Widely thought as one of the most beautiful buildings in the world, it is one of India's biggest tourist attractions.
It is listed as a UNESCO World Heritage Site, together with the Agra Fort, 2.5 kilometers away. It was listed as one of the 7 Wonders of the World in 2007. It is located on the south bank of Yamuna river in Agra. It is a splendid monument, but because of pollution, the Taj Mahal is turning yellow. It Is one of the most notable Islamic architectures built by the Mughals in India.
Construction
The Taj Mahal is an example of Muslim Architecture – a mixture of building design influenced from Middle Eastern, Indian, Turkish, and Ottoman architecture.
The Taj Mahal was constructed with materials from all over the world, and over 20,000 people were used to move building materials. It is generally thought that Ustad Ahmad Lahauri was in charge of the construction. The construction was finished in 1648. The construction of Taj Mahal is about 6000 feet..
Tours
The Taj Mahal had 2 million visitors in 2001 and in 2014-2017 there are more than 7-8 million visitors.
Damages
Many people think it is one of the most beautiful buildings ever built. However, it is slowly being damaged by acid rain in the nearby Yamuna Basin. A nearby oil refinery has been blamed for some of the damage. In 1996, the Indian Supreme Court said that local industry was harming the Taj Mahal. The court set up an area of 10,400 square meters around the Taj Mahal called the Taj Trapezium Zone. Industries within this zone must use natural gas instead of coal.
Because of pollution Taj Mahal is getting yellower slowly.
References
Buildings and structures in Uttar Pradesh
Monuments and memorials
World Heritage Sites in India
Mughal architecture
17th-century establishments in India |
Aryan is the name that an ancient people speaking Indo-Iranian languages gave to themselves. Descendants of the Aryans include speakers of Sanskrit and Avestan which are related to the Indo-European languages. Ancient Persians and Vedic peoples used the name Aryan to mean nobles. The name "Iran" itself means the Land of the Aryans.
The Avestan name Airiianəm vaēǰō "Aryan expanse", is a reference in the Zoroastrian Avesta (Vendidad, Fargard 1) to the Aryans’ mother country and one of Ahura Mazda's "sixteen perfect lands". Other Avestan names are airyō.šayana, the “Aryan people”, and airyā daiŋˊhāvā “the Aryan lands”. These names were known to old Greek writers as Ariana. Also the Sanskrit name Āryāvarta "abode of the Aryans", was a region in north of today's India. The Middle Persian name of the Sassanian Empire, an empire that ruled Persia from the 3rd century to the 7th century, was Eran-shar meaning the Aryan Empire. Today, the name Iran is simply the Persian word for Aryan.
Sanskrit is the oldest written language of the Indo-European family of languages. The Vedas are composed in this language. Some portions of the Rigveda are thought to be the oldest writing in any Indo-European language.
Aryan equated with Indo-European
In the late 18th century, Europeans began using the term Aryan to refer to the original prehistoric Proto-Indo-Europeans and their descendents up to the present day (i.e., the Indo-European peoples—those Caucasians who are speakers of the Indo-European languages). This was the most common definition of Aryan in the 19th century and early 20th century.
Nazism
In the late 19th century, some Europeans began to use the name Aryan for only the Nordic peoples of Europe (one branch of the Indo-European peoples), as a "pure," "noble" and "superior" race they claimed were descended from the original Aryans.
The theory that the Aryans first came from Europe became especially accepted in Germany. It was widely believed that the "Vedic Aryans" were the same people as the Goths, Vandals and other ancient Germanic peoples who brought the Western Roman Empire to an end. This idea was often mixed with anti-Semitic ideas. The Master Race theory became a main idea for Nazis. After the Nazis took power in Germany in 1933, these ideas led to horrible persecutions of the Jews which culminated in the Holocaust.
Modern view
The idea of racism that the Nazi theory means has been totally put aside by modern scientists, some of whom also disagree with the idea that the original Aryans ever lived in Europe. Most other scientists do maintain that the original Proto-Indo-Europeans did live about 5,000 years ago in the area in Europe east of Ukraine and north of the Caucasus Mountains and that the original Aryans (the Indo-Iranians or eastern branch of the Indo-European peoples) did migrate east to Iran and India from there, and the original ancestors of the modern European peoples (the western or European branch of the Indo-European peoples) did migrate west from there. This is called the Kurgan hypothesis.
Related pages
Indo-European languages
Indo-Iranian people
Race (sociology)
Apartheid
Nazis
Discrimination
Celts
References
Other websites
Who Were the Aryans?
History of the Ancient Aryans
People |
Venetian might mean:
Anything related to Venice
Anything related to the Republic of Venice, as state that existed from the late 7th century until the late 18th century
Venetian language |
Gypsy may mean:
Roma people (also: Romani people), ⲣⲱⲙⲁ (meaning in coptic language: men or human being) is a group of people of Indian origin, there Ancestors was the untouchable Chingari tribe of the Chandala group from North-West India, who once came to Egypt and moved later to Europe, often living in caravans. The Chandala are said are the descendants of Shudra-Brahmin mix.
More generally, anyone who moves around often. For some Romani Groups, calling a person a Gypsy might be considered offensive, for other Romani Groups not.
the Sinti, also a Romani people, mostly living in central Europe.
Romanlar/Roma in Turkey
Gitanos (Spanish gypsies) who speak Caló
"Travellers" found mainly in Great Britain, Ireland and the United States; and
Luli in Central Asia.
Luoli (Chinese name for Gypsy); lived in China in the Yuan Dynasty (1271–1368)
In music:
The Gypsy Kings, a musical group of the 1980s that plays a pop-oriented version of traditional flamenco music (Not to be confused with Ricky Jevon, King of the Gypsies)
Gypsy and the Haylocks, a reggae folk band who were deemed to be the first band to mix both genres in the 1970s. Traditionally from the Cambridgeshire area they were fronted by Oliver Haylock and his half sister Emmly. (Emmly is the cousin of Bubbler Ranx famous for singing on Peter Andre's Mysterious Girl)
Gypsy, a song by Fleetwood Mac
Gypsy, a song by The Moody Blues
Gypsy: A Musical Fable, a musical inspired by the life of Gypsy Rose Lee
In fiction:
Gypsy, a robot character from the TV series Mystery Science Theater 3000
Gypsy, a fictional character from DC Comics
Gypsy Moth, a fictional mutant character from Marvel Comics
Other meanings:
Gypsy, West Virginia, USA
Gypsy moth, a destructive insect that causes trees to lose their leaves
Gypsy (software), the first modern document preparation system
Winston "Gypsy" Peters, a Trinidad and Tobago politician and calypsonian
A "gypsy" is a part on a boat windlass designed to haul chain. It may have a groove to enable it to haul rope and chain when it is called a combined gypsy and capstan
Gypsy (elephant) is the name of an elephant given to Michael Jackson by Elizabeth Taylor
The J/ψ particle, a subatomic particle |
Uzbekistan is a country in Central Asia. Its capital and largest city is Tashkent. There are about 32 million people living in Uzbekistan, now. The neighbouring countries are Afghanistan, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan and Turkmenistan. It is a doubly landlocked country, of which there are only two in the world. Most people in Uzbekistan speak a language called Uzbek, a Turkic language similar to Uyghur and Turkish. In the Uzbek language, Uzbekistan is called "O‘zbekiston" and it means "the land of the true nobles". Uzbekistan has a long history. Humans first lived in Uzbekistan from before the 2nd millennium BC. The current president today is Shavkat Mirziyoyev. Human rights in Uzbekistan are 'atrocious' according to Human Rights Watch
Islam is its largest religion.
Provinces
Uzbekistan is divided into twelve provinces, one autonomous republic, and one independent city. The provinces are divided into districts.
References
Further reading
Poopak NikTalab. Sarve Samarghand (Cedar of Samarkand), continuous interpretation of Rudaki's poems ,Tehran 2020, Faradid Publications {Introduction}
Members of the Organisation of Islamic Cooperation |
Events and trends
1200 University of Paris receives charter from Philip II of France
1202–1204 Fourth Crusade – diverted to Constantinople
1205 April 14: Battle of Adrianople (1205) between Bulgars and Latins
1209
Albigensian Crusade against Cathars (1209–1218)
the Franciscans are founded.
1200s |
United Arab Emirates (UAE) is a country in Western Asia. It borders Oman, Qatar, and Saudi Arabia. Burj Khalifa is Earth's tallest artificial structure.
References |
Can could mean:
A cylinder shaped object used for storing other things, especially liquids and food. They are usually made of metal.
A verb meaning that something is possible, for example, "I can read a book."
The buttocks.
A toilet.
Can, an experimental music group from the 1970s
Life in Turkish, can; also, Turkish name Can. |
A wok is a Chinese pan used for cooking. It has a round bottom. The most common use for the wok is stir frying, though it can also be used for deep frying, smoking, braising, roasting, grilling, and steaming.
In Indonesia, the wok is known as a wadjang, kuali in Malaysia, and kawali (small wok) and kawa (big wok) in the Philippines.
Other websites
Cookware and bakeware |
The United States Navy is part of the United States Armed Forces (the military of the USA). It is the largest navy in the world, with the estimated tonnage of its active battle fleet alone exceeding the next 13 navies combined, including 11 U.S. allies or partner nations. It has the highest combined battle fleet tonnage, and the world's largest aircraft carrier fleet, with eleven in service, two new carriers under construction, and five other carriers planned. With 336,978 personnel on active duty and 101,583 in the Ready Reserve, the U.S. Navy is the third largest of the U.S. military service branches in terms of personnel. It has 290 deployable combat vessels and more than 3,700 operational aircraft .
History
The navy was called the Continental Navy from 1775 until Congress disbanded it and sold the ships in 1785. It was started again as the Department of the Navy on April 30, 1798. The Department of the Navy needed places to make ships, which are called shipyards. So it paid slaveowners to borrow their slaves, then forced the slaves to build and run the shipyards in Washington, D.C., Norfolk, Virginia, and Pensacola, Florida.
Sailors
Today, the US Navy has over 300,000 sailors and officers, and almost another 100,000 workers who are not official sailors.
Strength
The US Navy has about 300 warships, or ships designed for fighting. The largest warships are aircraft carriers, which have large and flat decks that act as small airports for planes carrying weapons. The US Navy has more of these aircraft carriers than any other navy in the world, and a large number of planes in Naval Aviation. Aircraft carriers are often protected by smaller ships, called cruisers or destroyers.
Ranks
Related pages
United States Coast Guard
United States Marines
References
United States Navy
1798 establishments in the United States |
Pro bono is a Latin phrase meaning "for [the] good", that is used to mean that a legal professional (lawyer) who would otherwise be paid money for their work,
works without being paid, for the benefit of society,
typically on behalf of a person or organization who cannot pay for some reason, such as poverty.
Related pages
Volunteering
References
Legal terms
Giving |
Ziggy could mean:
A comic strip character created by American Greetings in 1968;
The first name of Ziggy Marley, the son of reggae artist Bob Marley.
The first name of the fictional character Ziggy Stardust.
it:Personaggi minori di PK#Zigfried Flagstarr |
A chemical formula is a way that chemists describe a molecule. The formula says what atoms, and how many of each type, are in the molecule. Sometimes the formula shows how the atoms are linked, and sometimes the formula shows how the atoms are arranged in space.
The letter shows what chemical element each atom is. The subscript shows the number of each type of atom. For example, hydrogen peroxide has the formula H2O2. Methane has one carbon (C) atom and four hydrogen atoms; the chemical formula is CH4. The sugar molecule glucose has six carbon atoms, twelve hydrogen atoms, and six oxygen atoms, so its chemical formula is C6H12O6.
Chemical formulas are used in chemical equations to describe chemical reactions.
The 19th-century Swedish chemist Jöns Jacob Berzelius worked out this system for writing chemical formulas.
Reading and writing formulas
Chemical formulas are another way to represent the number of atoms. Chemical formulas are used to represent kinds of atoms in a combination. Chemical formulas use subscripts to tell how many of each atom are present in a combination. Subscripts are small numbers to the lower right of a symbol. They represent the number of atoms of that element in the equation. Before writing Chemical formulas, write down the symbol of each atom present in your equation. Writing chemical formula is a way of informing the chemical figure. It is most easily found in the periodic table. The periodic table is a chart of all well-known parts. Use the periodic table to reference the figure that cannot be remembered.
Element families
Different elements are found in the periodic table. Each element has a family. An element family is an arrangement of elements. This element family has common properties. They are sharing the same characteristics.
Elements are displayed in order. Each element is put into families. There are three main categories such as metals, nonmetals, and semimetals. Each element family is displayed by the number of electrons in the outer shell. They can also display the same properties and valence electrons.
Related pages
Chemical equation
References
Chemical nomenclature
Notation |
Harvard University is a private university in Cambridge, Massachusetts, and a member of the Ivy League. Harvard was started on September 8, 1636, and it is the oldest university in the United States. Harvard's current president is Lawrence Bacow. The school color is crimson, which is a dark red color.
Harvard used slaves to serve its leaders and students, and the merchants who used their money to start the school used slaves too. Also, “Harvard students slept in beds and ate meals prepared by slaves, and many grew up to be prominent slave-holders in early America." In the 20th century, the university invested millions of dollars in apartheid South Africa.
Harvard is on the Charles River. Some students go to the Charles River for rowing. On the other side of the Charles River is the city of Boston. Boston's subway system has a stop at Harvard. Some of Harvard's graduate schools are in Boston, but most of Harvard's schools are in Cambridge. Together, these schools are Harvard University.
Harvard has many libraries like Widener Library. There are other facilities like skating rinks and the Malkin Athletic Center where students can swim and exercise.
Harvard is almost always ranked as one of the best universities in the world. Another famous school close to Harvard in Cambridge, Massachusetts is the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT). Eight Presidents of the United States have graduated from Harvard. Harvard has over $40 billion.
Notable alumni
George W. Bush, 43rd President of the United States
Bill Gates, Founder of Microsoft
Al Gore, 45th Vice President of the United States
John F. Kennedy, 35th President of the United States
Franklin Delano Roosevelt, 32nd President of the United States
Theodore Roosevelt, 26th President of the United States
Natalie Portman, Actress & filmmaker
Mark Zuckerberg, Founder & CEO of Facebook
Barack Obama, 44th President of the United States
Related pages
Bloody Monday (Harvard)
References
Association of American Universities
Collegiate Water Polo Association
ECAC Hockey
Ivy League
Cambridge, Massachusetts
1636 establishments
1630s establishments in Massachusetts |
Tamil is a Dravidian language. It is spoken in the Tamil Nadu and Puducherry states of India and parts of Sri Lanka. Many people in Singapore and Malaysia also speak it. Many people speaking Tamil live in various places around the world.
The Tamil language is part of the Dravidian language family, which includes Telugu, Tamil, Kannada and Malayalam. According to a survey, 1863 newspapers are published in the Tamil language only every day. The oldest text found in Tamil is a grammatical work called the Tolkāppiyam. Tamil has a long literary history, and is spoken by almost 90 million people.
Tamil script
The modern tamil script is an abugida, much like the other brahmic scripts that surround it and from whom it developed from. The tamil script has 23 consonants and 5 vowels which have long and short forms and the āytam ஃ,. The āytam is used with other letters to represent sounds not native to the language. The vowels are written as symbols above, below or on either side of the consonant. Much like other brahmic scripts, it is written from left to right.
Tamil is the dominant language in the state of Tamil Nadu, India, and Northern provinces of Sri Lanka. It is also spoken by significant immigrant communities and the historical Tamil diaspora in like the United States, Germany, Fiji, Indonesia, France, Africa and Thailand.
References
Other websites |
Kerala is a state in the Republic of India. It is in the south-west of the country. The west coast of the state is on the Arabian Sea. Tamil Nadu and Karnataka are to the east.
The capital city of the state is Thiruvananthapuram, even though the city of Kochi is more densely populated. The area of Kerala is 15,005 mi2 (38,863 km2), which is bigger than Bhutan but smaller than Switzerland. In traditional Indian geography it is part of South India.
There are 14 districts in Kerala. They are: Alappuzha, Ernakulam, Idukki, Kannur, Kasaragod, Kollam, Kottayam, Kozhikode, Malappuram, Palakkad, Pathanamthitta, Thiruvananthapuram, Thrissur, and Wayanad.
Language
People in Kerala speak Malayalam. More than 90% of the people can read the language. If we mix English and Malayalam together it makes Manglish. Manglish is used for people in Kerala if we try to speak it we can able to speak it very easily and fluently. Malayalam
Culture
Kerala is known for traditional arts and people enjoy traditional, percussion-filled music. They also enjoy tribal ceremonies, martial arts, and sports such as soccer, cricket, and badminton. Kerala is popular for Kalaripayattu, a martial arts form and Kathakali , a Hindu performance art. Most of the people have access to the internet, TVs, newspapers, and books. The average amount of reading per week is about seven hours. The literacy rate is approximately 99.7%.
Provincial symbols of Kerala
Festivals
The most famous festivals held by Keralites are Onam, the harvest festival and Vishu, the Malayalam Calendar New Year. In addition to these, temples as well as churches hold festivals in several days of the year. A common tradition in all these festivals is the hosting of the holy flag, which is brought down on the last day of the festival. Some temple festivals are called poorams, and the most famous one among these is 'Thrissur Pooram'. The main attractions of poorams are firecrackers, traditional dance forms like 'Theyyam, Kathakali, Chakyar Koothu etc.'. Festivals are locally known as utsavams .
Tourism
Kerala is one of the biggest tourist attractions in India, both for Indians as well as foreigners. It has beautiful beaches, hill stations and extensive backwaters. Kerala is also known for its diverse nature.
Agriculture
Related pages
Malayalam
References |
Tamil might mean:
Something related to the Indian state of Tamil Nadu
Tamil people, an ethnic group from south Asia
Tamil language |
Malayalam is a language. Most people that speak Malayalam live in Kerala, in India. A speaker of Malayalam is called a Malayali.
Malayalam (/malayALam/) is the main language of the South Indian state of Kerala and also of the Lakshadweep Islands (Laccadives) of the west coast of India.
Malayalis (speakers of Malayalam), who - males and females alike - are almost totally literate, constitute 4 percent of the population of India and 96 percent of the population of Kerala (29.01 million in 1991).
In terms of the number of speakers, Malayalam ranks eighth among the 18 major languages of India.
Malyalam language has 52 phonemes. A few of the phonemes are unique for Malayalam.
The word /malayALam/ originally meant mountainous country (/mala/- mountain + /aLam/-place). Tamil Nadu is its neighbour on the south and east and Karnataka on the north and east.
References
Dravidian languages
Languages of India
Kerala |
Coimbatore (Tamil: கோயம்புத்தூர்), also known as Kovai (Tamil: கோவை), is the second largest city in the Tamil Nadu, after Chennai. It is the administrative headquarters of the Coimbatore District and a major textile and engineering hub of South India. It forms a part of the ancient Kongu Nadu region of South India, where its people were the first to establish a territorial state. Coimbatore city, including its suburban areas has a population of 2.4 million people.
It is referred as the Manchester of South India in business circles, and has textile mills, engineering firms, automobile parts manufacturers, health care facilities and educational institutions. The hill stations of Ooty, Coonoor and Valparai are close to the city, making it a good tourist attraction throughout the year. The city is on the banks of the Noyyal River and is close to the Siruvani Waterfalls.This city is a textile based one.
Avinashi is a nearby town where a famous Shiva Temple is located.
Cities in Tamil Nadu
Coimbatore district |
Madurai is a city in Tamil Nadu, India. It was the capital of the earlier Pandyan Kingdom.
Meenakshi Amman Temple, Ayiram Kal Mandabam (Hall of Thousand Pillars) are some of the important tourist places in Madurai.
Madurai is always considered to be a good pilgrim center. Tourists from various part of the country and world are coming to madurai and enjoying a historical excellence.
The main attraction of the city is meenakshi amman temple. Various other tourist and pilgrimage places also there such as Alagar Koil, Thiruparangkundram, Palarmuthir solai (means garden with fruits), Thirumalai naicker Mahal (palace of Naickers), Teppakulam (a square tank almost half a kilometer length as one side length), gandi museum (where we can find blood spotted final dress of Gandiji), etc.
The city is said to be as City of Festivals almost all the days in year is having at least a small festival. The city is also called 'thoonganagaram' which means Non-sleeping city.
Road side shops are very famous in Madurai where all can get good foods in cheaper costs. Jigardhanda, a typical Muslim cool drink is one of the famous drink from madurai. Madurai is very famous for jasmine flowers and Alanganallur located near Madurai is famous for Jallikattu.
Other websites
A Blog for Madurai - News, Updates, Views and Improvement Thoughts
Cities in Tamil Nadu
Madurai district |
Assam () is a state in the north eastern region of India. It has an area of 78,438 km² (30,285 mi²). It is bigger than Panama but smaller than the Czech Republic. There is one major river (Brahamputra) that flows through the length of the state. The state lies on the foothills of the Himalayas. There are two international borders touched by Assam: Bhutan and Bangladesh. In traditional Indian geography it falls under the North-east Indian zone.
Demography
According to a 2021 survey, about 55% of the people are Hindus. About 40% are Muslim. There is a small (4%) Christian minority. Others (1%) consists of (Buddhism, Sikhism, Jainism, and Animism).
Assam has a population of 36.5 million as per the 2021 population survey.
Language
Assam has a population of 36.5 million as per the 2021 population survey.
Related pages
List of rivers of Assam
Hinduism in Assam
References
Assam |
Arunachal Pradesh or South Tibet is a state between India and China. The country that owns this region is disputed. China says that they own it and call it South Tibet (Zangnan 藏南). In 2017, China started renaming places in this territory. In 2019 China destroyed 30,000 "incorrect" world maps that showed South Tibet as part of India.
History
The territory's northern boundary is about 550 miles long. It is known as the McMahon Line.
It is part of the border dispute between India and China. There is another dispute to the northwest in Aksai Chin (also with Pakistan).
In 1962, the Sino-Indian War was fought here. The war was short and ended in India's defeat. However, China withdrew back to the modern borders voluntarily. They still say that they own the region.
Who lives there?
Most of the population look East Asian. The people look like their neighbors in Tibet and the Myanmar hill region.
As of 2001, there were 1,091,117 people living in South Tibet. The total area is 32,333 mi² (83,743 km²).
Most people speak Han–Tibetan languages like Nyishi and Adi (over 50%). The rest speak Indo-Aryan languages like Nepali, Bengali, and Hindi.
State symbols of Arunachal Pradesh
Related pages
Tibet
Sino–Indian border dispute
References
Territorial disputes of India |
Bihar (; ) is a state in the Republic of India, covering an area of 38,202 mi² (99,200 km²). The capital is Patna. Bihar is bordered by the Indian states of Uttar Pradesh to the west, Jharkhand to the south, and West Bengal to the east. To the north of Bihar is the country of Nepal. In traditional Indian geography it falls under the East Indian zone. It is one of the poorest regions in India.
Provincial symbols of Bihar
References |
Chhattisgarh is a state within the Republic of India. It occupies . In traditional Indian geography it falls under the East Indian zone.
The capital at present is Raipur which would change to 'Naya Raipur' near Raipur. It has eighteen districts: Raigarh, Bilaspur, Bijapur, Korba, Durg, Janjgir, Raipur, Koria, Sarguja, Bastar, Dantewada, Narayanpur, Rajnandgaon, Kanker, Mahasamund, Dhamtari, Jashpur and Kabirdham (Kawardha).
The main languages spoken are Hindi and Chhattisgarhi. The main religion is Hindu.
Provincial symbols of Chhattisgarh |
Gujarat (, ) is a state within the Republic of India. Gandhinagar is the capital of Gujarat. This city is named after Mahatma Gandhi. Its area is 75,686 mi² (196,077 km²), excluding the Kori Creek of the Rann of Kachchh: which is disputed by Pakistan , but it includes the Kutch District, in terms of area it is bigger than Syria but smaller than Senegal.
In traditional Indian geography it falls under the West Indian zone. Ahmedabad, Baroda, Surat, Bharuch, Porbandar, Rajkot, Jamnagar are some important cities in Gujarat. Champaner, Gondal, Bhavnagar, Utelia, Zainabad, Bhuj, Sasangir are some tourist places. People in Gujarat are mainly engaged in Agriculture and business.
The state is bordered by Rajasthan to the north, Maharashtra to the south, Madhya Pradesh to the east, and the Arabian Sea and the Pakistani province of Sindh to the west. Its capital city is Gandhinagar, while its largest city is Ahmedabad. Gujarat is native place to the Gujarati-speaking people of India.
Etymology
Gujarat is derived from the Sanskrit term Gurjaradesa, meaning "The Land of the Gurjaras", who ruled Gujarat in the 8th and 9th centuries CE. Parts of modern Rajasthan and Gujarat have been known as Gurjaratra or Gurjarabhumi (land of the Gurjars) for centuries before the Mughal period.
Provincial symbols of Gujarat
References |
Haryana () is a state in the Republic of India. It is the birthplace of Hinduism. The main dialect spoken in the area is Haryanvi. The area is . It is larger than Denmark but smaller than Estonia. In traditional Indian geography it falls under the North Indian zone.
Provincial symbols of Haryana
Sources |
Himachal Pradesh () is a state in northern India. Shimla is the capital of Himachal Pradesh. It covers an area of 55,673 km² (21,495 mi²), although the border with China is still disputed. The land contains high mountains. In traditional Indian geography it falls under the North Indian zone. It borders to Jammu and Kashmir to the north.
Himachal Pradesh was part of Indian Punjab before 1966.
The State of HP is divided into three Divisions, namely Mandi Division, Kangra Division, Shimla Division. The divisions are further sub-divided into 12 districts. These are further divided into 73 sub-divisions, 172 tehsils and 35 sub-tehsils.
Gallery
State symbols of Himachal Pradesh
References
Other websites
Official website of Himachal Pradesh Government
Himachal Pradesh Development Report
Himachal Tourism Website
Himachal's Daily news website |
Jammu and Kashmir was the northmost state of India. The state covered and is mostly in the Himalayan mountains. Jammu and Kashmir used to be a British protectorate in 1860. Jammu and Kashmir borderd the states of Himachal Pradesh and Punjab to the south-east and south respectively. The other parts of state are administered by Pakistan as Azad Jammu and Kashmir and Gilgit-Baltistan.
Jammu and Kashmir has been a subject of dispute between India and Pakistan since 1947, and China since 1962.
Demographics
Jammu and Kashmir has a Muslim majority population. Though Islam is practiced by about 67% of the population of the state and by 97% of the population of the Kashmir valley, the state has large communities of Buddhists, Hindus (inclusive of Meghwal and Sikhs).
Jammu and Kashmir consisted of three divisions: Jammu region, Kashmir Valley, and the Ladakh region. Srinagar is the summer capital, and Jammu its winter capital. The Kashmir valley, often called paradise on Earth, is famous for its beautiful mountainous landscape. Jammu's numerous holy shrines attracts millions of Hindu pilgrims every year from all over the India. Ladakh, also known as "Little Tibet", is renowned for its remote mountain beauty and Buddhist culture.
References
Other websites
Government of Jammu and Kashmir, India |
Jharkhand (, ) is a state in the Republic of India. About 20,000,000 people live there. The state covers . It is bigger than Sierra Leone but smaller than Panama. It has many villages and towns. Ranchi is the capital city. In traditional Indian geography it falls under the East Indian zone.
Provincial symbols of Jharkhand |
Madhya Pradesh is a state in the Republic of India. The state has an area of . It is bigger than Italy but smaller than Oman. About 70,000,000 people live there. In traditional Indian geography it falls under the West Indian zone. The capital of the state is Bhopal.
The largest city is Indore. Other main cities are Jabalpur and Ujjain. Ujjain is well known for mythological reasons. Mandav, Bhojpur and Panchmadi are the main tourist attractions.
To the north of Madhya Pradesh is the state of Uttar Pradesh and to the northwest is the state of Rajasthan, while Maharashtra is to the southwest.
Provincial symbols of Madhya Pradesh |
Manipur () is a state within the Republic of India. It has area of 8,628 mi² (22,347 km²). In traditional Indian geography it falls under the North-east Indian zone.
The state is bordered by the Indian states of Nagaland to its north, Mizoram to its south and Assam to its west. Its eastern border is the Indian border with Myanmar. Manipur has a long recorded written history of kings ascended in the main throne of Kangla. The list of these kings can be found in a chronicle known as Cheitharol Kumbaba. Cheitharol Kumbaba, also spelled Cheitharon Kumpapa, is the court chronicle of the kings of Manipur. It recorded the history of the Kingdom of Manipur from the founding of the Ningthouja dynasty in 33 CE under king Nongda Lairen Pakhangba until the merger of the kingdom with India in 1949 and the subsequent abolition of monarchy. It ends with the last king of Manipur, Bodhchandra. The Cheitharol Kumbaba is probably one of the oldest chronicles of the region and is written on more than 1000 leaves of Meetei paper in Meetei Mayek, an early Meitei script.
References
Other websites |
Meghalaya () is a state within the Republic of India. Occupying an area of 8,660 mi² (22,429 km²), bigger than the State of Israel but smaller than Belize. Its capital is Shillong. Meghalaya's population is 2,318,822. The population of Shillong was 314,610 in 2001. There are problems in Meghalaya arise from the divide between tribals and non tribal settlers, identity issues and growing corruption besides the fear of being reduced to minority by native tribals. The activity status is classified as active. In traditional Indian geography it falls under the North-east Indian zone.
Provincial symbols of Meghalaya
References
Other websites
Meghalaya Website |
Mizoram is a state in the Republic of India. It is in the eastern region beyond Bangladesh. It covers an area of . It is bigger than the nation of El Salvador but smaller than the State of Israel. In traditional Indian geography it falls under the North-east Indian zone. In 2011, Mizoram had 1,091,014 people. It has less people than every other state except Sikkim.
The word "Mizoram" means "land of the Mizo people". It is one of the Seven Sister States in North Eastern India, sharing borders with the states of Tripura, Assam, Manipur and with the neighbouring countries of Bangladesh and Myanmar. Mizoram became the 23rd state of India on 20 February 1987. The capital of Mizoram is Aizawl.
Provincial symbols of Mizoram
References
Northeast India |
Nagaland is a northeastern state in the Republic of India. It has an area of . It is bigger than East Timor but smaller than Eswatini. In traditional Indian geography it falls under the North-east Indian zone.
Provincial symbols of Nagaland |
Odisha, formerly Orissa, is a state in Eastern India, with an area of , and population of almost 42 million. Oriya or Odia is the most widely spoken language in the state and is used on an official basis alongside English. Chilika lake which is located in Odisha is the largest migratory birds on the Indian subcontinent. Odisha is the 8th largest Indian State and the 11th most populous. The capital city is Bhubaneswar, and other major cities in the state are Cuttack, Sambalpur, and Rourkela. Odisha is bordered by the states of West Bengal to the north east, Jharkhand to the north west, Chhattisgarh to the west, Andhra Pradesh to the south, and has a 482km coastline along the Bay of Bengal.
Modern-day Odisha falls under the boundaries of the ancient kingdom of Kalinga in the 3rd Century BCE, and the state is still sometimes referred to as Kalinga. Odisha is also known as Utkal, and is mentioned in the Indian National Anthem, Jana Gana Mana, under this name. The Orissa province was founded on the 1st April 1936, and the anniversary of this is celebrated as Utkal Dibas throughout the state. The state was created on the basis of the Odia language, encompassing the native speakers of the language.
Popular tourist destinations in Odisha include the Konark Sun Temple, the Udayagiri and Khandagiri caves, the Puri Jagannath Temple, and Chilika Lake. Odisha has a rich culture, the Odissi classical dance form originates from the state and Odia cuisine is well-renowned for its seafood dishes and desserts. Odisha has successfully hosted several sports events as Asian Junior Women's Rugby Tournament, the 22nd Asian Athletics Championship, and the Men's Hockey World Cup in 2018.
Odisha is mostly inhabited by the Odia people, with Hinduism being the major religion in the state and Christian and Muslim minorities. There is a large tribal population in Odisha, referred to as the adivasi people, they are the indigenous people and speak various tribal languages and follow traditional religions, although many have converted to Christianity. Jainism and Buddhism also have important histories in the state.
Biju Patnaik International Airport (BBI) is Odisha's only airport, and the state is well-connected by railways, and national highways. The current Chief Minister of the state is Naveen Patnaik.
Provincial symbols
References |
Punjab (, ) is a state in the northern Republic of India. About 24 million people live there. Its national capital city is Chandigarh. The city is a separate territory, because it is also used be the capital of Haryana. The state is in the Punjab region. It covers an area of 19,445 mi² or 50,362 km². It is bigger than Slovakia but smaller than Costa Rica. In traditional Indian geography it falls under the North Indian zone. The state of Punjab has 22 districts. It is mainly known as the land of god/gurus, Punjab's culture is very rich and the dwellers of Punjab respect their culture . The half population of Punjab depends on agriculture, that's why its known as food-provider (anna-datta- in Punjabi). In Punjab people of all religions live with integrity and love .
Etymology
The word Doab is a combination of the Indo-Iranian words Doab (two) and āb (water), and thus the (land of) two rivers. The two rivers are the Beas and Sutlej. Sometimes, in English, there can be a definite article before the name i.e. the Doaba. The name is also sometimes spelled as Duoab or Douaab or Doaab.
It originally contained 5 rivers before partition, British influence and the influence of the Indian government, so therefore its name came from the Punjabi word for five (Panj/Punj) and the word for river/water (ab).
History
All of India was once ruled by the British Empire. The Indians wanted freedom, but the Hindus, Sikhs and the Muslims of India always argued. So it was decided to divide the country into two parts—one part for Muslims and one part for Hindus and Sikhs. In 1947 Punjab (British India), which was a province of India, was divided into West Punjab and East Punjab (which the state is home to the active independence movement of Khalistan by the Sikh nationalists). East Punjab went to the Republic of modern India, and West Punjab went to Islamic Pakistan.
Provincial symbols of East Punjab
References |
Rajasthan (Sindhi:راجستان) (Awadhi:राजस्थान) or the former : Rajputana is a state in northwestern India. It is the largest state of India in terms of land area; 132,150 mi² or 342,269 km². It is bigger than the Republic of the Congo but smaller than Germany. In traditional India geography it falls under the North Indian zone. The Thar Desert covers most parts of the state. The capital of the state is city of Jaipur.
Before Indian independence the area of Rajasthan was known as Rajputana; it consisted of many states of varying sizes ruled by Rajput princes.
Provincial symbols of Rajasthan |
Tripura () () is a state in Northeast India. It covers an area of .It is the 3rd smallest state of India. It is bigger than Lebanon but smaller than Kosovo. The capital city is Agartala.
Political history
It is a Disputed Territory claimed as Chittagonian Plains by Bangladesh. Bangladesh says that as Tripura was an Independent Kingdom and never part of British India, the Republic of India had no right to annex the country after the death of its last King.
Provincial symbols of Tripura
References
Tripura |
Uttarakhand (2000-2006: Uttaranchal); (Sanskrit:उत्तरखन्द्), is a state in northern India. The state had 8,479,562 people as of the 2001 census. It covers an area of . It is bigger than Bosnia and Herzegovina, but smaller than Croatia, although the border with China is still disputed. The land contains high mountains. In traditional Indian geography, it falls within the North Indian zone.
Provincial symbols of Uttarakhand |
Uttar Pradesh (, ) is a state in northern India. For short, people call it UP. Lucknow is the capital city of UP.
The population of the state is 199,581,477 (census 2011). Uttar Pradesh has more people than any other state of India. It covers an area of 93,933 mi² (243,286 km²). It is bigger than the United Kingdom but smaller than Guinea. In traditional Indian geography it falls under the North Indian zone.
Geography
Uttar Pradesh has a long border with Nepal to the north. Next to it are also the Indian states of Uttarakhand, Himachal Pradesh, Haryana, Delhi, Rajasthan, Madhya Pradesh, Chhattisgarh, Jharkhand and Bihar. There are two geographical main regions:-
The larger Gangetic Plain in the north: it includes the Ganga-Yamuna Doab; the Ghaghra plains; the Ganga plains and the Terai. It has highly fertile soils and flat topography. There are also many ponds, lakes and rivers.
The smaller Vindhya Range and plateau region in the south. There are hills, plains, valleys and plateau. It is harder to get water.
Divisions of Uttar Pradesh
Agra Division
Aligarh Division
Allahabad Division
Azamgarh Division
Bareilly Division
Basti Division
Chitrakoot (Dham) Division
Devipatan Division
Faizabad Division
Gorakhpur Division
Jhansi Division
Kanpur Division
Lucknow Division
Meerut Division
Mirzapur Division
Muradabad Division
Saharanpur Division
Varanasi Division
Climate
The climate of Uttar Pradesh is mostly subtropical. However weather conditions change a lot depending on where one lives and the season.
Temperature: The average temperatures vary from 12.5–17.5°C (54.5–63.5°F) in January to 27.5–32.5°C (81.5–90.5°F) in May and June. The highest temperature recorded in the State was 49.9°C (121.8°F). It was at Gonda on May 8, 1958.
Rainfall: Rainfall is between 1,000 and 2,000 mm (40–80 inches) in the east and between 600 and 1,000 mm (24–40 inches) in the west. Most of the rain is due to the southwest monsoon. It lasts from June to September. Consequently, floods are a problem during those seasons. They badly damage crops and property.
Droughts: They occur when the monsoon does not come in the usual season. It leads to crop failure.
Snowfall: In the Himalayan region of the State it usually snows from 3 to 5 metres (10 to15 feet) between December and March.
Transportation
Airways: The state has four important airports and 23 air strips. They are in Agra, Kanpur, Lucknow and Varanasi. Lucknow is the biggest and most important airport of the state.
Railways: Almost all the major cities and even some smaller cities are linked. The state has the largest railway network in the country. Its total length is 8,546 km (2006). It has the sixth largest railway density.
Roadways: The state has the largest road network in the country. The biggest is Maharashtra. There are 31 National Highways (NH). In total they are of 4,942 km (8.5% of total NH length in India). It has the seventh highest road density in the India (1,027 km per 1000 km2 in 2002). It also has the largest surfaced urban road network in the country (50,721 km, as on 2002). Cities of Kanpur, Lucknow, Bareilly, Allahabad, Varanasi, Jhansi, Gorakhpur, Noida, Ghaziabad, Meerut, Mathura, Agra and Ghazipur are connected to many National Highways.
Waterways: The river Ganges - from Allahabad (Uttar Pradesh) to Haldia (West Bengal) - has been declared as National Waterway (NW)-I and 600 km of the total NW-I lies in Uttar Pradesh.
Provincial symbols of Uttar Pradesh |
West Bengal () is a state in India. It is in the eastern part of the country. West Bengal is the fourth most populous state in India. It is also the seventh most populous sub-national entity in the world. West Bengal is the sixth largest contributor to India's GDP.
Both West Bengal and Bangladesh are parts of historical and geographic region of Bengal. Kolkata is the capital city of West Bengal. In 2001, 80,221,171 people lived in West Bengal. With an area of , it is bigger than Serbia but smaller than Jordan. In traditional Indian geography it falls under the East Indian zone.
West Bengal has a tropical climate, so it is very hot and humid in summer and cool in winter. The people who live here are called Bengalis. Bengalis also live in Bangladesh. Bangladesh is a country to the east of West Bengal
History
All of India was once ruled by the British Empire. The Indians wanted freedom, but the Hindus and the Muslims of India always argued. So it was decided to divide the country into two parts—one part for Muslims and the other part for Hindus. In 1947 Bengal, which was a province of India, was divided into West Bengal and East Bengal,which is now called Bangladesh. West Bengal went to India, and East Bengal went to Pakistan and was called East Pakistan. In 1971, Bangladesh became independent, as a result of the Bangladesh Liberation War.
Famous people from West Bengal include:
Swami Vivekananda
Rabindranath Tagore
Satyendranath Bose
Surendranath Banerjee
Jagadish Chandra Bose
Vidyasagar
Shibdas Bhaburi
Khudiram Bose
Shyama Prasad Mukherjee
Dr. Kadambini Ganguly
Kishore Kumar
Satyajit Ray
Ritwik Ghatak
Pradeep Kumar Banerjee
Victor Banerjee
Kishore Kumar Ganguly
Biswajit Chatterjee
Bappi Lahiri
Michael Madhusudhan Dutta
Rahul Dev Burman
Sourav Ganguly
Pranab Mukherjee
Uttam Kumar
Suchitra Sen
Sushmita Sen
Shreya Ghosal
Arijit Singh
Mithun chakravarti
Provincial symbols of Bengal (west)
References |
Szczecin () is a large city in Poland in West Pomeranian Voivodeship. As of 2005, 411,119 people live there. The city is on the river Odra (), near the border to Germany. It is one of the largest sea ports on the Baltic. It is the historical capital of the German province of Pomerania. Szczecin has got one of the biggest harbours on the Baltic Sea.
Szczecin borders with Police, a district town at the Oder River.
Sister cities
References
Cities in Poland |
A metropolitan area is a city and its surrounding suburbs. The word "metropolitan" comes from two Greek language words meaning "mother" and "city". A metropolitan area may be much larger than its inner city, and its suburbs may be smaller towns and villages which are now connected to the larger city as it has grown. The biggest such metropolitan area is that of Tokyo. 8.5 million people live in Tokyo itself, 36.5 million live in the metropolitan area.
A metropolitan area is a large urban area. The inner city may look little different from the surrounding area of buildings and lights. The entire built-up area is the metropolitan area. The inner city may be near the middle, or to one side. Some urban areas have more than one inner city.
Some places, such as in Australia, have metropolitan government. The entire metropolitan area is included as a part of the city, and the population of the suburban area is considered to be part of the city's population.
Sydney, for example, has a population of approx. 4.5 million people, which includes the population of the suburbs, although there are some places which are part of the Greater Sydney Area, whose population does not count toward the population of Sydney.
References
Political subdivisions |
Marathi () is the language spoken in Maharashtra, India. It is also Maharashtra's official language. The written script is Devanāgarī.
People living in Maharashtra and parts of neighboring states of Gujarat, Madhya Pradesh, Goa, Karnataka, Chattisgarh and Andhra Pradesh, union-territories of Daman-diu and Dadra Nagar Haveli speak Marathi.
References
Other websites
Marathi News
MarathiMati.net - Marathi Language Web Portal
Indo-Aryan languages
Languages of India |
Gujarati is an Indo-Aryan language. It is spoken in Gujarat, India and also in neighbouring Pakistan. There are millions of Gujaratis who speak it as their first language. Gujarati is the 20th most common language in the United States of America.
References
Indo-Aryan languages
Languages of Pakistan
Languages of India |
Punjabi is an Indo-Aryan language. It is the first language of about 130 million people, and is the 10th most spoken language in the world. Most of the people who speak this language live in the Punjab region of Pakistan and India. It is also spoken in Haryana, India Himachal Pradesh, India and Delhi, India, uttarpradesh rajasthan, Bihar, Jammu amd Kashmir and other states as well . It is spoken by the majority of the population of Pakistan.
Punjabi developed from the ancient language of Prakrit developed simultaneously with Sanskrit.
Punjabi is written in two different scripts, called Gurmukhī and Shahmukhī. Punjabi is the main language spoken by the Sikhs. Most parts of the Guru Granth Sahib use the Punjabi language written in Gurmukhī, though Punjabi is not the only language used in Sikh scriptures. The Janamsakhis, stories on the life and legend of Guru Nanak (1469–1539), are
Aryan
Dialects
Punjabi has many dialects. The dialects are similar enough to each other that speakers can understand most of the dialects that are related to theirs. In India, the main dialects of Punjabi are: Majhi, Doabi, Malwi and Pwadhi. In Pakistan, the main dialects are Majhi, "Shahpuri", and "Jhangvi".
Majhi is Punjabi's standard dialect because it forms the standard for writing in Punjabi. It is spoken in the centre of Punjab, including the districts of Lahore, Sheikhupura, Kasur, Okara, Nankana Sahib, Faisalabad, Gujranwala, Sialkot, Narowal, Gujrat, Pakpattan, Hafizabad and Mandi Bahauddin. In India it is spoken in Amritsar, Tarn Taran Sahib and Gurdaspur districts.
Other dialects of Punjabi include Pahari, Rachnavi, Chenavari, Chhachi, Jandali, Ghebi. The Saraiki, spoken in southern Punjab, and Dogri, spoken in Kashmir, are closely related to Punjabi. The relation of several dialects to languages other than Punjabi creates problems in assigning them to one or another "language".
Distribution
Over 93% of people who speak Punjabi as their first language live in Pakistan and India. It is the most widely spoken native language in Pakistan. It is spoken as a first language by over 44% of Pakistanis. There were 76 million Punjabi speakers in Pakistan in 2008. In India, Punjabi is spoken as a native language by 3% of the population. This was about 33 million in 2011. It is the official language of the Indian states of Punjab and Haryana.
Punjabi is also spoken as a minority language in several other countries where large numbers of Punjabis have emigrated.In the United Kingdom, it is the second-most-commonly used language. In Canada, it is the fourth-most-spoken language. There were 2.2 million Punjabi speakers in the US in 2017. and 1.3 million in the UK in 2000.
Phonology
Writing system
There are three ways to write Punjabi: Gurmukhī, Shahmukhī, and Devanāgarī. In the Punjab province of Pakistan, the script that is most used is Shahmukhī. The Majhi dialect is the written standard for Punjabi in both parts of Punjab.
References
More reading
Bhatia, Tej (1993 and 2010) Punjabi: a cognitive-descriptive grammar. London: Routledge. Series: Descriptive grammars.
Singh, Maya (1895) The Panjabi dictionary. Lahore: Munshi Gulab Singh & Sons.
Ethnologue: Languages of India and Pakistan
Languages of India
Languages of Pakistan |
Sikhism is a religion originally from India .It is one of the 5 Dharmic faiths or Indic Faiths which means it was originated in Indian Subcontinent and whose followers are called "Sikhs". The word Sikh means student or discipline. Their holy book is the Adi Guru Granth Sahib Ji.
It is one of the 5 Dharmic or Indic Faith's of India with Jainism, Buddhism, Sikhism, Hinduism.
Many sources call Sikhism a monotheistic religion, According to Eleanor Nesbitt, English renderings of Sikhism as a monotheistic religion "tend misleadingly to reinforce a Semitic understanding of monotheism, rather than Guru Nanak's mystical awareness of the one that is expressed through the many. However, what is not in doubt is the emphasis on 'one'".
An estimated 180 million people are followers of Sikhism, which then makes it the fifth largest organized religion in the world just after Christianity, Islam, Hinduism and Buddhism A popular place where this religion is practiced is in South Asia. Sikhs are usually identified by the Turban (which Sikhs call a Dastaar or Pagri), distinctive headgear which could be worn by both men and women. Sikhs arrived in North America, South Asia and in 5th June 1897 and played a pivotal role in the opening of the West and construction of the Panama Canal.
Sikhism was brought to the world around 1469 by Guru Nanak Dev, the first of the "Ten Gurus". Guru Nanak brought the Word of God to manifest upon Earth. Through his Hymns and Prayers (Shabads), he inspired and uplifted humankind to live a life of truth, righteousness and spirituality. These Hymns and Prayers were compiled into the Siri Guru Granth Sahib. Unique amongst the world's major religious scriptures, while compiling the Guru Granth Sahib, the Sikh Gurus incorporated not only their own writings, but also included the writings of other contemporary saints from Hinduism and Islam (including saints belonging to the lowest strata of untouchables in the Hindu Caste System), who believed in the unity of God and denounced superstition and caste. Further, the composition and compilation of the Guru Granth Sahib was performed by the Sikh Gurus themselves, rather than being performed by their adherents and followers.
In 1699, Guru Gobind Singh, the Tenth Guru, established the Khalsa and gave Sikhs a distinct identity and reinforced principles taught by all Gurus. This celebration took place on Vaisakhi and is commemorated each year. One of the most important ceremonies established by Guru Gobind Singh on that day is Khande di Pahul baptism ceremony, where Sikhs are initiated into the Khalsa and are required to keep the 5 Ks, kakkars or kakke which are articles of faith. Guru Granth Sahib was bestowed the Guruship by the last of the human form Sikh Gurus, Guru Gobind Singh Ji in 1708. Before passing away, Guru Gobind Singh Ji decreed that the Sikhs were to regard the Granth Sahib as their next and everlasting Guru. Guru Ji said – “Sab Sikhan ko hukam hai Guru Manyo Granth” meaning “All Sikhs are commanded to take the Granth as Guru”. So today, if asked, the Sikhs will tell you that they have a total of 11 Gurus. (10 Gurus in human form, and the eternal shabad Guru, the Siri Guru Granth Sahib).
Beliefs
Guru Granth Sahib is not just a holy book for Sikhs, it is respected and treated as a living being as it is officially The Eternal Guru (Teachers). Shri Guru Granth Sahib is not written by one human but by saints from all across societies and religions. It is a universal teacher for all religions giving the message of one God and respect to all humans of every religion.
Some basic beliefs
There is nothing that is beyond or outside the one God. So, therefore there is nothing being created or destroyed, as the creation and destruction are still only part of the one.
The goal of life is to focus on being at one with God. This is attainable by meditation, prayer, and being in the company of others who share a similar goal.
God
Sikhism teaches that God lasts forever, cannot be seen, and has no body. Therefore, God has no gender. It is taught that God created the universe and keeps it running. God is considered to be infinite, Alpha and Omega, no beginning and no end. Sikhs worship God, and meditate on God’s name through intense (passionate) repetition. They believe everything is a part of God and God is a part of everything. Good, bad, neutral are not applicable to God and are meant only for human beings, as Sikh philosophy indicates that human beings are born innately good. Since god created the world he could destroy it whenever he wants.
Salvation
Followers are all trying to reach salvation, meaning they are trying to break the process of rebirth and become one with God. The thing that is keeping people from reaching union is bad karma. Bad karma is taught to be caused by pride, anger, greed, attachment and lust. Sikhs try to stay away from these things. Sikhs also believe that a piece of God resides within everything in the world. Once an individual discovers the God within and stops searching else then can he reach salvation.
Temples
A Sikh temple is called a Gurdwara (meaning "the house of Guru"). It is the place of worship in the Sikh religion. Birth, death, baptism and marriage ceremonies are held in the temple. There are four doors for all religions. When a person enters the temple, their head must be covered. There are no chairs in the temple so people sit on the floor.
The temple also serves as a kitchen. The kitchen is where festival food is donated, prepared and cooked by volunteers. All the food that has been made there is shared with all the community who visit the temple on that day. The meal is vegetarian and is called the Langar.
The Golden Temple in Amritsar is the most famous temple in all of the Sikh faith. It is covered in gold.
In a Gurdwara, no special place or seat may be reserved or set aside for any dignitary, as all are considered equals. The service consists of singing of the liturgy, as well as the exposition of Sikh history, tradition, and theology. In traditional Indian society, people of high and low caste were rigidly segregated. To combat this social problem, the Sikh community kitchen, or langar, requires everyone to sit side by side and eat together, thereby teaching the concept of equality by shattering all barriers of caste and class. Every major city in the United States and Canada has Sikh gurdwaras and they are open to all Sikh people go to Gurdwara to worship God.
Vaisakhi
Vaisakhi is an important festival celebrated by Sikhs. Vaisakhi is also known as Basaki. It is the harvest festival in the Punjab region. Vaisakhi is celebrated on the first day of the Basak month, in the Sikh calendar.
Gurus and religious authority
The term guru comes from the Sanskrit gurū, which means teacher, guide, or mentor. The traditions and philosophy of Sikhism were made by ten gurus from 1469 to 1708. Each guru added to and reinforced the message taught by the previous one. This resulted in the creation of the Sikh religion.
And the eternal Guru is the Sri Guru Granth Sahib, which is a not just a book but contains the writings of each Guru.
In addition to the above, Sikhs also believe in fifteen bhagats or saints, including ones from other creeds, whose words and deeds have been adopted into Sikhism by the great ten Gurus. Most notable of these bhagats is the Punjabi Sufi saint, Hazrat Baba Farfood
Food Banks
Sikhs believe in equality therefore they have food banks to go and get food for free.
Extra facts
It is said that Sikhs have to give 10% of their earnings to charity.
Sikhs believe in equality therefore the are all equal in money. Nobody is poor and nobody is rich. There is a Sikh alphabet. Sikhism, religion and philosophy founded in the Punjab region of the Indian subcontinent in the late 15th century. The Sikhs call their faith Gurmat (Punjabi: “the Way of the Guru”). According to Sikh tradition, Sikhism was established by Guru Nanak (1469–1539) and subsequently led by a succession of nine other Gurus.
5 Ks
Khalsa is the military community of Sikhism. A Sikh must follow the 5 Ks:
Having unshorn/uncut hair. This is called a Kesh. Whether male or female, a person is required to keep their Kesh covered. People usually cover their Kesh with a turban, or a scarf (Chunni).
A wooden comb in their hair. This is called a Kanga. This symbolizes cleanliness which is an important part of Sikhism.
A steel bangle. This is for protection and physical reminder that a one is bound to the Guru. This is called a Kara. This is to show that God has no beginning and no end.
Cotton underwear that has to be always worn. This is called a Kachera. It is a reminder to stay away from lust and attachment.
A sword. This is worn to defend one's faith and protect the weak. This is called Kirpan. It is only to be used in self-defense. Many of these are now welded shut.
References
Other websites
Sikhs.org
Sikh Missionary Society (UK)—Non-profit organization dedicated to promoting the Sikh religion, culture and history
Religious Tolerance
BBC
Siknet
Sikhism
What is Sikhism
Sikh Wiki
Sikh Karsewa
English translations of sacred texts |
Kaveri is a river in south India. It flows from Karnataka to Tamil Nadu.
Rivers of Tamil Nadu |
Bhopal is the capital of Madhya Pradesh, India, and the second largest city of the state, after Indore. Bhopal is also called the City of Lakes. It is the headquarters of Bhopal District. It is in the central part of India.
The city is believed to have first been called Bhojpal, named after the King of Bhoj. According to this theory, it was later changed to Bhopal.
Bhopal has an average elevation of 499 metres (1637 ft).
Bhopal Disaster
In 1984 a poisoned gas was leaked from a private chemical factory at night when a worker was cleaning out a clogged pipe connected with a tank containing gas. The tank had 42 tons of methyl isocyanate (MIC) that was leaked at midnight and leaving more than 5,000 people and animals dead. Many people also became sick and they are still suffering from deadly diseases. This has been called as "World's worst industrial disaster".
References
Other websites |
A dialect is a form of a language spoken by a group of people. People who live in the same place may share a dialect; this is called a "regiolect". People who are similar in some other way, such as social class, may share a dialect.
There is no absolute difference between a dialect and a language. British English and American English are different standard dialects of English. They differ slightly in spelling, pronunciation, and vocabulary. However, they are "mutually intelligible", which means people who speak either variety understand the other.
Deciding if something is a language or a dialect is sometimes a political decision as a way to make minority groups assimilate or become part of a nation's larger culture. The linguist Max Weinreich once joked that "a language is a dialect with an army and a navy."
Examples
Japanese and the Okinawan language are related, as they are Japonic languages, but they are not mutually intelligible. When Japan took over Okinawa during the Meiji Era, the Japanese government called the Okinawan language a dialect of Japanese. This was used to forbid Okinawans from speaking Okinawan and to force them to Japanese.
Catalan and Galician used to be considered as dialects of Spanish but are now recognized as languages. They are about as near to Portuguese and to Occitan, respectively, as they are to Spanish.
Hindi and Urdu are called different languages today, but they used to be the same language, Hindustani. After Pakistan became separate from India, Hindustani became called Urdu in Pakistan and Hindi in India. However, speakers of both can understand each other if they are using everyday speech. The two languages use different writing systems, but writing systems are not an accurate way to decide if languages are related.
English is definitely a language, but it once was Anglo-Saxon, a dialect of Old Saxon.
Chinese is called a language, but has hundreds of dialects, such as Mandarin, Cantonese, Wu, and Hokkien. Many of them are not mutually intelligible.
In past times, travel was difficult and so dialects developed in quite small regions. In Britain, there were dialects in the different parts of the country, and traces can stiill be heard today. The Romance languages were dialects of Latin that separated in that way.
Differences in dialects can be:
words: people in England to church, but in Scotland, people go to kirk.
Pronunciation: the r of creatures is silent in most of England but is pronounced by most of the United States.
grammar: instead of I dived, a few people say I dove.
In India, there are scores of dialects of Hindi language like Rajasthani, Bhojpuri, Chhattisgarhi, Magadhi, Haryanvi and others. Moreover,people whose native language is Hindi, may or maynot treat it as their mother tongue.
Animal dialects
With certain kinds of birds, people have noticed that their singing is different in different geographical areas. They have called these variations dialects. Similar observations have been done with Orcas.
Language |
Thanjavur is a town in Tamil Nadu, India. It was the capital of earlier Chola Kingdom. It is called the Rice Bowl of Tamil Nadu. Cauvery river flows through Thanjavur.
Settlements in Tamil Nadu
Thanjavur district |
Lozi could mean:
The Lozi language
The Lozi people
Lozi (Homeland) (Bantustan) in South West Africa |
Oman, officially the Sultanate of Oman, is a foolish country
in the southwestern part of Asia, on the southeastern coast of the Arabian Peninsula. It borders the United Arab Emirates to the northwest, Saudi Arabia to the west, and Yemen to the southwest. The coast is formed by the Arabian Sea to the south and east, and the Gulf of Oman to the northeast. The capital is Muscat.
The country is a monarchy, ruled by a Sultan, and the people are called Omanis. Right now, the sultan is Haitham bin Tariq Al Said. For a long time, the British have supported the sultans of Oman. In the 1960s and 1970s, some Omanis started a revolution to overthrow the sultan and end oppression, but the sultan defeated them with the help of Great Britain.
Divisions
Since 28 October 2011, Oman is divided into Eleven Governorates (Muhafazah):
Ad Dakhiliyah Governorate
Ad Dhahirah North Governorate
Al Batinah North Governorate
Al Batinah South Governorate
Al Buraimi Governorate
Al Wusta Governorate
Ash Sharqiyah North Governorate
Ash Sharqiyah South Governorate
Dhofar Governorate
Muscat (Masqat) Governorate
Musandam Governorate
Below the governorates, Oman is divided into provinces.
Climate
Oman has a hot climate and very little rainfall. Annual rainfall in Muscat averages , falling mostly in January. Dhofar is subject to the southwest monsoon, and rainfall up to has been recorded in the rainy season from late June to October. While the mountain areas receive more rainfall, some parts of the coast, particularly near the island of Masirah, sometimes receive no rain at all within the course of a year. The climate generally is very hot, with temperatures reaching around (peak) in the hot season, from May to September.
Related pages
List of rivers of Oman
Oman at the Olympics
Oman national football team
References
Current monarchies
Members of the Organisation of Islamic Cooperation
Ibadi kingdoms
Ibadism |
In 1951, the United Nations (UN) law called Convention Relating to the Status of Refugees, said a refugee was a person who is forced to leave their country due to natural disasters or war and conflict
owing to a well-founded fear of being persecuted for reasons of race, religion, nationality, membership of a particular social group, or political opinion, is outside the country of their nationality, and is unable to or, owing to such fear, is unwilling to avail him/herself of the protection of that country.
In 1967 the Conventions’ 1967 protocol and by regional conventions in Africa and Latin America to include persons who had fled war and violence in their country. A person who is seeking to be recognized as a refugee is an asylum seeker. In the United States a recognized asylum seeker is known as an asylee.
A refugee is a person who has to leave his or her country. This can be because of different reasons:
It is no longer safe to stay, there might be a natural disaster such as flood or famine, war, or civil unrest
There might be persecutions going on.
The person is unable to sustain himself or herself economically.
The person might have been expelled
The person might have to leave for religious reasons
References
Other page
Political asylum
Forced migration |
Copperbelt is a province in the northern part of Zambia. It is named after the copper reserves. It has an area of 31,328 km2. It occupies the upper portion of the Kafue river basin on the central plateau of southern Africa, 900 to 1,500 m above sea level.
It is one of the Zambia's ten provinces and the hub of the country.
Sources
Provinces of Zambia |
Levy Patrick Mwanawasa (September 3, 1948 – August 19, 2008) was a Zambian politician. He was the President of Zambia from January 2002 to his death.
References
1948 births
2008 deaths
Presidents of Zambia
Vice-Presidents of Zambia |
The Cherokee (ah-ni-yv-wi-ya in Cherokee language) are Native Americans who at the time of European contact in the 16th century lived in the area that is now called the eastern and southeastern United States before most were forcefully moved to the Ozark hills. They were one of the tribes referred to as the Five Civilized Tribes.
Cherokee people did not live in tepees. They lived in houses made from wood. In the 19th century, a man named Sequoyah introduced a form of writing the Cherokee language. For this, he was awarded a medal.
The Cherokee tribe had two chiefs, a red and white chief. When the tribe was at war, the red chief would lead, and when there was peace within the tribe, the white chief would lead. Chief John Ross was the leader of the Cherokee tribe from 1818 until 1867. He lived in Georgia before being forced to move to the place now called Oklahoma.
There are three Cherokee tribes recognized by the U.S. government:
Cherokee Nation in Oklahoma.
United Keetoowah Band of Cherokee Indians in Oklahoma.
Eastern Band of Cherokee Indians in North Carolina.
References |
A soup is a kind of food. People make soups by boiling things in water. Then they put the things they boiled into a bowl and eat them. Vegetables are in most soups. You can also put meat in soups. Soups that are thicker than normal, with more meat or vegetables, are stews. The liquid in soup is broth.
Traditionally, soups are classified into two main groups: clear soups and thick soups. The traditional French types of clear soups are bouillon and consommé. Thick soups are classified by the type of thickening agent used. Purées are vegetable soups thickened with starch. Bisques are made from puréed shellfish or vegetables thickened with cream. Cream soups may be thickened with béchamel sauce; and veloutés are thickened with eggs, butter, and cream. Other ingredients commonly used to thicken soups and broths include egg, rice, lentils, flour, and grains. Many popular soups also include carrots and potatoes.
Related pages
List of soups
Basic English 850 words |
Events and trends
Masaccio and Masolino paint the Brancacci Chapel, in Florence, Italy.
Brunelleschi designs the church of Church of San Lorenzo, Florence.
Joan of Arc leads the army of France.
May 21: Treaty of Troyes With the Burgundian faction dominant in France, King Charles VI of France acknowledges Henry V of England as his heir, and as virtual ruler of most of France
June 2: Catherine of Valois marries King Henry V of England
September 1: a 9.4 MS-strong earthquake shakes Chile's Atacama Region causing tsunamis in Chile as well as Hawaii and Japan.
References |
Hyderabad (pronounced ( )) is the largest capital of the state of Telangana. At over 12.2 million, it has the largest population of any city in the state Hyderabad is an A-1 city under the terms of development priorities. It is also known as city of pearls or city of Nizams. The people of Hyderabad are called Hyderabadis.
Hyderabad was founded in 1591 AD by Sultan Muhammad Quli Qutb Shah on the banks of river Musi. It was later ruled by the Mughal governor Nizam Asaf Jah I who then founded the Asaf Jahi Dynasty (Also known as The Nizams). There were a total of 10 Nizams with the last one being Osman Ali Khan, Asaf Jah VII.
The city is home to the Ramoji Film City which spans an area of over . The movieindustry here is called The Hyderabad Deccan Urdu film industry (also known as Deccanwood).
History
Archaeologists have found Iron Age sites in Hyderabad that are 2,500 years old. These sites have been found near Haythnagar and Ramoji Film City, and have burials and tools. The Qutub Shahi kings ruled Hyderabad till 1687 when the city was taken over by the Mughals. Muhammad Quli Qutub Shah was a Qutub Shahi ruler who ordered the construction of the Charminar as a mosque. Nawab Abdul Hassan Shah who is popularly known as Tanisha was the last Qutub Shahi ruler of Hyderabad before Aurangzeb captured it in 1687. Asaf Jah was declared the governor of Hyderabad by Aurangzeb. This is how the Asaf Jahi Dynasty began which ruled Hyderabad till 1948.
Hyderabad became a princely state in 1947 after collaboration with India. But soon the Nizam had to sign an Instrument of Accession to the Union of India so that Hyderabad becomes a part of India. On 1 November 1956, the province of Hyderabad was divided into Karnataka, Maharashtra and Andhra Pradesh on the basis of language. So, Hyderabad came into the Telugu speaking community and thus became the capital of Andhra Pradesh. The state of Telangana was formed on 2 June 2014 and separated from Andhra Pradesh retaining Hyderabad as it's capital.
The city has now developed in fields of IT with four IT colleges including JNTU (Jawaharlal Nehru's Technological University ). The rise of International Airport and real estate has a major impact on the development of Hyderabad.
Geography
Hyderabad is situated at the Deccan Plateau, 500 meters above the sea level and most of the area is rocky. Paddy is the main crop grown and other crops include Bengal gram, groundnut, sugar cane and sunflower. Hyderabad was found on the banks of Musi river in 1591. Today that area is known as old city where Mecca Masjid and Hussain Sagar Lake exist. The area has many official buildings and that area is very old. From the recent time, Hyderabad has been merged with Secunderabad. This has led a large, united and populous city with many villages surrounding it.
Climate
Hyderabad has a hot, wet and dry climate. The monsoon or rainy season is from late June until late October. On average, 32 inches of rain falls on the city each year. The highest temperature ever recorded was 51.5 °C (113.9 °F) on 2 June 1966. The lowest recorded temperature was 1.1 °C (43 °F) on 8 January 1946. It is cooler in the evenings and mornings because the city is high above sea level.
Population
The city has a population of over four million. Hindus form the majority while Muslims are 40% of the population. The Muslim community of Hyderabad is largest in Telangana. Muslims are mainly located in and around the old city. Christians are small in number in the city. Famous churches include those around Abids and Secunderabad like St. Joseph's Cathedral.
Culture
Architecture
Charminar is actually founded as a Mosque and later by archaeological department changed into a monument. Charminar has long been the icon of Hyderabad. The name means "Four minarets". The towers rise to a height of 48.7 m above the ground. There is a mosque with 45 prayer spaces in the upper storeys of the building.
The Golconda Fort was the capital of the Qutb Shahi kingdom. In the 16th century, it was the center of a busy diamond trade. The outer wall of the fort is 10 km around.
Mecca Masjid is one of the oldest mosques in the city. Muhammed Quli Qutub Shah began building it in 1617. Mughal emperor Aurangzeb finished the building in 1694. The mosque is made of granite. The main hall of the mosque is 75 feet high, 220 feet wide and 180 feet long. Ten thousand worshippers can fit inside at the same time. The entrance arches are made of single slabs of granite. It is believed that Muhammed Quli had bricks made from earth brought from Mecca. He used them the central arch of the mosque. This explains the name of the mosque.
The Chowmahalla Palace was Asaf Jahi dynasty capital. The Nizam entertained official guests and royal visitors here.
Nawab Viqar al-Umra built Falaknuma Palace in 1872. The palace includes sculptures by artists from Florence.
Language
Telugu, Urdu and Hindi are mainly spoken in Hyderabad. English is also spoken among the educated people. The Telugu varies across the state but the language remains the same.
Related pages
Hyderabad State
References
Former good articles |
Manmohan Singh (Punjabi:منموہن سنگھ/ਮਨਮੋਹਨ ਸਿੰਘ;Hindi:मनमोहन सिंह; born 26 September 1932) was the 13th Prime Minister of India. A famous economist, he is the Prime Minister since Jawaharlal Nehru to return to power after completing a full five-year term, and the first Sikh to hold the office.
Singh was born on 26 September 1932 in Gah, Punjab, British India, into a Sikh family. He studied at Panjab University, Chandigarh, at St John's College, Cambridge, and at Nuffield College, Oxford. Singh has been married to Gursharan Kaur since 1958.
References
Other websites
Prime Minister Manmohan Singh official website
Profile & Curriculum Vitae
List of current Union Ministers
Indian economists
Prime Ministers of India
1932 births
Indian National Congress politicians
Living people |
Indira Gandhi (19 November 1917 – 31 October 1984) was an Indian politician. She was Prime Minister of India from 1966 to 1977. She was the daughter of Jawaharlal Nehru, who was also Prime Minister of India. Her son, Rajiv Gandhi, later became Prime Minister of India. She married Feroze Gandhi, who was not related to the civil rights leader, Mahatma Gandhi.
Indira Gandhi was the first woman prime minister of India. Gandhi was assassinated in 1984 at the age of 66. In 1938, Indira joined the Indian National Congress Party. After the death of Lal Bahadur Shastri in 1966, Indira Gandhi served as prime minister until India held the next election. She won that election in 1967 and became one of the first women elected to lead a democracy.
Indira Gandhi was Prime Minister of India twice. She served the first time between 1966 and 1977 and the second time between 1980 and 1984. She also studied at the University of Oxford.
References
Other websites
Official website of Indira Gandhi
Indira's timeline
Indira's Milestone
1917 births
1984 deaths
Alumni of the University of Oxford
Indian National Congress politicians
Assassinated people
Government ministers
Indian Hindus
Indian murder victims
Murders by firearm
People murdered in India
Prime Ministers of India
Women politicians |
The Nintendo 64 (commonly abbreviated N64) was the third home video game console released by Nintendo. It was first released in Japan in June 1996 and was meant to compete against the Sony PlayStation and the Sega Saturn. The Nintendo 64 was Nintendo's first console made for 3D graphics. It uses plastic cartridges instead of CDs or disks, making load times faster. Because of this, the games cost more to make. The controller for the Nintendo 64 was shaped like an "M" and had 10 buttons and a joystick. Sony used the N64 joystick design to make their DualShock PlayStation controller. Out of the box, the Nintendo 64 had 4 MB of RAM, and it could be upgraded to 8 MB with the expansion pak.
Because making games for the Nintendo 64 was more expensive than making games for the PlayStation, many video game companies chose develop for the Playstation instead. Nintendo also did not like games that had a lot of blood or violence in them. Companies who made these kinds of games made them for the PlayStation instead. However, some game makers did make some violent games for the Nintendo 64, such as Rare's first-person shooter Perfect Dark. Nintendo lost its lead over Sega and Sony because of these two things. Production for the system ceased in Japan in 2002 and in 2003 worldwide.
Reception
In 2015, IGN named the Nintendo 64 the ninth-greatest video game console of all time.
Sales
5.54 million Nintendo 64 units were sold in Japan, 20.63 million in the Americas, and 6.75 million in other regions, a total of 32.93 million units.
Most notable games
Donkey Kong 64
GoldenEye 007
Kirby 64: The Crystal Shards
Mario Kart 64
Pokémon Stadium
Star Fox 64
Super Mario 64
Super Smash Bros.
The Legend of Zelda: Majora's MaskThe Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of TimeThe New TetrisDiddy Kong RacingWave Race 64Banjo KazooieBanjo TooieF-Zero X''
References
Nintendo video game consoles |
Phobos (Greek for "fear", is the root word of phobia) is one of the sons of Ares and Aphrodite in Greek mythology and the twin brother of Deimos. He is known as the god of fear, panic, flight and battlefield rout. He went with his father into battle, driving his chariot and spreading fear in his path. As a son of Aphrodite, goddess of love, each twin also represented the fear of loss.
The larger and innermost of Mars' two moons was named after him, and the other was named after Deimos.
Greek gods and goddesses |
Deimos (; - "dread" or "terror") is the god of terror in Greek mythology. He is one of the sons of Ares and Aphrodite. He is the twin brother of Phobos, god of fear. He and his brother would often go with their father as he rode into battle in his chariot. Deimos, the smaller of Mars' two moons, is named after him.
Greek gods and goddesses |
Krakatoa (Indonesian name: Krakatau) is an active volcano in the Sunda Strait, Indonesia. There are many different ways the name has been spelled. The volcano has erupted repeatedly in known history. The best known of these events occurred in late August 1883.
On 22 December 2018 the central cone collapsed and caused a tsunami in the Sunda Strait. More than 400 people were killed.
The 1883 eruption
The 1883 eruption ejected more than six cubic miles (25 cubic kilometers) of rock, ash, and pumice, and made the loudest sound ever recorded by human beings. The sound was heard as far away as Perth in Australia (3,500 km; 2,200 miles), and the island of Rodrigues near Mauritius (4,800 km; 3,000 miles). Many thousands of people were killed and injured by the eruption, mostly in the tsunami (giant wave) which followed the explosion.
The pressure wave from the final explosion was recorded on barographs around the world, which continued to register it up to 5 days after the explosion. The recordings show that the shock wave from the final explosion reverberated around the globe seven times.
The eruption destroyed two-thirds of what was then the island of Krakatoa. New eruptions at the volcano since 1927 have built a new island, called Anak Krakatau (child of Krakatoa).
Related pages
List of volcanos
Dormant volcano
Extinct volcano
References
Other websites
Cascades Volcano Observatory Krakatoa page
More information, including map showing location of Krakatoa in Indonesia
Volcanoes of Indonesia
Islands of Indonesia |
Goldfish (Carassius auratus) are a species of domesticated fish. Goldfish are in the carp family. They were domesticated in China during the Tang Dynasty. Goldfish can reach up to 59 cm in size, and 3 kg in weight. However, most goldfish grow to only half that size. In captivity, goldfish can live for up to 30 years. In the aquarium, however, most will die earlier. This is because the aquarium is too small. Goldfish need a lot of space so they have room to swim and so the water does not get dirty too fast.
Goldfish live best in temperatures between 10 degrees Celsius and 30 degrees Celsius.
It was once thought that goldfish have short memories, but scientists have proven that this is not true. In experiments, a goldfish was trained to kick a small ball under water. Another goldfish learned to swim through a maze.
There are many kinds of goldfish. The most common kind is golden-colored, but goldfish come in many different shapes and sizes. Many gold fish have fancy tails. Another common kind is called a black moor, which is black colored. Wild goldfish are called prussian carp and are silver-green in colour.
Health
Goldfish are very sensitive and should not be touched. This can hurt them and make them sick. They may also get other health problems. Their stomachs can fill with liquids (water). They can get sick because of bad bacteria. Some lose control of swimming because a special organ in their belly, called a swim bladder, gets sick and stops working. However, sick goldfishes can be cured with medicine. Pet shops or veterinarians can help goldfish get better when they are sick. One simple way to help a goldfish if it has indigestion is to feed it peas, as this will help their digestive tract work properly.
Nervous system
The most anterior parts of a fish's brain are the olfactory bulbs. These connect to the two lobes of the cerebrum by stalks. The cerebrum is involved with the sense of smell. It also seems to control behaviors such as taking care of the young and exploring the natural environment. The optic lobes process information from the eyes. The cerebellum coordinates body movements. The medulla controls internal organ functions and helps maintains balance.
Farther back in the brain is the spinal cord, which is the hollow dorsal nerve cord that chordates have. The spinal cord is protected by the vertebral column. Between each set of vertebrae, a pair of spinal nerves exits the cord and connects to the internal organs and muscles. Most fish have well designed sense organs. Chemoreceptors (chemical) are located all over the head and much of the body surface. Most fish have ears inside their heads, but they do not hear well. However, a series of pores connected to canals beneath the skin cover the head and the sides of their body. This system, called the lateral line system, detects movement.
Digestive system
Once food is in the goldfish’s mouth, it’s pushed to the back of the throat where a set of teeth grind and crush it. The ground down food passes down a tube called the oesophagus, which squeezes out excess water. The oesophagus is lined with taste buds and cells that produce mucus to keep things moving on. The oesophagus empties into an expandable section of the goldfish’s digestive which is not to be confused with the stomach. It is simply a buffer zone to hold excess food as needed. Just before this expanded section, chemicals from the gallbladder and pancreas are pumped in with the food. The ones from the gallbladder make up bile, which is used to break down fats; the ones from the pancreas contain enzymes that are used to break down proteins. All along the digestive tract are cells that secrete enzymes that act on carbohydrates, breaking them down into sugars. From the expanded section to the goldfish’s anus, lots of mucus is produced and as much useful material as possible is absorbed into the bloodstream to be used for energy, growth, protection and repair.
Respiratory system
Goldfish get their oxygen from water. As a fish swims, it gulps up water. The water which has oxygen goes through an opening in the fish’s throat that leads to the gills. Gills have many blood vessels within them. Oxygen moves from the water to the blood as the water flows over the gills. The blood vessels gather and store the oxygen that travels over the gills. At the same time, carbon dioxide moves out of the blood and into the water. Now, the water flows out of the slits beneath the gills. These gills are located under the operculum.
Circulatory system
The circulatory system of fish is responsible for transporting blood and nutrients throughout the body. Blood travels across the body through the network of blood vessels. Unlike humans, fish have single cycle circulation, where the oxygen-deprived blood comes to the heart, from where it is pumped to the gills and then circulated to the entire body. The circulatory system of fish consists of a heart, blood and blood vessels. The heart of a fish is a simple muscular structure that is located between the posterior gill arches. In most fish, the heart consists of an atrium, a ventricle, a sac-like thin walled structure known as sinus venosus and a tube, known as bulbus arteriosus. In spite of containing four parts, the heart of a fish is considered two-chambered. The blood contains plasma (the fluid portion of blood) and the blood cells. The red blood cells contain hemoglobin, a protein that facilitates the transport of oxygen to the entire body, while the white blood cells are an indispensable part of the immune system. The thrombocytes help in blood clotting. Blood is circulated throughout the body with the help of arteries and veins (blood vessels). The arteries are responsible for carrying oxygenated blood from the heart to the rest of the body, while the veins return deoxygenated blood from the different parts of the body to the heart.
Skeletal and muscular systems
The skeletal system of a goldfish is mainly to protect the goldfish, support its structure and leverage, and helps with its red blood cell production. A goldfish’s skeletal system is made of almost all small bones and cartilage and it barely has any big bones. The bones are made of almost all calcium. There are 3 main muscles in a goldfish’s muscular system, the tail and trunk muscles, the jaw muscles, and the fin muscles. In the tail and trunk muscles, there are myotomes which are muscles blocks and there are myosepta which are connective tissues that separate myotomes. The horizontal septum separates myotomes into two sections, ventral or dorsal. In the jaw muscles, the goldfish uses adductor muscles to close its jaw and abductor muscles to open its jaw. In a gold fish’s fin muscles, there are also adductor and abductor muscles. These muscles move a gold fish’s fins away from and close to its body. There are also erector muscles in the fins that help with the stability and flexibility of the fish’s fins.
Memory and intelligence
Goldfish have a memory-span of at least three months and can distinguish between different shapes, colors and sounds. With positive reinforcement, goldfish can be trained to recognize and treact to light signals of different colors or perform tricks. Fish learn to anticipate feedings provided they occur at around the same time every day.
Related pages
Koi
References
Pets
Teleosts
Freshwater fish
Aquarium fish |
Premature ejaculation (also known as PE) is a condition affecting many men. It is when during sexual intercourse (sex) the male cannot stop himself from ejaculating after starting sex. The usual time from starting sex until ejaculation is about 4 to 8 minutes.
Treatment exercises
The condition is usually curable, or at least treatable with exercises. (There are more exercises than these, however, these are the most common.)
Stimulation treatment
One exercise is to create an erection and begin to lose it, then stimulate it again. This exercise is best done alone at first and then with a partner. Thrusting should not be used with a partner until very near the end of treatment. This treatment may take several weeks to fully cure the problem if it is used properly.
Muscular treatment
Another treatment involves using the muscle which stops urine. To locate the muscle, simply begin urinating and stop quickly before emptying the bladder. Doing that will demonstrate how to use the muscle. Then whenever convenient use the muscle. You do not need to be urinating to use the muscle and it is suggested you are not. After a few weeks of both these treatments, the PE will become more like traditional ejaculation and after about one and a half to two and a half months, it should be absolutely normal.
Notes
Human sexuality |
A witch is a person who practices witchcraft or magic. Traditionally, the word “witch” was used as an accusation. Witches were accused of bewitching people, or casting spells to control them.
Today, followers of Wicca practice witchcraft and worship nature. Some call themselves witches. Note that the practicioners of Wicca are completely unrelated to the historical Witches, this article is about.
History
Most indigenous peoples throughout history have had some beliefs about spirits and believed that certain individuals could gain magical powers through herbs or spirits. However, these individuals were not called 'witches' until indigenous people had contact with western ideas. Spirits and people who interacted with them were not always viewed negatively in indigenous societies.
The Malleus Maleficarum
The Malleus Maleficarum, a book published in 1487, fueled panic over witchcraft. It was written by a German Catholic clergyman named Heinrich Kramer. The book was a witch-hunting manual that explained how to persecute witches. It suggested using torture to get accused witches to confess to witchcraft. It also encouraged burning “witches” at the stake.
The new technology of the printing press made it possible for Malleus Maleficarum to be mass produced. The book was printed 29 times before 1669 - more than any other book except the Bible. As a result, its ideas spread throughout Europe. These ideas were common in Europe for several centuries after the book was published.
The book says that three things are needed in order to create witchcraft: the witch’s evil intentions, the Devil’s help, and God’s permission.
Witch Hunts
Many women throughout Europe and in South America were killed by witch hunts. Historians debate how many women were killed. Because of poor record keeping, it is impossible to know exactly how many victims there were. Also, historians have different opinions about what regions and time frames should be included when estimating how many women were killed in witch hunts.
The entire persecuting legal system - "judges, ministers, priests, constables, jailers, judges, doctors, prickers, torturers, jurors, executioners" - were nearly all male. Meanwhile, the victims were overwhelmingly female. For this reason, some scholars call the witch hunts a "gynocide". In the documentary The Burning Times, Thea Jensen calls this period in history a "Women's Holocaust".
Modern understanding
In the 20th century, many people made a new attempt to understand witchcraft. Some say that witches were in fact wise women who were hunted down by the Catholic Church - mostly for their knowledge about how to treat certain diseases using herbs. Some followers of pagan religions like Wicca began to call themselves witches. This has led to a new understanding of what a “witch” really is.
Heather Marsh has tied the persecution of witches to the fight of church and industry to control "the power of life and death" at a time when industry needed more workers. She also argues the persecution of witches was a fight for centralized power over the peasant rebellions and the ownership of knowledge by medicine and science which forbade the earlier teaching or practices by women and indigenous cultures. She writes that the persecution of witches has colored misogyny since the 1400s.
Silvia Federici tied the witch hunts to a history of the female body in the transition to capitalism.
Witchcraft and accusations of witchcraft are still very common in some parts of West Africa.
Witch crimes in the Malleus Maleficarum
Control of procreation was a constant theme, as was medical knowledge:
Concerning Witches who copulate with Devils. Why is it that Women are chiefly addicted to Evil superstitions?
Whether Witches may work some Prestidigatory Illusion so that the Male Organ appears to be entirely removed and separate from the Body.
That Witches who are Midwives in Various Ways Kill the Child Conceived in the Womb, and Procure an Abortion; or if they do not this Offer New-born Children to Devils.
How Witches Impede and Prevent the Power of Procreation.
How, as it were, they Deprive Man of his Virile Member.
Of the Manner whereby they Change Men into the Shapes of Beasts.
Of the Method by which Devils through the Operations of Witches sometimes actually possess men.
Of the Method by which they can Inflict Every Sort of Infirmity, generally Ills of the Graver Kind.
Of the Way how in Particular they Afflict Men with Other Like Infirmities.
How Witch Midwives commit most Horrid Crimes when they either Kill Children or Offer them to Devils in most Accursed Wise.
Film
Hocus Pocus
The Wizard Of Oz
Famous people accused of witchcraft
1431: Joan of Arc. She was burned at the stake on 30 May.
1591: Elizabeth of Doberschütz. She was beheaded and burnt outside the gates of Stettin, on 17 December.
1594: Maria Holl (also known as The Witch of Nördlingen). She was one of the first women to withstand being tortured during her witch trial of 1593-1594. She was eventually cleared of the accusations, which led some people to doubt the righteousness of witch trials. Through her force, Holl rid the town of Nördlingen of their witch craze. She died in 1634, probably from the plague.
1612: The Samlesbury witches. In August of 1612, they were found not guilty in one of the most famous witch trials in English history. However, ten other people were found guilty and were hanged.
1635: Hester Jonas (also called The Witch of Neuss). She was beheaded and burnt on Christmas Eve in 1635, at about 64 years old. The complete proceedings of the trial are still available in Neuss.
1663: Anna Roleffes (better known as Tempel Anneke). She was one of the last witches to be executed in Braunschweig. She was beheaded on 30 December.
1680: Catherine Monvoisin, a lover of Louis XIV who was close to Marquise the Montespan. She delivered poisons and held black masses for payment. In 1680, she was burnt to death along with some other accused witches on the Place de la Grève in Paris.
1692: The witches accused during the Salem Witch Trials in Salem, Massachusetts. Today, Salem is called “the Witch City,” and historical sites related to the witch trials are tourist attractions.
1751: Anna Schnidenwind. She was one of the last women to be publicly executed for witchcraft in Germany. On 24 April, in Endingen am Kaiserstuhl, she was strangled to death, then burned.
1782: Anna Göldi (or Göldin). She was the last witch to be executed in Europe. Her execution happened in Glarus, Switzerland, in the summer of 1782.
References
Other websites
Some historical notes on the witch-craze from the historian Trevor Roper
Kabbalah On Witchcraft - A Jewish view (Audio) chabad.org
Jewish Encyclopedia: Witchcraft
Witchcraft in the Catholic Encyclopedia on (New Advent)
Witchcraft and Devil Lore in the Channel Islands, 1886, by John Linwood Pitts, from Project Gutenberg
A Treatise of Witchcraft, 1616, by Alexander Roberts, from Project Gutenberg
The Witches' Voice 1997-2007 The Witches' Voice Inc
Religion |
Events and trends
1210
Emperor Tsuchimikado ends his reign as Emperor of Japan
Emperor Juntoku begins to rule Japan
1212 Battle of Navas de Tolosa.
1214 July – Battle of Bouvines; Philip II of France defeats Otto IV of Germany
1215
Fourth Council of the Lateran
Otto IV deposed as King of Germany, replaced by Frederick II
Magna Carta adopted
Beijing captured by Mongols; the Yuan Dynasty in China begins this way. |
The West Bank is a piece of land in the Middle East. It touches the Dead Sea and the River Jordan. The landscape is mostly hills or desert. The weather in the summer is hot and dry. It is cooler and rainy in the winter.
Right now, the area is under the control of Israel. Some Israelis and other nations disagree on whose it really is.
Since 1990 there are talks between the Israeli government and the Palestinians about what will happen in the West Bank and the Gaza Strip in the future. Most people on the West Bank are Palestinians but there are also many Jewish settlers in settlements. There has been some controversy about these settlements.
The State of Palestine claims the West Bank with East Jerusalem included.
The West Bank is called Judea and Samaria Area by the Israeli government.
Related pages
Human rights in West Bank
LGBT rights in West Bank
Other websites
IMEMC
Jerusalem Post |
Jan Hus, or John Huss (c.1370 - 6 July 1415) was born in Husinec, Bohemia (now Czech Republic). He was a Bohemian religious thinker and reformer. He started a religious movement that was strongly influenced by the beliefs of British scholar, John Wycliffe.
Hus studied at the University of Prague. In about 1400, he became a Catholic priest, and was soon accepted a position of preaching in Czech, the language spoken in Bohemia. While preaching, he studied Wycliffe’s writings, and came to like them, especially because of how authentic and real they were.
In 1403, Hus asked the church to undo the ban on Wycliffe's writings, and translated them into Czech. The church, led by archbishop Zbynek Zajíc, had different beliefs. In 1410, Zajíc ordered that Hus’ writings be burned and Hus and his followers, the Hussites be forced out of the church. Hus was excommunicated in 1411, condemned by the Council of Constance, and burned at the stake on 6 July 1415, in Konstanz, Germany.
When Hus was killed his followers revolted and fought against the Catholics until they were defeated in 1431.
Hus' teachings
The (Catholic) Church is made of all those meant to be saved (ecclesia est universitas praedestinatorum). It is not made of the hierarchy of priests.
Christ is the head of the Church, not the Pope. It is therefore not necessary to obey the pope to be saved.
Many of his teachings were later taken up by Martin Luther.
References
1369 births
1415 deaths
Christian religious leaders
Czech people
Konstanz
Christianity of the Middle Ages
People executed by burning
Christian ministers
Roman Catholics |
Konstanz (English often Constance) is a university town with a population of around 80,000, on the shore of Lake Constance in the south-west corner of Germany, bordering Switzerland. The history of the city goes back to Ancient Rome. In the 15th century, the Council of Constance was held there. This ended the Western Schism. Jan Hus was burned as a heretic at the council.
References
Other websites
Konstanz (district) |
Panther can mean
a black panther or white panther, which is a name for a leopard or jaguar with black or white fur.
any animal which belongs to the genus Panthera (e.g. lion) or the subfamily Pantherinae.
in different regions different felines are also called panther: the leopard in Asia and Africa, the jaguar in South America, and the puma in North America (especially the ones that live in Florida, USA).
All these animals belong to the Felidae family. |
Instant messaging (often shortened to IM) is a way of two or more people to communicate over a network. When the sender sends a message, this message is sent to all the recipients in the group. People use messaging clients to send and receive messages. The type of message supported depends on the specific client, and network. Most of the time, it is text. In some cases, images or other types of media is supported.
Instant messaging services got many ideas from an older and still popular way to online chat named Internet Relay Chat (IRC). In early instant messaging programs, each letter appeared when it was typed and when letters were deleted to correct typos. These were also seen by the reader. This made it more like a telephone conversation than sending letters. In newer instant messaging programs, the other readers in the conversation generally only sees each line of text right after a new line is started. Most instant messaging programs have a way to set a status message. This works likes the message on a telephone answering machine. It shows whether or not people are online and want to chat.
Benefits
Instant messaging offers real-time communication and allows easy collaboration, which might be considered more akin to genuine conversation than email's "letter" format. In contrast to e-mail, the parties know whether the peer is available. Most systems allow the user to set an online status or away message so peers are notified when the user is available, busy, or away from the computer. On the other hand, people are not forced to reply immediately to incoming messages. For this reason, some people consider communication via instant messaging to be less intrusive than communication via phone. However, not all popular systems allow the sending of messages to people not currently logged on (offline messages), thus removing much of the difference between IM and email.
Instant messaging allows instantaneous communication between a number of parties simultaneously, by transmitting information quickly and efficiently, featuring immediate receipt of acknowledgment or reply. In certain cases IM involves additional features, which make it even more popular, i.e. to see the other party, e.g. by using ((web-cams)), or to talk directly for free over the internet.
It is possible to save a conversation to read later or look at again. Instant messages typically are may be logged in a local message history which closes the gap to the persistent nature of e-mails and facilitates quick exchange of information like URLs or document snippets (which can be unwieldy when communicated via telephone).
People with an auditory or speech disability
Instant messaging opens new methods of spontaneous communication for people that have an impairment in hearing, auditory processing, or speech. It is considered by many a powerful way to allow equal opportunities in communication, without the aid of special devices or services designed for users with hearing loss.
Friend-to-friend networks
Instant Messaging may be done in a Friend-to-friend network, in which each node connects to the friends on the friendslist. This allows to communicate to friends of friends and build chatrooms for instant messages with all friends on that network.
Business application
Instant messaging has proven to be similar to personal computers, e-mail, and the WWW, in that its adoption for use as a business communications medium was driven primarily by individual employees using consumer software at work, rather than by formal mandate or provisioning by corporate information technology departments. Tens of millions of the consumer IM accounts in use are being used for business purposes by employees of companies and other organizations.
In response to the demand for business-grade IM and the need to ensure security and legal compliance, a new type of instant messaging, called "Enterprise Instant Messaging" ("EIM") was created when Lotus Software launched Lotus Sametime in 1999. Microsoft followed suit shortly thereafter with Microsoft Exchange Instant Messaging, and later created a new platform called Microsoft Office Live Communications Server. Since then, both IBM Lotus and Microsoft have introduced federation between their EIM systems and some of the public IM networks thus employees may use a single interface to both their internal EIM system and their buddies on AOL, MSN, and Yahoo!. Current leading EIM platforms include IBM Lotus Sametime, Microsoft Office Live Communications Server, and Jabber XCP .
The adoption of IM across corporate networks outside of the control of IT organizations creates many risks and liabilities for companies who do not effectively manage and support IM use. Companies implement specialized IM archiving and security products and services like those from Secure Computing, Akonix, Surfcontrol, and ScanSafe to mitigate these risks and provide safe, secure, productive instant messaging capabilities to their employees.
Risks
Although instant messaging has many good things, it also has risks and liabilities, especially when used in workplaces. Among these are:
Security risks (e.g. IM used to infect computers with spyware, viruses, trojans, worms)
Compliance risks
Inappropriate use
Intellectual property leakage
Hackers' use of instant messaging networks to deliver malicious code has grown consistently from 2004 to the present, with the number of discrete attacks listed by the IM Security Center having grown 15% from 347 attacks in 2005 to 406 in 2006. Hackers use two methods of delivering malicious code through IM: delivery of virus, trojan, or spyware within an infected file, and the use of "socially engineered" text with a web address that entices the recipient to click on a URL that connects him or her to a website that then downloads malicious code. Viruses, worms, and trojans typically propagate by sending themselves rapidly through the infected user's buddy list. An effective attack using a "poison URL" may reach tens of thousands of people in minutes when each person's buddy list receives messages appearing to be from a trusted friend. The recipients click on the web address, and the entire cycle starts again. Infections may range from nuisance to criminal, and are becoming more sophisticated each year.
In addition to the malicious code threat, the use of instant messaging at work also creates a risk of non-compliance to laws and regulations governing the use of electronic communications in businesses. In the United States alone there are over 10,000 laws and regulations related to electronic messaging and records retention. The more well-known of these include the Sarbanes-Oxley Act, HIPAA, and SEC 17a-3. Recent changes to Federal Rules of Civil Procedure, effective December 1, 2006, create a new category for electronic records which may be requested during discovery (law) in legal proceedings. Most countries around the world also regulate the use of electronic messaging and electronic records retention in similar fashion to the United States. The most common regulations related to IM at work involve the need to produce archived business communications to satisfy government or judicial requests under law. Many instant messaging communications fall into the category of business communications that must be archived and retrievable.
Organizations of all types must protect themselves from the liability of their employees' inappropriate use of IM. The informal, immediate, and ostensibly anonymous nature of instant messaging makes it a candidate for abuse in the workplace. The topic of inappropriate IM use became front page news in October 2006 when Congressman Mark Foley resigned his seat after admitting sending offensive instant messages of a sexual nature to underage former House pages from his Congressional office PC. The Mark Foley Scandal led to media coverage and mainstream newspaper articles warning of the risks of inappropriate IM use in workplaces. In most countries, corporations have a legal responsibility to ensure harassment-free work environment for employees. The use of corporate-owned computers, networks, and software to harass an individual or spread inappropriate jokes or language creates a liability for not only the offender but also the employer. A survey by IM archiving and security provider Akonix Systems, Inc. in March 2007 showed that 31% of respondents had been harassed over IM at work. Companies now include instant messaging as an integral component of their policies on appropriate use of the World Wide Web, email, and other corporate assets.
Security and archiving
In the early 2000s, a new class of IT security provider emerged to provide remedies for the risks and liabilities faced by corporations who chose to use IM for business communications. The IM security providers created new products to be installed in corporate networks for the purpose of archiving, content-scanning, and security-scanning IM traffic moving in and out of the corporation. Similar to the e-mail filtering vendors, the IM security providers focus on the risks and liabilities described above.
With rapid adoption of IM in the workplace, demand for IM security products began to grow in the mid-2000s. By 2007, the preferred platform for the purchase of security software had become the "appliance", according to IDC, who estimate that by 2008, 80% of network security products will be delivered via an appliance.
Related pages
e-mail
IRC
References
Other websites
Instant Messenger Security - Best Practices
All About Instant Messengers
List of popular Mobile IM Clients
Web Messengers Handbook
Instant messaging software
Messaging |
AOL Inc. (previously America Online) is a U.S.-based online service provider and Internet service provider. It has been in business since 1985. Important services in the early years were online chat and online games. Most connections were dial-up. In 2001 AOL bought Time Warner. In 2009 after a spin-off from Time Warner they changed their name to AOL Inc. It was announced in May 2015 that Verizon Communications purchased AOL.
AOL Instant Messenger was a service which allowed users to communicate with any user currently online. AIM had millions of users worldwide. There were also other computer programs that could be used to talk with your AIM account, for example Trillian, Pidgin, Digsby, and AIM+. AIM was shut down on December 15, 2017.
Other AOL products are AOL Spyware Protection, AOL Safety and Security Center, ICQ, AOl Computer Check-Up, AOL Explorer, AOL TopSpeed, AOL Dialer, AOL One-Click Fixes and AOL Openride.
References
Other websites
AOL US and headquarters
AOL in other countries
Internet service providers
1985 establishments in the United States |
A mailman or mail carrier or postman is a person who brings people their postal mail. Normally he works for the post office of the respective country. Of course, there are also women doing this job. They are called mailwomen. For a layman, this occupation is called "letter carriers".
Fictional mailmen are traditionally shown as acting afraid of dogs, even to the point of shock.
Related pages
Despatch rider
Persian couriers
Occupations
Postal service |
The Chinese postman problem is a mathematical problem of graph theory. It is also known as route inspection problem. Suppose there is a mailman who needs to deliver mail to a certain neighbourhood. The mailman is unwilling to walk far, so he wants to find the shortest route through the neighbourhood, that meets the following criteria:
It is a closed circuit (it ends at the same point it starts).
He needs to go through every street at least once.
If the graph travelled has an Eulerian path, this circuit is the ideal solution.
Alan Goldman of the U.S. National Bureau of Standards first coined the name 'Chinese Postman Problem' for this problem, as it was originally studied by the Chinese mathematician Mei-Ku Kuan in 1962.
Other websites
Chinese postman problem (at MathWorld)
References
Graph theory |
The four color theorem is a theorem of mathematics. It says that in any plane surface with regions in it (people think of them as maps), the regions can be colored with no more than four colors. Two regions that have a common border must not get the same color. They are called adjacent (next to each other) if they share a segment of the border, not just a point.
This was the first theorem to be proved by a computer, in a proof by exhaustion. In proof by exhaustion, the conclusion is established by dividing it into cases, and proving each one separately. There may be a lot of cases. For example, the first proof of the four color theorem was a proof by exhaustion with 1,936 cases. This proof was controversial because most of the cases were checked by a computer program, not by hand. The shortest known proof of the four color theorem today still has over 600 cases.
Even though the problem was first presented as a problem to color political maps of countries, mapmakers are not very interested in it. According to an article by the math historian Kenneth May , “Maps utilizing only four colors are rare, and those that do usually require only three. Books on cartography and the history of map making do not mention the four-color property.”
Many simpler maps can be colored using three colors. The fourth color is needed for some maps, such as one in which one region is surrounded by an odd number of others, which touch each other in a cycle. One such example is given in the image. The five color theorem states that five colors are enough to color a map. It has a short, elementary proof and was proven in the late 19th century. Proving that four colors are all that is needed turned out to be much more difficult. Many false proofs and false counterexamples have appeared since the first statement of the four color theorem in 1852.
Exact formulation of the problem
Intuitively, the four color theorem can be stated as 'given any separation of a plane into contiguous regions, called a map, the regions can be colored using at most four colors so that no two regions which are adjacent have the same color'. To be able to correctly solve the problem, it is necessary to clarify some aspects: First, all points that belong to three or more countries must be ignored. Secondly, bizarre maps with regions of finite area and infinite perimeter can require more than four colors.
For the purpose of the theorem every "country" has to be a simply connected region, or contiguous.
In the real world, this is not true: Alaska as part of the United States, Nakhchivan as part of Azerbaijan, and Kaliningrad as part of Russia are not contiguous. Because the territory of a particular country must be the same color, four colors may not be enough. For instance, consider a simplified map, such as the one shown on the left: In this map, the two regions labeled A belong to the same country, and must be the same color. This map then requires five colors, since the two A regions together are contiguous with four other regions, each of which is contiguous with all the others. If A had only three regions, six or more colors might be needed. In this way, it is possible to make maps that need an arbitrarily high number of colors. A similar construction also applies if a single color is used for all bodies of water, as is usual on real maps.
An easier to state version of the theorem uses graph theory. The set of regions of a map can be represented more abstractly as an undirected graph that has a vertex for each region and an edge for every pair of regions that share a boundary segment. This graph is planar: it can be drawn in the plane without crossings by placing each vertex at an arbitrarily chosen location within the region to which it corresponds, and by drawing the edges as curves that lead without crossing within each region from the vertex location to each shared boundary point of the region. Conversely any planar graph can be formed from a map in this way. In graph-theoretic terminology, the four-color theorem states that the vertices of every planar graph can be colored with at most four colors so that no two adjacent vertices have the same color, or for short, "every planar graph is four-colorable" (; ).
History
The first person to name the problem was Francis Guthrie, in 1852. He was a law student in England, at the time. He found that he needed at least four colors to color a map of the counties of England. Augustus de Morgan first discussed the problem, in a letter he wrote to Rowan Hamliton in August 1852. In the letter, de Morgan asks whether four colors are really enough to color a map, such that countries that are next to each other get different colors.
English mathematician Arthur Cayley presented the problem to the mathematical society in London, in 1878. Within a year, Alfred Kempe found what looked like a proof of the problem. Eleven years later, in 1890, Percy Heawood showed that Alfred's proof was wrong. Peter Guthrie Tait presented another attempt at a proof in 1880. It took eleven years to show that Tait's proof did not work either. In 1891, Julius Petersen could show this. When he falsified Cayley's proof, Kempe also showed a proof for a problem he called Five color theorem. The theorem says that any such map can be colored with no more than five colors. There are two restrictions: First, any country is contiguous, there are no exclaves. The second restriction is that countries need to have a common border; if they only touch in a point, they can be colored with the same color. Even though Kempe's proof was wrong, he used some of the ideas which would later permit a correct proof.
In the 1960s and 1970s, Heinrich Heesch developed a first sketch of a proof by computer. Kenneth Appel and Wolfgang Haken improved this sketch in 1976 . They were able to reduce the number of cases that would need to be tested to 1936; a later version was made that relied on testing only 1476 cases. Each case needed to be tested by a computer .
In 1996, Neil Robertson, Daniel Sanders, Paul Seymour and Robin Thomas improved the method, and reduced the number of cases to be tested to 663. Again, each case needed to be tested by computer.
In 2005, Georges Gonthier and Benjamin Werner developed a formal proof. This was an improvement, because it allowed to use theorem-proving software, for the first time. The software used is called Coq.
The four color theorem is the first big mathematical problem that was proved with the help of a computer. Because the proof cannot be done by a human, some mathematicians did not recognize it as correct. To verify the proof, it is necessary to rely on a correctly working software and hardware to validate the proof. Because the proof was done by computer, it is also not very elegant.
Attempts that turned out to be wrong
The four color theorem has been notorious for attracting a large number of false proofs and disproofs in its long history. At first, The New York Times refused to report on the Appel–Haken proof. The newspaper did this as a matter of policy; it feared that the proof would be shown false like the ones before it .
Some proofs took a long time, till they could be falsified: For Kempe's and Tait's proofs falsifying them took over a decade.
The simplest counterexamples generally try to create one region which touches all the others. This forces the remaining regions to be colored with only three colors. Because the four color theorem is true, this is always possible; however, because the person drawing the map is focused on the one large region, they do not notice that the remaining regions can in fact be colored with three colors.
This trick can be generalized: If the colors of some regions in a map are chosen beforehand, it becomes impossible to color the remaining regions in such a way that in total, only four colors are used. Someone verifying the counterexample may not think that it may be needed to change the color of these regions. This will make the counterexample look valid, even though it is not.
Perhaps one effect underlying this common misconception is the fact that the color restriction is not transitive: a region only has to be colored differently from regions it touches directly, not regions touching regions that it touches. If this were the restriction, planar graphs would require arbitrarily large numbers of colors.
Other false disproofs violate the assumptions of the theorem in unexpected ways, such as using a region that has multiple disconnected parts, or not allowing regions of the same color from touching at a point.
Coloring political maps
In real life, many countries have exclaves or colonies. Since they belong to the country, they need to be colored with the same color as the parent country. This means that usually, more than four colors are needed to color such a map. When mathematicians talk about the graph associated with the problem, they say that is not planar. Even though it is easy to check if a graph is planar, finding the fewest number of colors needed to color it is very difficult. It is NP-complete, which is one of the most difficult problems that exist. The fewest number of colors needed to color a graph is known as its chromatic number. Many of the problems that happen when trying to solve the four color theorem are related to discrete mathematics. For this reason, methods from algebraic topology are often used.
Extension to "non-flat" maps
The four color theorem requires the "map" to be on a flat surface, what mathematicians call a plane. In 1890, Percy John Heawood created what is called Heawood conjecture today: It asks the same question as the four color theorem, but for any topological object. As an example, a torus can be colored with at most seven colors. The Heawood conjecture gives a formula that works for all such objects, except the Klein bottle.
References
Articles and Books
.
.
Chechulin V. L. About а one proof of a planar's graphs 4-chromatically http://www.uresearch.psu.ru/files/articles/17_89592.doc
Mentioned in this article
Other websites
:WikiBooks:Famous Theorems of Mathematics/Four color theorem
Combinatorial optimization
Mathematical theorems |
A theorem is a proven idea in mathematics. Theorems are proved using logic and other theorems that have already been proved. A minor theorem that one must prove to prove a major theorem is called a lemma. Theorems are made of two parts: hypotheses and conclusions.
Theorems use deduction, in contrast to theories which are empirical.
Some theorems are trivial, since they directly follow from the propositions. Other theorems are called "deep", because their proof is long and difficult. Sometimes, such proofs involve other areas of mathematics or show connections between different areas. A theorem might be simple to state and yet be deep. An excellent example is Fermat's Last Theorem, and there are many other examples of simple yet deep theorems in number theory and combinatorics (among other areas).
There are other theorems for which a proof is known, but cannot be easily written down. Among the best examples are the four color theorem and the Kepler conjecture. Both of these theorems are only known to be true by reducing them to a computational search which is then verified by a computer program. At first, many mathematicians did not accept this form of proof, but it has become more widely accepted over the years. The mathematician Doron Zeilberger has even gone so far as to claim that these are possibly the only nontrivial results that mathematicians have ever proved. Many mathematical theorems can be reduced to simpler computations, including polynomial identities, trigonometric identities and hypergeometric identities.
Related pages
Proposition
References
Books
Mathematical theorems |
Triceratops was a huge herbivorous ceratopsid dinosaur from the late Cretaceous. Its name came from having three horns on its head. They were mainly found in North America. As adults, they grew up to 30 feet long by 9 feet tall (), and probably weighed around 5,400 kg (12,000 lb). Fully-grown, their skull was enormous (two meters long and nearly a meter wide).
Triceratops was a low browser with a bony beak in front of its jaws. The jaws had close-set grinding teeth. Its defence had to stand up to attacks from taller theropods, hence the bony shield which covered its neck. Holes made by teeth have been found on the bony frill behind the horns, and on the sacrum (the part of the spine above the pelvis).
Many fossils of Triceratops have been collected since the genus was first described in 1889. There is at least one complete individual skeleton. Paleontologist John Scannella observed: "It is hard to walk out into the Hell Creek Formation and not stumble upon a Triceratops weathering out of a hillside". Forty-seven complete or partial skulls were discovered in just that area during the decade 2000–2010. Specimens showing life stages from hatchling to adult have been found.
Body
Size
Individual Triceratops were about 7.9 to 9.0 m (26.0–29.5 ft) in length, 2.9 to 3.0 m (9.5–9.8 ft) in height, and 6.1–12.0 tonnes (13,000–26,000 lb) in weight.
Skull
The most distinctive feature is their large skull, among the largest of all land animals. The largest known skull (specimen BYU 12183) is estimated to have been in length when complete, and could reach almost a third of the length of the entire animal. It bore a single horn on the snout, above the nostrils, and a pair of horns approximately 1 m (3 ft) long, with one above each eye. Most other ceratopsids had large holes (fenestrae) in their frills, while those of Triceratops were noticeably solid.
Limbs
Triceratops species were sturdy, with strong limbs and short three-hoofed hands and four-hoofed feet.
The posture of these dinosaurs has long been the subject of some debate. Originally, it was believed that the front legs of the animal had to be sprawling at angles from the thorax, in order to better bear the weight of the head. This stance can be seen in paintings by Charles Knight and Rudolph Zallinger. However, evidence of trackways, and reconstructions of skeletons show that Triceratops and other ceratopsids had an upright stance during normal locomotion, with the elbows flexed and slightly bowed out. The stance was intermediate between fully upright and fully sprawling, similar the modern rhinoceros.
Paleobiology
Although Triceratops are commonly portrayed as herd animals, there is little evidence that they lived in herds.
In 2012, a group of three Triceratops in relatively complete condition, each of varying sizes from a full-grown adult to a small juvenile, were found in Wyoming, near Newcastle. The remains are currently under excavation by paleontologist Peter Larson and a team from the Black Hills Institute. It is believed that the animals were traveling as a family unit, but it remains unknown if the group consists of a mated pair and their offspring, or two females and a juvenile they were caring for. The remains also show signs of predation or scavenging from Tyrannosaurus, particularly on the largest specimen, with the bones of the front limbs showing breakage and puncture wounds from Tyrannosaurus teeth.
For many years, Triceratops finds were known only from solitary individuals. These remains are very common: one palaeontologist reported having seen 200 specimens of T. prorsus in the Hell Creek Formation of Montana, U.S. Similarly, Barnum Brown claimed to have seen over 500 skulls in the field. Triceratops teeth, horn fragments, frill fragments, and other skull fragments are abundant fossils in the latest Upper Cretaceous of western North America. It was the most dominant herbivore of the time. In 1986, Robert Bakker estimated it as making up 5/6ths of the large dinosaur fauna at the end of the Cretaceous.
Triceratops was one of the last ceratopsian genera to appear before the Cretaceous–Paleogene extinction event. The related Torosaurus, and the more distantly related diminutive Leptoceratops, were also present, though their remains are rarely found.
Dentition and diet
Triceratops were herbivorous, and because of their low head, their primary food was probably low growth, although they may have been able to knock down taller plants with their horns, beak, and bulk. The jaws were tipped with a deep, narrow beak, good for grasping and plucking.
Triceratops teeth were arranged in groups called batteries, of 36 to 40 tooth columns, in each side of each jaw with 3 to 5 stacked teeth per column, depending on the size of the animal. This gives a range of 432 to 800 teeth, of which only a fraction were in use at any given time (tooth replacement was continuous and occurred throughout the life of the animal). The great size and numerous teeth of Triceratops suggests that they ate large volumes of fibrous plant material, such as palms and cycads.
Functions of the horns and frill
There has been much speculation over the functions of Triceratops''' head adornments. The two main theories have revolved around use in combat, or display in courtship, with the latter thought now to be the most likely primary function.Triceratops were long thought to have used their horns and frills in combat with predators such as Tyrannosaurus. The idea was discussed first in 1917 and again 70 years later by Robert Bakker.Sternberg C.H. 1917. Hunting dinosaurs in the badlands of the Red Deer River, Alberta, Canada. San Diego, California. There is evidence that Tyrannosaurus did have aggressive head-on encounters with Triceratops, based on partially healed tyrannosaur tooth marks on a Triceratops brow horn and squamosal; the bitten horn is also broken, with new bone growth after the break. Since the Triceratops wounds healed, the Triceratops survived the encounter. Tyrannosaurus is also known to have fed on Triceratops. Evidence for this includes a heavily tooth-scored Triceratops ilium and sacrum.
In addition to combat with predators using horns, Triceratops are classically shown engaging each other in combat with horns locked. While studies show that such activity would be feasible, if unlike that of present-day horned animals, there is disagreement about whether they did so.
The large frill also may have helped to increase body area to regulate body temperature. A similar theory has been proposed regarding the plates of Stegosaurus, although this use alone would not account for the bizarre and extravagant variation seen in different members of the Ceratopsidae. This observation is highly suggestive of what is now believed to be the primary function, display.
The theory of their use in sexual display was first proposed by Davitashvili in 1961 and has gained increasing acceptance since. Evidence that visual display was important, either in courtship or in other social behavior, can be seen in the fact that horned dinosaurs differ markedly in their adornments, making each species highly distinctive. Also, modern living creatures with such displays of horns and adornments use them in similar behavior. A 2006 study of the smallest Triceratops skull, ascertained to be a juvenile, shows the frill and horns developed at a very early age, predating sexual development and thus probably important for visual communication and species recognition in general.
Paleopathology
One skull, assigned to Triceratops, has a hole in the jugal bone. It looks like a puncture wound sustained while the animal was still alive. This is supported by signs of healing that are present in the bone around the supposed wound. When examined closely, the hole in the bone has a diameter that is very similar to diameter of the distal end of a Triceratops horn. This is evidence of competition between individual dinosaurs.Martin A.J. 2006. Introduction to the study of dinosaurs. 2nd ed, Oxford, Blackwell. pg. 299-300. .
References
Other websites
Triceratops (short summary and good color illustration)
Triceratops For Kids (a fact sheet about the Triceratops'' with activities for kids)
Smithsonian Exhibit
Triceratops Skull Picture
Ornithischia
Ceratopsids
Dinosaurs of North America |
The border between two regions is a line, where one region is next to the other. If the regions are countries, the border can only be crossed at certain points. To cross the border, a passport or a visa might be necessary; such as the Wagah border between Pakistan and the Republic of India.
Political geography |
A genus is a rank in the biological classification (or taxonomy). It is above species, and below families. A genus can include more than one species. When biologists talk about a genus, they mean one or more species of animals or plants that are closely related to each other.
As with other taxa, the plural is different from other English words because it is a Latin word. 'Genus' is the singular, and 'genera' is the plural form of the word.
When printing the scientific name of an organism, the name is always in italic. A name of species has two parts, with the genus first. For example, in "Felis silvestris", Felis is the genus. The genus name always begins with a capital letter. In "Felis silvestris catus", the third word is the subspecies, which is not often used.
As a common word
In writing, genus names in Latin may be 'anglicised' to form a common name. For example, the genus Pseudomonas is "pseudomonad" (plural: "pseudomonads"). In practice, most really common animals and plants already have a common name. So instead of saying 'felids', or 'felines', one says 'cats' both for the family pet, and for all the cat family (Felidae).
Taxonomy |
The Cretaceous period is the ninth and longest period in the Phanerozoic eon, lasting 80 million years from 145 to 65 million years ago (mya). It followed the Jurassic period, and is the third and last period of the Mesozoic era. After it came the Cainozoic era.
Though famous for its land fauna, the Cretaceous sea level rose much higher than today. North America was partly covered by an epicontinental inland sea, and half of Britain was under water.
In the Upper Cretaceous, chalk, a type of limestone, was laid down in warm shallow seas. Chalk is 95% to 99% made up of coccoliths, the calcium carbonate (CaCO3) plates which tiny single-celled algae (coccolithophorids) produce.
At its end came the famous meteorite strike which, with the volcanic flood basalts spewed out in the Deccan Plateau (India), ended so many of the dominant life-forms: see K/T extinction event.
The Cretaceous period has just two very long epochs:
Upper Cretaceous 100.5 million years ago (mya) to 65 mya
Lower Cretaceous 145.5 mya to 100.5 mya.
The Lower Cretaceous at ~45 million years, is the longest epoch in the Phanerozoic eon.
References |
A textbook is a book used for the study of a subject. People use a textbook to learn facts and methods about a certain subject. Textbooks sometimes have questions to test the knowledge and understanding of the learner.
A workbook is a type of textbook that has only practice questions and exercises. Workbooks are designed not to teach but to provide practice and to highlight areas which need more learning. A revision guide is a type of textbook that is used to remind the learner about the subject and give him/her extra practice, especially before an examination.
A textbook is usually lent to students by a school to accompany a course the school is teaching. Sometimes, especially at university, students have to buy the textbooks they need themselves or borrow them from a library.
Most textbooks are only published in printed format. However, some are now available online as electronic books.
Learning |
An axiom is a concept in logic. It is a statement which is assumed to be true without question, and which does not require proof. It is also known as a postulate (as in the parallel postulate). The axiom is to be used as the premise or starting point for further reasoning or arguments, usually in logic or in mathematics.
This means it cannot be proved within the discussion of a problem. So inside some discussion, it is thought to be true. There are many reasons why it has no proof. For example,
The statement might be obvious. This means most people think it is clearly true. An example of an obvious axiom is the principle of contradiction. It says that a statement and its opposite cannot both be true at the same time and place.
The statement is based on physical laws and can easily be observed. An example is Newton's laws of motion. They are easily observed in the physical world.
The statement is a proposition. Here, an axiom is any mathematical statement that serves as a starting point from which other statements are logically derived. This means the emphasis is on what happens if the axiom is true. Whether the proposition is empirically true is not the goal of logic. This is a more modern definition of an axiom.
Logic can be used to find theorems from the axioms. Then those theorems can be used to make more theorems. This is often how math works. Axioms are important because logical arguments start with them.
Euclid's axioms
Euclid of Alexandria was a Greek mathematician. Around the year 300 BC, he made the earliest list of axioms which we know of. The following are just a few of them:
Two numbers that are both the same as a third number are the same number.
If A and B are two numbers that are the same, and C and D are also the same, A+C is the same as B+D.
If A and B are two numbers that are the same, and C and D are also the same, A-C is the same as B-D.
Two shapes that fill exactly the same space are the same shape.
If you divide a number by anything more than 1, the quotient (result) will be less than the original number.
Related pages
Axiom of choice, an axiom in set theory
Notes
Mathematics |
A set is an idea from mathematics. A set has members (also called elements). A set is defined by its members, so any two sets with the same members are the same (e.g., if set and set have the same members, then ).
A set cannot have the same member more than once. Membership is the only thing that matters. For example, there is no order or other difference among the members. Anything can be a member of a set, including sets themselves (though if a set is a member of itself, paradoxes such as Russell's paradox can happen).
What to do with sets
Imagine the set is a bag.
Element of
Various things can be put into a bag. Later on, a good question would be if a certain thing is in the bag. Mathematicians call this element of. Something is an element of a set, if that thing can be found in the respective bag. The symbol used for this is :
,
which means that is in the bag or is an element of .
Unlike a bag, a set can contain at most one item of a given type. So for a set of fruits, it would make no difference if there is one orange, or if there are 10 oranges.
Empty set
Like a bag, a set can also be empty. The empty set is like an empty bag: it has nothing in it. The "empty set" is also called the null set and is represented by the symbol .
Universe
If we consider, say, some sets of American cars, e.g. a set of all Fords and a set of all Dodges, we may also wish to consider the whole set of American cars. In this case, the set of all American cars would be called a universe.
In other words, a universe is a collection of all the elements one wishes to consider in a given problem. The universe is usually named .
Comparing sets
Two sets can be compared. This is like looking into two different bags. If they contain the same things, they are equal. No matter, in which order these things are.
For example, if and , the sets are the same.
Cardinality of a set
When mathematicians talk about a set, they sometimes want to know how big a set is (or what is the cardinality of the set). They do this by counting how many elements are in the set (how many items are in the bag). For finite sets the cardinality is a simple number. The empty set has a cardinality of 0. The set has a cardinality of 2.
Two sets have the same cardinality if we can pair up their elements—if we can join two elements, one from each set. The set and the set have the same cardinality. E.g, we could pair apple with sun, and orange with moon. The order does not matter. It is possible to pair all the elements, and none is left out. But the set and the set have different cardinality.
If we try to pair them up, we always leave out one animal.
Infinite cardinality
At times cardinality is not a number. Sometimes a set has infinite cardinality. The set of all integers is a set with infinite cardinality. Some sets with infinite cardinality are bigger (have a bigger cardinality) than others. There are more real numbers than there are natural numbers, for example, which means we cannot pair up the set of integers and the set of real numbers, even if we worked forever.
Countability
If you can count the elements of a set, it is called a countable set. Countable sets include all sets with a finite number of members. Countable sets also include some infinite sets, such as the natural numbers. You can count the natural numbers with . The natural numbers are nicknamed "the counting numbers", since they are what we usually use to count things with.
An uncountable set is an infinite set that is impossible to count. If we try to count the elements, we will always skip some. It does not matter what step we take. The set of real numbers is an uncountable set. There are many other uncountable sets, even such a small interval like .[3]
Subsets
If you look at the set and the set , you can see that all elements in the first set are also in the second set. We say: is a subset of
As a formula it looks like this:
In general, when all elements of set are also elements of set , we call a subset of :
.
It is usually read " is contained in ."
Example: Every Chevrolet is an American car. So the set of all Chevrolets is contained in the set of all American cars.
Set operations
There are different ways to combine sets.
Intersections
The intersection of two sets and is a set that contains all the elements that are both in set and in set at the same time.
Example: When is the set of all cheap cars, and is the set of all American cars, then is the set of all cheap American cars.
Unions
The union of two sets and is a set that contains all the elements that are in set or in set .
This "or" is the inclusive disjunction, so the union also contains the elements, that are in set and in set .
By the way, this means, that the intersection is a subset of the union:
.
Example: When is the set of all cheap cars, and is the set of all American cars, then is the set of all cars, without all expensive cars that are not from America.
Complements
Complement can mean two different things:
The complement of is the universe without all the elements of :
The universe is the set of all things you speak about.
Example: When is the set of all cars, and is the set of all cheap cars, then C is the set of all expensive cars.
The set difference of and is the set without all the elements of :
It is also called the relative complement of in .
Example: When is the set of all cheap cars, and is the set of all American cars, then is the set of all expensive American cars.
If you exchange the sets in the set difference, the result is different:In the example with the cars, the difference is the set of all cheap cars, that are not made in America.
Notation
Most mathematicians use uppercase ITALIC (usually Roman) letters to write about sets (such as , , ). The things that are seen as elements of sets are usually written with lowercase Roman letters.
One way of showing a set is by a list of its members, separated by commas, included in braces.
For example,
is set which has members 1, 2, and 3.
Another way, called the set-builder notation, is by a statement of what is true of the members of the set, like this:
{x | x is a natural number & x < 4}.
In spoken English, this reads: "the set of all x such that x is a natural number and x is less than four". The symbol [ipe "|" means "such that" or "so that".
The empty set is written in a special way: , or .
When object a is the member of set it is written as:
.
In spoken English, this reads: "a is a member of ".
Venn diagrams
To illustrate operations on sets mathematicians use Venn diagrams. Venn diagrams use circles to show individual sets. The universe is depicted with a rectangle. Results of operations are shown as colored areas. In the illustration of the intersection operation the left circle shows set and the right circle shows set .
Special sets
Some sets are very important to mathematics. They are used very often. One of these is the empty set.
Many of these special sets are written using blackboard bold typeface, and these include:
, denoting the set of all primes.
, denoting the set of all natural numbers. That is to say, = {1, 2, 3, ...}, or sometimes = {0, 1, 2, 3, ...}.
, denoting the set of all integers (whether positive, negative or zero). So = {..., -2, -1, 0, 1, 2, ...}.
, denoting the set of all rational numbers (that is, the set of all proper and improper fractions). So, , meaning all fractions where a and b are in the set of all integers and b is not equal to 0. For example, and . All integers are in this set since every integer a can be expressed as the fraction .
, denoting the set of all real numbers. This set includes all rational numbers, together with all irrational numbers (that is, numbers which cannot be rewritten as fractions, such as and √2).
, denoting the set of all complex numbers.
Each of these sets of numbers has an infinite number of elements, and .
Paradoxes about sets
The mathematician Bertrand Russell found that there are problems with the informal definition of sets. He stated this in a paradox called Russell's paradox. An easier to understand version, closer to real life, is called the Barber paradox.
The barber paradox
There is a small town somewhere. In that town, there is a barber. All the men in the town do not like beards, so they either shave themselves, or they go to the barber shop to be shaved by the barber.
We can therefore make a statement about the barber himself: The barber shaves all men that do not shave themselves. He only shaves those men (since the others shave themselves and do not need a barber to give them a shave).
This of course raises the question: What does the barber do each morning to look clean-shaven? This is the paradox.
If the barber shaves himself, he cannot be a barber, since a barber does not shave himself.
If he does not shave himself, he falls in the category of those who do not shave themselves, and so, cannot be a barber.
Related pages
Cantor set
Group theory
Relation
Set theory
References
Further reading
The following books explore sets in more detail:
Halmos, Paul R., Naive Set Theory, Princeton, N.J.: Van Nostrand (1960)
Stoll, Robert R., Set Theory and Logic, Mineola, N.Y.: Dover Publications (1979)
Allenby, R.B.J.T, Rings, Fields and Groups, Leeds, England: Butterworth Heinemann (1991) |
The Maldives are a group of islands in the Indian Ocean. They are southwest of India. They are made up of the Maldive and Suadive archipelagos, with over 1,200 islands. These islands are a part of 26 atolls. And they are divided to 20 administrative atolls. People live on about 200 of the islands. It has more than 1126 coral reefs. It is the flattest country in the world. The highest point in the Maldives is only high above the level of the sea.
Malé is the capital, with a population of 150,000 people. Its official religion is Islam.
Climate
The Maldives has a tropical monsoon climate (Am) under the Köppen climate classification, which is affected by the large landmass of South Asia to the north. Because the Maldives has the lowest elevation of any country in the world, the temperature is constantly hot and often humid. The presence of this landmass causes differential heating of land and water. These factors set off a rush of moisture-rich air from the Indian Ocean over South Asia, resulting in the southwest monsoon. Two seasons dominate Maldives' weather: the dry season associated with the winter northeastern monsoon and the rainy season which brings strong winds and storms.
The shift from the dry northeast monsoon to the moist southwest monsoon occurs during April and May. During this period, the southwest winds contribute to the formation of the southwest monsoon, which reaches Maldives in the beginning of June and lasts until the end of August. However, the weather patterns of Maldives do not always conform to the monsoon patterns of South Asia. The annual rainfall averages in the north and in the south.
The monsoonal influence is greater in the north of the Maldives than in the south, more influenced by the equatorial currents.
The highest temperature ever recorded in Malé was 39.6 °C (103.3 °F) on 1 January 2000 and the lowest was 20.4 °C (68.7 °F) on 20 March 1989 and 21 January 2017.
References
Other websites
Members of the Organisation of Islamic Cooperation |
The prime minister of Australia is the head of the executive branch of the government of Australia. The prime minister leads the cabinet of Australia and is the highest ranking minister of the Crown in the federal parliament. The prime minister is appointed by the monarch, who is advised by the governor-general.
The current prime minister of Australia, since August 2018, is Scott Morrison.
Prime ministerial power and roles
The prime minister can choose his or her own ministers;
Can choose election dates;
Represents the country;
Spokesperson for the government, both domestically and internationally;
Advisor to the Governor-General;
Create bills in parliament
List of prime ministers
Former prime ministers
As of , there are six living former Australian prime ministers.
References
Other websites
Australia's Prime Ministers / National Archive of Australia
Biographies of Australia's Prime Ministers / National Museum of Australia
Official website of the Prime Minister of Australia
Australia
Australia-related lists |
Events and trends
1192 – Minamoto no Yoritomo granted title of shogun, thereby officially establishing Kamakura shogunate, the first shogunate in the history of Japan.
May 27, 1199 Friday – John Lackland (1167–1216) became King of England upon the death of his older brother Richard the Lion Hearted. His coronation took place in Westminster Abbey. Lackland was so called, because his inheritance of the Angevin Empire did not have land for him; he was the youngest son of Henry II, so this event could not happen.. |
In science, structure is a fundamental concept. It means the arrangement of parts. Examples are the organs in a body, or crystals in a substance like granite.
A structure may refer to buildings, machines and similar things made by people as well as to a rock or a mineral, atoms or sentences. It always reflects the hierarchy of its parts.
Related pages
Structural engineering
For structuralism, see Claude Lévi-Strauss
Notes
Chemistry
Engineering
Geology
Linguistics
Physics
Systems |
Hardcore punk (or hardcore) is a style of punk music that usually sounds louder, faster and more angry than earlier punk rock music from the 1970s. Hardcore began in the late 1970s. Some of the important bands of the genre are Bad Brains, Black Flag, D.O.A, Minor Threat and Cro-Mags. Hardcore songs often have more political lyrics (words) than songs from 1970s punk.
No one is quite sure where the term "hardcore punk" came from. The band D.O.A. may have helped to make the term more popular with the title of their album Hardcore '81 in 1981.
The first hardcore punk song was "Out of Vogue" by the Santa Ana band The Middle Class. This band started to play a loud type of punk with shouted words.
People in hardcore punk bands and people who listened to hardcore punk wore clothes that were of two types. Some people wore clothes and hairstyles that were strange and a bit scary, like Mohawk hairstyles and leather jackets with metal studs. Other people wore regular clothes like black pants and T-shirts.
At hardcore punk concerts, people did a type of dancing called moshing. This type of dance involves people pushing each other and jumping off the stage.
In the early 1980s, hardcore bands from England began to get noticed, such as Discharge, The Exploited, and The Varukers. Discharge played with a sound that included heavy metal guitar styles.
Hardcore led to the creation of the straight edge movement. People who are straight edge do not use alcohol, tobacco, and other drugs. Straight edge led to two new groups, called hardline and youth crew. Hardcore musicians also created independent record labels in the 1980s.
Many bands had a "Do it Yourself" (DIY) attitude. Bands would record their own albums using simple four-track recorders, and the sell the records themselves at shows or through the mail. Hardcore influenced the creation of new styles of music, including alternative rock, grunge, alternative metal, metalcore, thrash metal and post-hardcore.
Politics
Many early hardcore punk bands had songs about liberal politics such as anarchism and socialism. They spoke against political leaders, such as American president Ronald Reagan and British prime minister Margaret Thatcher. While George W. Bush was President of the United States, a number of hardcore bands criticized him.
A small number of hardcore musicians have expressed right wing views, including the band Antiseen, whose guitarist Joe Young ran for office as a Libertarian in North Carolina. Former Misfits singer Michale Graves supported George W. Bush.
How it sounds
Hardcore band singers often sing by shouting the words of the song. Hardcore songs often sound like the singer is angry.
Hardcore bands use electric guitars, electric bass guitar, drums, and a singer. The electric guitars in hardcore bands are distorted, noisy, and fuzzy because the guitarists are using electronic boxes called distortion pedals. Some hardcore guitarists have changed the tuning of their guitar strings so they play notes that are lower than those a normal guitar can play.
The drums in hardcore music play loud and fast, often characterized by use of the double-bass pedal, particularly notable in the breakdowns.
References |
Limestone is a sedimentary rock, made up mostly of the mineral calcite, a form of calcium carbonate, CaCO3.
The calcium carbonate is originally produced by living organisms. Later, some of it goes into solution in sea water. Limestone rocks include mainly organic remains and precipitated carbonate.
Limestone is about 10% of the total volume of all sedimentary rocks.
Formation
Limestones are mostly made of calcium carbonate. It is originally made by small photosynthetic protists like certain bacteria, coccolithophores, and algae. Then the carbonate gets used by various animals, like bivalves and the polyps which make coral reefs. They build their shells or framework out of CaCO3 crystals.
"[Coccolithophores] were the first organisms to bring about a steady rain of calcium carbonate from the upper, illuminated zone of the ocean towards the deep sea".p144
Carbonates are rocks formed from these sources, plus any CaCO3 which is precipitated out of solution. Some carbonate dissolves in the water. It gets precipitated when the physical condition of the water changes. For example, if the concentration of CaCO3 is high, then a temperature drop, or a pH (acidity) change, can cause precipitation.
Florida Bay
Florida Bay, the shallow lagoon behind the Florida Keys, is a model for the conditions which produced limestones on the continental shelf. Of course, all the species were somewhat different then but, as an ecosystem, it is similar.
In Florida Bay there is a lot of a type of flowering plant called sea grass. There is also a lot of white, milky water full of calcium carbonate. This is mainly formed by Melobesia, a small red alga which lives on the sea grass.p151 Finally, the organisms produce huge amounts of slime, which is a polysaccharide. There is good reason to think the slime is produced by microorganisms to control the way their carbonate skeletons are formed.p139 As a side-effect the slime limits the amount of carbonate which goes into solution.p155
Florida Bay is a flat platform which has laid down a huge amount of carbonate rock.
"You have to drill for more than 3000 feet before you reach a different rock type, and that is of Cretaceous age—some 70 million years ago".p158
Fossiliferous limestones
Many limestones contain fossils, and some are made up almost entirely of skeletal material. Chalk is ~99% coccoliths; Solnhofen limestone is famous for its animal fossils; and there are many shelly limestones from different periods. Limestone is not found much before the Cambrian period, because shelled animals had not yet evolved.
Marble
When limestone is heated to a high temperature, and squeezed at the base of a mountain, it recrystallizes into the metamorphic rock marble. Marbles are fairly dense, relatively easy to cut, or be shaped into blocks, and some forms are white in colour.
Uses
Limestone is hard enough to resist weathering but usually soft enough to be worked (cut and carved) by stonemasons. It is used for building material. Limestone, particularly Portland limestone, became popular in the 19th and 20th centuries for building things such as churches, banks and houses. However, acid rain does slowly erode limestone.
Limestone is used to make glass and cement. It is also used to make iron in a blast furnace, to remove impurities from the iron ore.
Related pages
Portland limestone
References
Carbonate rocks
Sedimentary rocks |
The roots of a plant is the part that is usually buried in the soil. Roots are usually always under the soil, though–sometimes roots can be above the ground. This is called an aerial root.
Also, stems can sometimes be under the soil (potatoes, for example). Roots do not have leaves, and are different from stems inside.
Plants need their roots especially for three reasons: The roots take water and nutrients, a sort of food, from the soil. They also often store this food. And they fix the plants to the ground.
However, most plant roots do not work at their best unless they have help from fungi. The symbiosis between roots and fungus is known as mycorrhiza.
There are two sorts of root systems:
the taproot system: there is one very big root that goes down into the ground, and many smaller roots that come out of it
the diffuse root system: there are many roots that go in all directions
Some roots go very deep into the ground. One root that was found in Arizona, USA, was 60 m below the surface.
Roots are also very strong. Some tree roots can destroy stones. Roots are not green because the cells have no chlorophyll.
Root growth
Roots grow through the whole life of the plant. They grow longer from the tip, adding cells to the end of each root. The root adds cells to their tips, and they grow fatter as they add cells around their tube-like bodies.
At the tip of each root, there is a small group of tough, dead, hard cells called the root cap. The root cap is the strongest part of the root tip, and its job is to push its way through the dirt to look for moisture and nutrients and protect the plant.
Aerial roots
Roots are usually found underground, but in some cases this is not so. In the rainforest, the air is warm and humid (it has a lot of water). Some rainforest plants, known as epiphytes, grow right on trees. Their roots hang down in the air or running into the moss growing on the trees. Many aerial roots, are used to receive water and nutrient intake directly from the air, from fog, dew or humid air.
Some trees have roots that are above the ground and underground. Mangrove trees have aerial roots (roots which come up into the air). They exchange gases with the atmosphere, just as leaves do. They are an adaptation to the poor level of oxygen in the waterlogged soil of the mangrove swamp.
The banyan tree has a root system that is underground, but it also has roots that start in its branches and grow down towards the ground. These roots not only take in water and nutrients from the soil, but they also help to support the long branches of the banyan tree. Because of this extra support, banyan tree branches can be really long. A banyantree in Lahaina, Maui, which was planted in 1873 by a man named William Owen Smith, has branches that are so long that this single tree covers a full square block in the city.
Much about aerial roots is still unknown.
Root systems
There are two main kinds of roots systems: taproot systems and fibrous root systems. A taproot system has one thick main root growing down from the plant's stem, and lots of smaller secondary roots branching off from this. A taproot system is usually deeper than it is wide. Often, we eat taproots, like carrots and turnips.
A fibrous root system has lots of roots growing in many directions. There is not one main root. A fibrous root system is usually wider than deep.
Root pumping
It has been usually assumed that in regular (non-aerial) terrestrial roots, the nutrients are pumped in together with the water, and that water is pumped into the roots by osmosis. Recent studies in large trees such as the Giant Sequoia, showed, that much of the pumping power, after initial growth, is received by hydraulic suction, due to transpiration - water evaporation from the leaves, in addition to the strong capillary action in the plant's branching xylem in the stem and leaves.
References
Basic English 850 words
Plant anatomy |
Demo may mean one of the following:
Demo (software), a demonstration version of a software program
Demo (music), the first version of a song or album in music |
Piero Gobetti (; June 19, 1901, Turin – February 15, 1926, Neuilly-sur-Seine) was a young journalist, intellectual, and radical liberal person. He was a very active critic during the years of crisis in Italy after the First World War and during the early years of Fascist rule. He had to leave Italy and settled down in Paris, where he soon died. He died because his health was bad, after the Fascists had terrorized him.
Italian people
Italian journalists
1901 births
1926 deaths |
Manama is the capital city of Bahrain. It is also the largest city in Bahrain, having almost 150.000 residents.
History
Manama has been a city since at least the 1300s, when it was mentioned in Islamic books. It was owned by Portugal from 1521 to 1602, by Persia from 1602 to 1783, and by the Al-Khalifa family for a long time after that. In 1971, Manama became the capital city of Bahrain.
Areas of Manama
The city is divided into a few parts:
The Diplomatic Area has most of the banks and government offices. This area is very important, because most of Bahrain's economy is connected to banks.
Gudabiya is the oldest area of the city, and it has the building where the parliament meets.
Hoora is where most visitors go. There are many parties in the clubs here at night.
Capital cities in Asia
Settlements in Bahrain |
Protists are single-celled eukaryotes (which are organisms with a nucleus). The term Protista was first used by Ernst Haeckel in 1866. The protists are not a natural group, or clade, since they have no common origin. Like algae or invertebrates, they are often grouped together for convenience.
The term "protist" includes microorganisms from several distantly related phyla. Some are autotrophic (which means they make their own food by photosynthesis), and others are heterotrophic (which means they eat organic material).
Most protists are very small. They are made up of one or a few cells at most – they are microscopic and usually invisible to the naked eye. Some algae are protists, if they are single-celled. Many protists are part of the plankton and are very important for the ecosystem. The cells found in protists may be extremely complex, and are often little understood. It is now possible to do DNA sequencing, and a number of protists have been analysed. The results show that the Protista is not a monophyletic group. It is paraphyletic, and not a single clade. The taxonomy of the Protista is therefore rather confused.
Some protists cause diseases. Plasmodium falciparum causes malaria; sleeping sickness is also caused by a protist.
An example of a single celled organism in the protist kingdom is the Paramecium or "slipper animalcule." The Paramecium moves using its small, hair-like fibers called cilia, and eats using the cilia to sweep the food into its food vacuole. Other protists can be amoebas, which move by extending pseudopods and flowing into them, or flowing around food particles and engulfing them.
Origin and taxonomy
Protists are not a monophyletic clade. The term is a convenient holdall for about 20 different kinds of single-celled eukaryotes. They differ in their cell organelles, specialised units which carry out well-defined functions, like mitochondria and plastids. This proves they have made the transition from prokaryotes in different ways. It is fairly clear now that all or most of these organelles have their origin in once-independent prokaryotes (bacteria or archaea), and that the eukaryote cell is a 'community of micro-organisms' working together in 'a marriage of convenience'. Admittedly, the Protista is a collection of disparate single-celled forms, but while a more sophisticated taxonomy is in flux (changing), Protista is still a useful term.
References
Cell biology |
The Apple Dumpling Gang is a Disney movie from 1975, in which three orphan children find gold during California's Gold Rush. Tim Conway and Don Knotts also star in it as two gangsters.
The movie is based on the book of the same name by Jack Bickham.
References
Other websites
1975 movies
Disney movies
Movies based on books |
The 0s only had nine years which started in 1 AD and ended in 9 AD.
Significant people
Those people had significant influence on things in this decade.
Erato, Artaxiad Dynasty Queen of Armenia, r. 8–5 BC, 2 BC–2 AD, 6–11
Ariobarzan of Atropatene, Client King of Armenia, r. 1 BC–2 AD
Artavazd V, Client King of Armenia, r. 2–11
Tigranes V, Artaxiad Dynasty King of Armenia, r. 2–6
Ping Di, Emperor of Han Dynasty China, r. 1 BC–5 AD
Ruzi Ying, Emperor of Han Dynasty China, r. 6–9
Wang Mang, Usurper Emperor of the short-lived Xin Dynasty in China, r. 9–23
Antiochus III, King of Commagene, r. 12 BC–17 AD
Arminius, German war chief
Crimthann Nia Náir, Legendary High King of Ireland, r. 8 BC–9 AD
Cairbre Cinnchait, Legendary High King of Ireland, r. 9–14
Strato II and Strato III, co-kings of the Indo-Greek Kingdom, r. 25 BC–10 AD
Natakamani, King of Kush, r. 1 BC–20 AD
Abgar V of Edessa, King of Osroene, r. 4 BC–7 AD, 13–50
Ma'nu IV, King of Osroene, r. 7–13
Phraates V, King of the Parthian Empire, r. 2 BC–4 AD
Musa of Parthia, mother and co-ruler with Phraates V, r. 2 BC–4 AD
Orodes III, King of the Parthian Empire, r. 4–6
Vonones I, King of the Parthian Empire, r. 8–12
Artabanus of Parthia, pretender to the Parthian throne and future King of Parthia
Caesar Augustus, Roman Emperor, r. 27 BC–14 AD
Gaius Caesar, Roman general
Livy, Roman historian
Ovid, Roman poet
Quirinius, Roman nobleman and politician
Hillel the Elder, Jewish scholar and Nasi of the Sanhedrin, in office c. 31 BC–9 AD
Shammai, Jewish scholar and Av Beit Din of the Sanhedrin, in office 20 BC–20 AD
Tiberius, Roman general, statesman, and future emperor
Hyeokgeose, King of Silla, r. 57 BC–4 AD
Namhae, King of Silla, r. 4–24
References |
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