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1001 (MI) was .
Events
Grand Prince Stephen I of Hungary is named the first King of Hungary by Pope Silvester II.
Canonisation of Edward the Martyr, King of England.
Robert II, King of France marries for the third time to Constance Taillefer d'Arles.
Khmer king Jayavarman V is succeeded by Udayadityavarman I and/or Suryavarman I.
Otto III, Holy Roman Emperor has Charlemagne's vault opened (see Aachen Cathedral).
Births
King Duncan I of Scotland, Scottish royal (died 1040)
Other
The first reference is made to Khotyn, Ukrainian town, and to Nyalka, Hungarian village, as to Chimudi.
References |
1009 (MIX) was a common year when the Julian calendar was used. It was the ninth year of the 2nd millennium and the 11th century.
Events
February 14: First known mention of Lithuania, in the annals of the monastery of Quedlinburg.
October 18: The Church of the Holy Sepulchre is destroyed by Caliph al-Hakim bi-Amr Allah.
The Ly dynasty, Vietnam's first independent dynasty, is proclaimed.
Sergius IV succeeds John XVIII as Pope.
Suleiman II succeeds Mohammed II as Caliph of Cordoba.
Provinces of Goryeo (modern-day Korea) are redistributed.
Births
Goda of England, Duchess of Brittany, sister of Edward the Confessor (died 1063)
Saint Osmund, Bishop of Salisbury, second Lord Chancellor of England (died 1099)
Deaths
Pope John XVIII
References |
1024 (MXXIV) was a common year when the Julian calendar was used. It was the twenty-fourth year of the 2nd millennium and the 11th century.
Events
The Salian Dynasty of the Holy Roman Empire is founded by Conrad II.
John XIX succeeds his brother as Pope
Battle of Lemnos: Kievan Viking raiders (800 men) sail through the straits at Abydos to the Aegean Sea. From there they made for the island of Lemnos, but are defeated by a Byzantine fleet of the Cibyrrhaeot Theme.
References |
Quentin Jerome Tarantino (born May 27, 1963) is an American filmmaker. He was born in Knoxville, Tennessee. Tarantino is an independent movie maker. He wrote, directed, and acted in Pulp Fiction, Reservoir Dogs and Kill Bill among others. His movies have become famous for violence and humor. He won Academy Awards for Best Original Screenplay in 1994 for Pulp Fiction and 2012 for Django Unchained.
Movies
Reservoir Dogs (1992)
Pulp Fiction (1994)
Jackie Brown (1997)
Kill Bill, Vol. 1 & 2 (2003)
Death Proof (2007)
Inglourious Basterds (2009)
Django Unchained (2012)
The Hateful Eight (2015)
Once Upon a Time in Hollywood (2019)
References
Other websites
Actors from Tennessee
American movie actors
American movie directors
People from Knoxville, Tennessee
1963 births
Living people |
The Leander-class frigate or Type 12M is a type of ship that was used by the Royal Navy.
The class became well known through the Warship BBC television drama series.
Other websites
Leander (Type 12) class frigate website
Hazegray.org on the Leander class
An unofficial Leander Class Frigate Site
British warships |
A spacecraft is a vehicle that can carry people and cargo beyond the Earth's atmosphere, through space to other planetary bodies, space stations, or orbits and back home again. Spacecraft which are launched from the surface of a planet are called launch vehicles and usually take-off from launch pads at spaceports.
Most spacecraft today are propelled by rocket engines, which shoot hot gases opposite to the direction of travel. Other forms of propulsion are used when appropriate. Spacecraft which do not need to escape from strong gravity may use ion thrusters or other more efficient methods.
Because of the very large amount of energy needed to leave the Earth's gravity, spacecraft are usually very expensive to build, launch, and operate. Plans for future spacecraft often focus on reducing these costs so more people can participate in space. But today, costs are still very high, and until recently all spacecraft were sponsored by national governments.
Human spaceflight vehicles
Most expensive of all is to send people in to space, due to their needs for food, water, air, living space, safety, and control. People participating in this way have special names: Americans call themselves astronauts; Russians call themselves cosmonauts; Chinese call themselves taikonauts.
The American agency NASA used a launch vehicle called the Space Shuttle. Currently, they go on Soyuz with the cosmonauts.
The Russian agency RFSA uses a launch vehicle called Soyuz.
The Ukrainian agency UASA uses a launch vehicle called Zenit.
The Chinese agency CNSA uses a launch vehicle called Shenzhou.
A private firm Virgin Galactic is building a launch vehicle called SpaceShipTwo.
A space company SpaceX is building a launch vehicle called Starship.
Satellites
Some of the most important spacecraft today are artificial satellites. Artificial satellites are smaller, unmanned spacecraft. Some go into Low Earth orbit to look at the Earth or for other purposes. Others are sent to geostationary orbit to relay radio signals from one part of Earth to another, or to watch events on Earth from a high point of view. Communications satellites are important for television and other communications, and other satellites help with weather prediction and other jobs.
Related pages
Spaceflight
Space probe |
Acoustics is a science. It studies the mechanical waves in gases, liquids, and solids. These waves can make echo, vibration, sound, ultrasound and infrasound.
A scientist who works in the field of acoustics is an acoustician. Someone who works with acoustics technology may be called an acoustical engineer.
Sound |
Public finance is the study of how the government raises funds and spends its money, and their economic effect.
Economics |
Budget is the money to be spent on a project, or by a person or organization in a time period. It usually lists the various things that are to be done, and how much to spend on each. For example, a construction budget may list the various kinds of material and labor and the money to spend on each. A budget may also list estimated revenues. When spending is less than revenues, it is a surplus budget. When spending is more than revenues, it is a deficit budget. When they are the same, it's a balanced budget.
An organization's budget is usually for a fiscal year.
Related pages
Political economy
References
Economics
Accounting |
An indirect tax is a tax that is paid as part of a product. Many countries tax gasoline or cigarettes, but they do so indirectly. Because of the tax, the product will be more expensive. In turn, the shops will then pay the tax for the number of packets of cigarettes they sold, or for the amount of gasoline. This is opposed to a direct tax, which is directly paid by the consumer.
Related pages
Tax
Direct tax
Sales tax
Value Added Tax
Taxation |
Erode is a city in Tamil Nadu, India. It is the capital of the Erode district. About 500,000 people live in the city.
Erode District in Tamil Nadu State is very important market centre for Turmeric. Turmeric is received, not only from Erode district, but also from the other parts of Tamil Nadu and adjoining district like Mysore in Karnataka State.
Erode is well known for marketing of textile products of Handloom, Powerloom and Readymade Garments. The Handloom and Powerloom product such as Cotton Saree, Bed Spreads, Carpets, Lungies, Printed Fabrics, Towels, Dhotis are marketed here.
Kangeyam is famous for Bulls and Oil Mills. Kangeyam cows are not noted for their yield but their availability was in large numbers has helped the district to make a mark in the field of dairy development
Cities in Tamil Nadu
Erode district |
Sky Sports is a group of ten channels. The channels are owned by a major company named British Sky Broadcasting. It is the most powerful sports television company in the United Kingdom.
Sky Sports is known for its major football coverage and helped launch the FA Premier League in 1992.
Sky Sports has a series of well known shows such as Soccer AM, which is a morning chat show with jokes, it is sponsored by Gillette Soccer Saturday.
On 22 August 1999, Sky Sports launched Sky Sports Active. The first game was Arsenal vs Manchester United. It gave the viewer to focus either on one player, or look at different camera angles. It soon proved to be successful, and Sky decided to continue it. It can be accessed by pressing the Red Button on your Sky Digital Remote. On 26 August 2014, Sky Sports Active closed and was replaced by Sky Sports split screen (Only on Sky Q 1TB Box and Sky Q 2TB Box)
On 24 November 2002, Sky Sports won the rights to air the UEFA Champions League, with ITV. They had beaten channels such as the BBC and Channel 4 to win it. Part of the deal had stated that ITV would air two games on a Sunday and Sky Sports would air 2 games on a Monday. Sky soon launched an 8-screen 'Champions League Interactive' channel which showed 8 live games.
In November 2006, Sky Sports launched their News advertisement. This ad, with the text "THE UK's FIRST SPORTS NEWS STATION" ran until January 2007 in the UK and Ireland. Sky Sports News launched on TV at the time.
British television networks
Sport in the United Kingdom
British Sky Broadcasting |
Rhetoric is the art of convincing and persuading people by language through public speaking or writing. The root of the word is from Greek ῥητορικὴ [τέχνη] roughly meaning 'the art of speech'.
Webster’s dictionary defines it as “the art or science of using words effectively in speaking or writing, especially the art or science of literary composition.”
The word “effectively” in this definition is a relative matter. What is effective in one context may be entirely different in another cultural setting. Different languages differ in their rhetorical styles – that is, in the way that they use language to accomplish various purposes. People can be trained in this skill. It is the art or the technique of persuasion, used by orators (public speakers), writers and media.
History
Its origin was in Ancient Greece of the 5th century. They made their decisions by speaking for or against proposals in a public place. Also, speeches were made when a person was accused of a serious crime before the magistrates. Because rhetoric was so important to them, the Greeks and Romans wrote about how to be a good rhetorician. This is sometimes called 'secondary rhetoric'. It is a technique which can be taught, and used in writing. An early example is Plato, who wrote his works in the form of dialogues. Each question raised is discussed between two characters. In the ancient world, the Romans, who were much influenced by the ancient Greeks, also used the same methods for decision-making. Cicero was one of their famous orators. In their case, the debates did not involve all citizens, just the Roman Senate or the courts.
In medieval universities rhetoric was taught as part of the curriculum. Rhetoric, dialectic and grammar form the trivium which, with the quadrivium, make up the seven liberal arts of Western culture. During Antiquity and the Middle Ages, rhetoric was used for persuasion in public and political arenas, and also in the courts of justice. The words 'rhetoric' or 'sophism' are often used with a negative meaning, of disinformation or propaganda. As the art of persuasion, the rhetoric continues to be important in present-day public life. They are also used to describe a speech with doubtful or slanted arguments. Several hundred rhetorical figures were recognised by classical rhetoricians. Some of these are still in use, such as metaphor, simile and paradox.
In the modern world, speeches made on television, ideas embedded in advertisements or in front of crowds are all rhetorics. They speak to people directly with the intention of persuading them. Before World War II, radio and print media were powerful tools for rhetoric. The newspapers and books persuade readers towards a particular point of view. Rhetoric does not depend only on a live audience.
Structure
According to Aristotle, a rhetoric has three elements in persuasion:
Ethos: depends on the personal character of the speaker (must appear good, worthy of trust).
Pathos: puts the audience in a fit state of mind (stirs their emotions).
Logos: proof, or apparent proof, provided by the words of the speech (the actual argument).
Contrastive rhetoric
A 1988 study was conducted by Söter in Australia among students who were native speakers of Arabic, Vietnamese and English. The sample, 6th and 11th grade students were asked to write a bedtime story for a young child. Patterns were immediately evident in the different approaches used by the student's in the story writing task.
The Vietnamese stories placed primary focus on characters and the relationships between them (manifested in a great proportion of dialog). English stories placed primary focus on the sequential forward movement of the plot. Arabic stories placed primary focus on descriptive elements of the setting.
Contrastive rhetorics says that people who share a common language might have different rhetoric styles due the influence of culture and exchanges. The discourse goes beyond the target language's native forms of discourse organization or rhetoric.
A paraphrasing task study was done in the USA among Chinese and Russian students. American students were easily able to paraphrase, but Chinese students found it hard, perhaps due to their academic environment influenced by Confucian traditions. Russian students struggled with the paraphrasing because norm in Russian academic environment was that students are only required to read and describe, and was not required to give a personal interpretation or an opinion.
U.S. rhetorical style: ethnocentric sources describe it as typically direct and relatively logical.
Quotes
Some very witty things have been said against orators and their rhetoric:
Plato: "The orator is one who intends to mislead another, without being misled himself".
Kant: "Oratory is the art of playing for one's own purpose upon the weaknesses of men, and merits no respect whatever".
Related pages
Public speaking
References
Hayakawa S.I. Language in thought and action. London: Allen & Unwin.
Other websites
Robert A. Harris. A Handbook of Rhetorical Devices. Virtualsalt, 2013.
The Forest of Rhetoric - silva rhetoricae, Brigham Young University.
Literature
Public speaking
Performing arts |
A skill or technique is a learned ability to do something.
It could be playing a musical instrument or playing a kind of sport or even doing something simple like using a corkscrew. Someone who is trying to do something but not succeeding may be using the wrong technique. Skill does not always have to be something physical: it may refer to the way a person approaches a problem.
Examples of skills are:
Being able to handle a bow or a gun
Being able to speak any language
Reading and writing
Being able to operate computer any how
Skills |
Hamas (, acronym of Harakat al-Muqawama al-Islamiyya, , literally "Islamic Resistance Movement") is a Palestinian Sunni Islamist terrorist group. It was started in 1987 during the First Intifada by Ahmed Yassin and Abdel Aziz al-Rantissi as the Gaza branch of the Muslim Brotherhood organization in Egypt. In the 2006 Palestinian election, Hamas got 74 of 132 seats in parliament and controls the Gaza Strip. The group wants to build a Palestinian state based on Sharia law in the area that is now Israel, the West Bank, and Gaza Strip. It also advocates holy war against Jews and Christians, and wants Muslims to unify against them. Hamas does not recognize the State of Israel.
Name
Hamas is an acronym of the Arabic phrase , or Harakat al-Muqawama al-Islamiyya or "Islamic Resistance Movement".
Violence
Hamas is known for its military wing, the Izz ad-Din al-Qassam Brigades, which plans and carries out attacks on Israel. Because of its policy of suicide bombings and rocket attacks on civilians in Israel, the United States, European Union and other countries call it a terrorist organisation. The country of Jordan has made the group illegal. However, many of the international press, including the English-language edition of the Israeli daily newspaper Haaretz, refer to Hamas members by the more neutral term "militants."
Popularity
In early 2006, Hamas won a clear victory in the vote for the Palestinian parliament. Voters saw Hamas as an alternative to exchange the long-ruling Fatah party, the main part of the PLO. Fatah had not improved the Palestinian people's conditions and reached statehood, and was thought to be corrupt.
Running Gaza
Hamas has shown its organizational ability by building health, education, and social services to help the population in the West Bank and the Gaza Strip, where there is much poverty. Such efforts have increased its support. In the first half of 2007, Hamas gained political control of the Gaza Strip, while Fatah keeps its headquarters in the West Bank. However, Hamas has stolen large amounts of aid money and gotten Gaza in many wars.
Hamas is also associated in some way with Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine headed by Ahmed Jibril.
References
Arab–Israeli conflict
Gaza Strip
National liberation movements
Nationalist organizations in Palestine
Political parties in Asia
Politics of Palestine
Sunni organizations
1987 establishments in Asia
Islamic terrorism |
A suicide attack is an attack where the attacker (either one person or a group of people) plans on killing people and/or destroying property while also dying in the process. In a suicide attack, the attacker dies as a result of the attack, for example in an explosion or a crash.
Nowadays, suicide attacks are often done with a vehicle or an explosive material such as a bomb (a suicide bombing), or sometimes both (i.e. a car filled with explosives). If everything goes according to plan, the attacker is killed as soon as their attack is complete (when their vehicle crashes or their bomb detonates).
Suicide attacks are often done in a crowded place so that as many people as possible are killed. They are common in the Middle East and South Asia. Most attacks on Israel, carried out by Hamas or other Palestinian terrorist groups are suicide bombings.
Suicide attacks |
A laser is a machine that makes an amplified, single-colour source of light. It uses special gases or crystals to make the light with only a single color. The gases are energized to make them emit light. Then mirrors are used to amplify (make stronger) the light. In many lasers all the light travels in one direction, so it stays as a narrow beam of Collimated light that does not get wider or weaker as most sources of light do.
When pointed at something, this narrow beam makes a single point of light. The energy of the light stays in that one narrow beam instead of spreading out like a flashlight (electric torch).
The word "laser" is an acronym for "light amplification by stimulated emission of radiation". Both the device and its name were developed from the earlier Maser.
Mechanism
A laser creates light by special actions involving a material called an "optical gain medium". Energy is put into this material using an 'energy pump'. This can be electricity, another light source, or some other source of energy. The energy makes the material go into what is called an excited state. This means the electrons in the material have extra energy, and after a bit of time they will lose that energy. When they lose the energy they will release a photon (a particle of light). The type of optical gain medium used will change what color (wavelength) will be produced. Releasing photons is the "stimulated emission of radiation" part of laser.
Many things can radiate light, like a light bulb, but the light will not be organized in one direction and phase. By using an electric field to control how the light is created, this light will now be one kind, going in one direction. This is "coherent radiation".
At this point, the light is still weak. The mirrors on either side bounce the light back and forth, and this hits other parts of the optical gain medium, causing those parts to also release photons, generating more light ("light amplification"). When all of the optical gain medium is producing light, this is called saturation and creates a very strong beam of light at a very narrow wavelength, which we would call a laser beam.
Design
The light moves through the medium between the two mirrors that reflect the light back and forth between them. One of the mirrors, however, only partially reflects the light, allowing some to escape. The escaping light makes up the laser beam.
This is a simple design; the type of optical gain medium used usually defines the type of laser. It can be a crystal, examples are ruby and a garnet crystal made of yttrium and aluminum with the rare earth metal mixed in. Gases can be used for laser by using helium, nitrogen, carbon dioxide, neon or others. Large, powerful lasers are usually gas lasers. A free-electron laser uses a beam of electrons and can be tuned to emit different colors. Finally, the smallest lasers use semiconductor diodes to produce the light. These are the most numerous kind, used in electronics.
History
Albert Einstein was the first to have the idea of stimulated emission that could produce a laser. From that point many years were spent to see if the idea worked. At first, people succeeded in making masers and later figured how to make shorter visible wavelengths. It was not until 1959 that the name laser was coined by Gordon Gould in a research paper. The first working laser was put together and operated by Theodore Maiman at the Hughes Research Laboratories in 1960. Many people started working on lasers at this time, and the question of who would get the patent for the laser wasn't decided until 1987 (Gould won the rights).
Applications
Lasers have found many uses in everyday life as well as in industry. Lasers are found in CD and DVD players, where they read the code from the disk that stores a song or movie. A laser is often used to read the bar codes or SQR codes on things sold in a store, to identify a product and give its price. Lasers are used in medicine, particularly in LASIK eye surgery, where the laser is used to repair the shape of the cornea. It is used in chemistry with spectroscopy to identify materials, to find out what kind of gases, solids or liquids something is made of. Stronger lasers can be used to cut metal.
Lasers are used to measure the distance of the Moon from Earth by reflecting off reflectors left by the Apollo missions. By measuring the time it takes for the light to travel to the Moon and back again we can find out exactly how far away the moon is.
Laser pointers are used by people to point at a place on a map or diagram. For example, lecturers use them. Also, many people like to play with laser pointers. Some people have pointed them at aircraft. This is dangerous, and it is also illegal in many countries. People have been arrested and prosecuted for this crime.
Computers commonly use an optical computer mouse as an input device. Modern laser pointers are too big and powerful for this use, so most mice use small VCSEL's, or "Vertical cavity surface-emitting lasers" for this purpose. These lasers are also used in DVD, CD-ROM drives and holography.
References
Light
Machines
Acronyms |
NBC, whose letters stand for National Broadcasting Company, is an American television network that started in 1926 as a radio company. NBC started airing Its first television programs in 1944. NBC is owned by Comcast, and was previously owned by General Electric and Universal Studios. NBC owns the cable news channels CNBC and MSNBC.
It is nicknamed "The Peacock Network" because of the animal in its logo.
The network is famous for its three-note chimes, and NBC Sunday Night Football, which is the most watched TV series after American Idol. Some famous NBC shows are Saturday Night Live, The Fresh Prince of Bel Air, Law and Order, 30 Rock, Frasier, ER, Cheers, Will and Grace, Meet the Press, and Today.
NBC Television Shows
This is Us
Good Morning Miss Bliss
City Guys
Stations
WTHR Indianapolis, Indiana
WNBC New York City, New York
KNBC Los Angeles, California
References
Other websites
Official site
NBC
1926 establishments in the United States
American television networks
Companies based in New York City
Media in the United States |
Thiruvananthapuram () is the capital city of the Indian state of Kerala. The city used to be known by the name of Trivandrum. It is on the west coast of India near the far south of the mainland.
With 889,191 people as of 2001, it is the biggest city in Kerala in terms of size and number of people.
The city is the state capital and houses many national and state government offices, organizations and companies. It is also a major center of learning and is home to several schools and colleges including Kerala University, and to many scientific institutions, the most prominent being the Vikram Sarabhai Space Centre (VSSC), Sree Chitra Tirunal Institute for Medical Sciences and Technology (SCTIMST), Technopark, Rajiv Gandhi Centre for Biotechnology (RGCB) and Indian Institute of Space Science and Technology (IIST).
Origin of name
Thiruvananthapuram literally means "City of Lord Anantha" in Malayalam. The name derives from the god of the Hindu temple at the centre of the city. Anantha is the serpent Shesha on whom Padmanabhan or Vishnu lies. The temple of Vishnu lying on Ananta, the Sri Padmanabhaswamy Temple is the most recognizable landmark of the city. The city was officially known as Trivandrum in English until 1991, when the government decided to change the city's name back to the original name, Thiruvananthapuram, in all languages. However, the city is still widely referred to as "Trivandrum" (now Thiruvananthapuram).
Infrastructure
The city is fully electrified by the Kerala State Electricity Board (KSEB). The district is divided in to three circles: Transmission circle, Thiruvananthapuram city and Kattakkada. Domestic users account for 43% of the total power usage, or 90 million units per month. Thiruvananthapuram district has one 220 kV, nine 110 kV and six 66 kV electrical substations. A 400 kV substation has just been commissioned by the Power Grid Corporation and will ensure high-quality power supply to the city.
The water supply schemes cover 100% within the city limits. It is 84% of the urban and 69% of the rural population, when the district is considered. Peppara and Aruvikkara dams are the main sources of water for distribution in the capital city. The new project plan for improving the water supply with Japan aid covers Thiruvananthapuram city and six suburban panchayats having urban characteristics.
The sewerage system in the city was implemented at the time of the Travancore Kingdom, and modernised in 1938. This scheme for the disposal of sullage and sewage is an underground system. The whole system is controlled by Kerala Water Authority now. The city area is divided in to seven blocks for the execution of the sewerage system, two commissioned in the 1990s and two after 2000. The sewerage is pumped to a stilling chamber at the Sewerage Treatment Plant (STP) at Valiyathura, and is disposed through sewage farming. Diary Development Department maintains this sewage farm and fodder cultivation is done here. There is no revenue generation from this scheme, and the sewerage system in the city is a service provided to the residents.
Strategic Importance
Apart from being the capital of India’s most literate and socially developed state, Thiruvananthapuram is a strategically important city in Southern India. Being the largest city in India’s deep south, it is important for both military logistics and civil aviation in the southern part of the country. It is the headquarters of the Southern Air Command(SAC) of the Indian Air Force. The city is very close to the international shipping route and east–west shipping axis. Also, it falls under the international air route.
Due to the strategic importance of the city, the Indian Air Force authorities have planned to make an aerospace command in SAC.
The plan for setting up a new "Tri-Service Command", which will integrate all the three forces under a single command, is also in the pipeline.
Being the Indian city with the closest air link to the small island-country of Maldives and also Sri Lanka, the city’s medical and health infrastructure caters to patients from both countries, especially Maldives. Exports of perishables and medicines from Trivandrum International Airport run to full capacity on everyday flights to Maldives and Sri Lanka because of this nearness. Thiruvananthapuram also provides a key link in movement of goods and passengers to and from southern Tamil Nadu into Kerala, the state border being just 30 km away. The city is also important for people from around the world seeking help through Ayurveda medicine and therapy. Ayurveda resorts are coming up at a rapid pace along the International Beach of Kovalam and Varkala coast.
Notes
Other websites
Official District website
Public Relations Department Page on Trivandrum
Government of Kerala Website on Thiruvananthapuram District
Capital cities in India
Settlements in Kerala |
Animal Farm is a short novel by George Orwell. It was written during World War II and published in 1945. It is about a group of farm animals who rebel against their farmer. They hope to create a place where the animals can be equal, free, and happy. In the end, however, they are betrayed and the farm ends up as bad it was before.
The story is an allegory, meaning that the author wanted it to represent real life events. It is one of the most famous allegories about political events. It is based on Joseph Stalin's betrayal of the Russian Revolution.
Although rejected by several publishers, when published it became a best-seller. Animal Farm is one of Orwell's two best-known books (the other is Nineteen Eighty-Four) and is widely viewed as a classic. Time magazine chose the book as one of the 100 best English-language novels (1923 to 2005). it also featured at number 31 on the Modern Library List of Best 20th-Century Novels. It won a Retrospective Hugo Award in 1996, and is included in the Great Books of the Western World selection.
Summary
Manor Farm is run by Mr Jones, a cruel and drunken farmer. One day, the animals gather at a meeting to listen to Old Major, a wise old pig. Old Major makes a speech, calling for animals to rise up against their farmers. The animals are very keen about the idea. Old Major dies a few days later. The pigs, who are the most intelligent animals, begin planning a rebellion. They are led by Snowball and Napoleon.
About three months later, the animals revolt against Mr Jones and take over the farm. They change its name to "Animal Farm". They decide the farm will now be ruled only by animals, calling the system "animalism". They write seven commandments, with the most important being "All animals are equal". “Four legs good, two legs bad” becomes a popular chant for the sheep. Mr Jones and his friends attack the farm to try to take it back, but in the "Battle of the Cowshed" the animals drive them away. Mr Jones flees and never returns.
Snowball and Napoleon fall out with each other, as they have different ideas for how Animal Farm should be led. Snowball announces plans to build a windmill, but Napoleon disagrees. Napoleon trains nine puppies, who grow into vicious dogs who will serve him. When the dogs are fully grown, he uses them to chase Snowball off the farm. He takes control and rules the farm by himself (as a dictator). Napoleon uses the dogs to kill any animal that does not agree with him, while a pig called Squealer keeps telling the animals that everything is fine and they should support Napoleon.
Napoleon changes his mind and decides to build a windmill, pretending that it was his idea all along. The first windmill they build collapses. Napoleon blames this (and other problems) on Snowball. He claims that Snowball is sneaking around Animal Farm ruining everything. Many animals are killed for "being in contact with Snowball". Napoleon starts working with human beings outside, even though this used to be forbidden. One of them is their neighbour, a farmer called Mr Frederick. He brings in a group of men who invade the farm and destroy the second windmill. The animals fight them off in the "Battle of the Windmill", at great cost.
As the animals build a third windmill, Boxer, their strongest horse, loses his strength because of old age and collapses. Napoleon sends him to be slaughtered, even though Boxer was loyal to him. The pigs continue to work with humans and start to behave like them, such as living in the farmhouse and walking on two legs. They teach the sheep a new chant: “Four legs good, two legs better”. The commandments are replaced by the words "All animals are equal, but some animals are more equal than others." In the end, other animals watch the pigs talking with a group of humans and decide they cannot tell which is which.
Background
George Orwell who was a socialist and was opposed to dictatorship (rule by one person). In particular, he did not like the communist government of Joseph Stalin in the Soviet Union. In 1936 and 1937, Orwell fought in the Spanish Civil War. He had watched as democratic left-wing rebels were pushed out by pro-Soviet communist rebels. In the introduction to the 1947 Ukrainian translation of Animal Farm, Orwell said he wrote it because he wished to destroy what he called the "Soviet myth".
Orwell said he got the idea from seeing a young boy whipping a large cart horse. He explained, "It struck me that if only such animals became aware of (knew) their strength we should have no power over them, and that men exploit (badly use) animals in much the same way as the rich exploit the proletariat (the poor, the lower class)".
Characters in the book
There are many characters in the book who are based on real people. They are grouped into pigs, horses, humans and other animals.
It also features Bobbin the 3 legged spider who appears before the revolution occurs.
Pigs
Old Major – An old prize-winning pig. He is the one who inspires all the animals to rebel against the humans. The character is based on Karl Marx and Vladimir Lenin, the communist leader of the Russian Revolution.
Napoleon – A large boar (male pig) who at first leads the revolution with Snowball, then grabs power for himself. He is the main villain of the story. The character is based on Joseph Stalin. He is named after Napoleon, who overthrew the government of the French Revolution.
Snowball – He is the pig who is one of the early leaders of the revolution. He is popular among the other animals and wants to make Animal Farm a fair place for them to live. He is mainly based on Leon Trotsky, although Orwell said he was not a supporter of Trotsky. He also has some characteristics taken from Lenin. Napoleon later blames anything that goes wrong on Snowball.
Squealer – He serves as Napoleon's public speaker. He persuades the other animals to support Napoleon, no matter how bad his rule is. He lies, twists the truth and takes advantage of the animals' bad memories. He represents "propaganda", which is news reports and art that is meant to get people supporting something.
Minimus – A poet, who writes the second and third national anthems of Animal Farm, after "Beasts of England" is banned. He creates poems and songs praising Napoleon.
Horses
Boxer – A loyal and dedicated cart-horse. He is the strongest worker among the animals. He is loyal to Napoleon, who later betrays him. He and his companion Clover represent the working class during the Russian Revolution.
Clover – A motherly mare approaching middle age. She is Boxer's companion, and she takes care of him. Like Boxer, she works as a cart-horse on Manor Farm. During the book she has doubts about the pigs' behavior, but she instead assumes she is not remembering things properly. She realises later the situation but is not smart enough to express herself. She represents the educated working class.
Mollie – A foolish, pretty and vain young white mare. She likes sugar so much that when eating of sugar is banned, she smuggles some into the farm. When it is discovered, she leaves for another farm. The character represents the Bourgeoisie (upper class) of the Russian Revolution, who were happy with their life under rule of Tsar Nicholas II and mostly fled the country after the revolution.
Humans
Mr. Jones – The farmer of Manor Farm. The animals revolt against him because he does not feed them or take care of them, and he whips them. He is based on Tsar Nicholas II.
Mr. Pilkington – The farmer of Foxwood, a large neighbouring farm. He and his farm represent the United States. He and Napoleon are seen arguing at the end of the story, which represents the start of the Cold War.
Mr. Frederick – The owner of Pinchfield, a small but well-kept neighbouring farm. He briefly enters into an alliance with Napoleon, but cheats the animals and later invades them. He is a reference to Adolf Hitler.
Other animals
Benjamin – An old donkey. He is bad-tempered but very smart and a friend of the horses. He is thought to represent the older generation - wise enough to see through the pigs' lies, but not willing to stand up to them.
Moses – An old raven who occasionally visits the farm. He tells the animals stories about a heavenly place above the clouds called Sugarcandy Mountain, where he says that all animals go when they die—but only if they work hard. Moses is thought to represent the Church (or religious community) in Russia at the time.
Muriel – A wise old goat who is friends with all of the animals on the farm.
Bluebell and Jessie – A mated pair of dogs. Their puppies are taken away from them by Napoleon at birth.
The Sheep – The sheep are said to be the stupidest of the animals. They blindly follow Napoleon and chant slogans like "Four legs good, two legs bad." Sometimes, Napoleon gets the sheep chanting to stop people talking, a trick that Stalin sometimes used.
The Hens – The hens are among the first to rebel against Napoleon.
The Dogs – Napoleon raises nine puppies to be his bodyguards and secret police. They serve only Napoleon, and kill anyone who is against him.
The Cows – Their milk is stolen by the pigs, who learn to milk them. It is stirred into the pigs' food every day while the other animals are not allowed to have any.
The Cat – The cat never does any work, but she is forgiven because her excuses are so convincing. She has no interest in the politics of the farm.
Animalism
Animal-ism is a system of beliefs shared by the farm animals of Manor Farm. The purpose is to ensure the farm animals behave like actual animals and not follow the footsteps of humans beings. Therefore, any human behavior is considered contrary to the spirit of Animalism.
Beasts of England
"Beasts of England" is a song that is featured in the story. The tune as said to be "a cross between La Cucaracha and Oh, My Darling Clementine". Old Major teaches the song to the animals in an early scene, and it becomes very popular. It becomes the first national anthem of Animal Farm. Later on, Napoleon orders a new anthem to be written, with words that praise him.
Commandments
These are the original commandments laid down by the pigs.
Whatever goes upon two legs is an enemy.
Whatever goes upon four legs, or has wings, is a friend.
No animal shall wear clothes.
No animal shall sleep in a bed.
No animal shall drink alcohol.
No animal shall kill any other animal.
All animals are equal.
For the sheep, who are said to be stupid, they are instead taught the chant "Four legs good, two legs bad." Napoleon sometimes gets the sheep to chant this when he wants the animals to stop talking.
As the story goes on, the pigs start changing the commandments. For example, "No animal shall drink alcohol" becomes "No animal shall drink alcohol to excess". By the end of the story, all the commandments have been erased apart from "All animals are equal", which has been changed to "All Animals are equal but some animals are more equal than others." Meanwhile, the sheep chant has been changed to "Four legs good, two legs better."
References
Other websites
1940s books
Books by George Orwell
1945 works |
Miso (味噌 or みそ) is a thick or solid paste. It is a traditional Japanese seasoning.
Miso is similar to the Korean doenjang. It is made by fermenting soy beans with sea salt or salt and kōji. Kōji is the product of fermenting rice, barley, or soybeans with a mold culture, Kōji-kin (Aspergillus oryzae). Often, grains such as barley or rice, and sometimes other ingredients, are added. Miso is high in protein and rich in vitamins and minerals. Miso tastes salty and, depending on the grains used and fermentation time, may also be sweet. Miso is used to make miso soup.
Miso is a very important part of Japanese food. There are different kinds of miso. Kome miso (米味噌) is made from rice and beans. Mame miso (豆味噌) is made from beans. Mugi miso (麦味噌) is made from barley and beans. Awase miso (合せ味噌) is a mix of these misos.
History
Miso first came to Japan from China or the Korean peninsula. Ancient Chinese jan (醤) is the origin of miso. Jan is an ancient fermented seasoning. According to classical scholars, jan was called hishio or kuki in the Edo era. In China, jan was written about in the Shurai.
Miso existed in the Jomon era in Japan. Jan is the Japanese original seasoning. In the Nara era, jan was found in Nishi city, Heiankyo. Miso was used for seasoning porridge made of rice and vegetables. In the Sengoku period, Miso was important to preserved food.
Many Japanese used to make miso in their own homes. This was called Temae-miso. In the Muromachi era, it was used as a food preservative and as a seasoning. Miso was an important source of nutrients for soldiers. In the Edo era, industrial mass production method of miso began. Temae-miso became less common. "Temae-miso" nowadays also used when a person is proud of something.
There are many different flavors of miso. It depends on regions. Shiromiso (白味噌) is popular in the western Kansai region, especially in Kyoto. Akamiso is popular in the eastern Kantō region or northern region. Shinshumiso (信州味噌) is generally popular after the second world war, because it is mass produced in factories and sold in supermarkets in over Japan.
References
http://miso.or.jp/misoonline/wp-content/uploads/2012/09/miso-english-leaflet.pdf
Japan Federation of Miso Manufacturers Cooperatives - official site
Japanese food |
in Japanese) is a traditional Japanese soup. It is made from a kind of broth or stock, called "dashi" into which miso paste is dissolved. Various solid ingredients like wakame, seaweed, tofu from soybeans, and sometimes mushrooms, potatos, and eggplants are added to make the finished soup. The soup is usually served in bowls, sometimes in lacquer bowls. They can be drunk directly from the bowl without using a spoon. Solid ingredients are eaten with chopsticks (箸). Different types of miso produce distinctive soups. There are three main types of miso: dark-brown, white, and a combination of the two.
Related pages
Miso (味噌)
Other websites
Miso soup recipe (with photo)
Kosher Miso soup recipe chabad.org
Soups
Japanese food |
Wakame (Japanese: わかめ or 若布) is a type of kelp. People eat it. Its scientific name is Undaria pinnatifida.
It is sold either dried or salted. It is often used in miso soup and salads. In Korea it is called miyeok. It is used in salads, or as the main ingredient in miyeok soup. In China it is called qundaicai. Chinese production is concentrated around Dalian.
In New Zealand Undaria pinnatifida is a very serious weed, and is one of the 100 worst invasive species in the world. It was first seen in Wellington Harbour in 1987. It probably arrived accidentally in the late 1980s, on ships from Asia, in ballast water. It is native to cold temperate coastal areas of Japan, Korea and China, but recently it has also spread to France, Britain, Spain, Italy, Argentina and Australia.
Undaria is now found around much of south-eastern New Zealand, and as far north as Auckland. It spreads in two ways. Naturally, through the millions of microscopic spores released by each fertile plant; and attached to vessel hulls and marine farming equipment.
Undaria is a highly successful and fertile species, which makes it a serious invader.
Other websites
Seaweeds used as human food
AlgaeBase link
Algae
Vegetables |
Kelp is a type of marine seaweed. It is a brown algae. There are many different kinds of kelp. Kelp grow in large forests, usually near the surface of the water. It grows in nutrient rich saltwater. Some kelps grow very fast (up to 30 cm a day). Kelp can reach a length of up to 60 metres. The blades are kept afloat by gas-filled bladders.
Kelp plays an important role as food and habitat for fish and other forms. It may be eaten as a vegetable.
Kelp is found in many places. People put it in aquariums. In the Monterey Aquarium there is a large forest of kelp.
In some parts of the Pacific Ocean, sea urchins have eaten so much kelp that the kelp forests become urchin barrens.
References
Algae
Vegetables |
Tofu (豆腐), sometimes also called doufu (usually used in Chinese recipes) or bean curd (literal translation), is a food made from soybeans. In fact, it is a very complex process. Tofu is made by coagulating soy milk, and then pressing the resulting curds into blocks. The making of tofu from soy milk is similar to the technique of making cheese from milk. Wheat gluten, or seitan, in its steamed and fried forms, is often mistakenly called "tofu" in Asian or vegetarian dishes.
China
China has more kinds of tofu than Japan and various tofu foods.
Japan
In Japan, tofu is a common food, used often in miso soup or as a hot dish. People in Japan has created various kinds of tofu. One of them is 絹こし豆腐 (or soft tofu), 木綿豆腐 (or firm tofu, or solid tofu) and "凍み豆腐" (or dried tofu). It is said that the way to make tofu from soybeans was taught by the Chinese a several hundreds years ago. you can find its very first history in a diary of 奈良春日大社 in 1183 of the Heian period.
America
In the United States, tofu is becoming more popular. Today, Americans buy tofu at the grocery store. The word “tofu” takes root in common use.
Others
In South Korea, Vietnam, Cambodia, Thailand, Malaysia, Myanmar and Indonesia, tofu is daily food.
Nutrition
Tofu is rich in textured vegetable protein and is relatively low in calories. Dietary fiber is a little for process. More and more Americans and Europeans use it as health food.
Popular tofu dishes
Cold tofu
Boiled tofu
Sukiyaki
Hot dish
Oden
Notes
References
Foods
Chinese food
Japanese food |
Soy milk (also called soymilk, soya milk, soybean milk, soy bean milk, soy drink, or soy beverage) is a milk-like product made from soybeans.
Soy milk originated in China where the soybean was native. Later on, the soybean and soybean foods came to Japan.
Related pages
Soy milk maker
Plant milks |
Dashi (出汁、だし) is a kind of stock or broth mainly used for soup or dishes in Japanese cooking. The most common form of dashi is a simple broth or stock made by kombu (edible kelp) or katsuobushi (flakes of dried skipjack tuna) in boiling water. niboshi (煮干し) is also used, too. It is not always necessary to strain the resulting liquid. Dashi can be a basis for miso soup, Japanese noodle (うどん or そば) soup, and many other Japanese simmering (or boiling) liquids. Fresh dashi made from kelp and katsuobushi is not so popular today in Japan. Some people use instant substitutes to add boiled water.
Other kinds of dashi stock are made by soaking (or putting) kelp, shiitake, or niboshi in cool water for many hours. Or they are made by heating them in water nearly to boiling and then straining the resulting broth. Kelp stock or konbu dashi is made by soaking kelp, or sea tangle, in water. Shiitake dashi stock is made by soaking dried shiitake mushrooms in water. Niboshi dashi stock is made by soaking dried small sardines. Some use niboshi after taking off (or pinching off) their heads and entrails in water, but others use whole niboshi as this way get tasty dashi, too.
Other important Japanese flavors include shoyu, mirin, rice vinegar, miso, and sake.
Related pages
Broth
References
Food ingredients
Soups
Japanese food |
The shiitake mushroom, or simply called "shiitake"(椎茸) (Lentinus edodes or Lentinula edodes) is also known as Chinese black mushroom or black forest mushroom. It is also called "black mushroom". It is an edible mushroom, which is typically grown on the tree, such as shii, kunugi and oak.
There are two variant names. For high grades of shiitake is dōnggū (冬茹: どんこ) ("winter mushroom"). And another is huāgū ("flower mushroom," (香信: こうしん) which has a flower-like cracking pattern on the mushroom's upper surface). Both are produced at colder temperatures. There are many cultivated varieties, which grow-up in a temperature at 7C - 26C, most cultivars like cooler tempertatures.
Notes
Edible fungi |
Soy sauce (US) or soya sauce is a fermented sauce made from soy beans (soya beans), roasted grain, water and salt. It is commonly used in Chinese, Japanese and Korean cuisine. It appears in some Western cuisine dishes, especially as an ingredient in Worcestershire sauce. Real soy sauces are fermented with kōji (麹, the mold Aspergillus oryzae or A. sojae) and other related microorganisms.
Almost all soy sauce has some alcohol added during bottling. This acts as a preservative to protect it from going bad. For this reason, soy sauce should always be kept in the fridge. It should also not be put in direct light. An opened bottle of soy sauce that has been left unrefrigerated could become slightly bitter.
Although there are many types of soy sauce, all are salty and earthy-tasting brownish liquids used to season food while cooking or at the table. What some westerners can only describe as a flavorful, kind of sweet taste is a distinct basic taste called "umami" by the Japanese and "xian-wei" (鲜味, lit. fresh taste) by the Chinese.
Although this seasoning was first used in China, it is used several cuisines across Asia and is a particularly important flavoring in Japanese cuisine. There are many types of sauce.
Soy links
About Chinese food
Health information
Condiments
Sauces |
A bowl is a container for food. It can hold liquids, such as soups and solids, like popcorn. People also prepare salads in it. A bowl is like a ball cut in half. Bowls are usually made from glass, ceramic, wood or plastic. There is a lot of history regarding bowls, but they are known to first be found in China, 20,000 years ago.
Kitchenware |
The Oktoberfest (also called Wiesn) is a German festival that takes place on the Theresienwiese, a public place in the center of Munich, Bavaria. It is every year, in late September and early October. It is a big social event. There is lots of eating and drinking. It is on for sixteen days ending on the first Sunday in October. If this is the first or the second the festival is extended to the end on 3 October, the Day of German Unity. This is the day when East Germany and West Germany joined into one country again in 1990.
History
The first Oktoberfest was on 12 October 1810. The feast was for the wedding of King Ludwig I of Bavaria and Therese of Sachsen-Hildburghausen. The feast lasted for 5 days. There was music, eating and drinking. At the end of it there was a big horse-race. The next years they had this horse-race and the feast again, because the people had liked it so much.
On 26 September 1980, a right-wing lone wolf terrorist killed 12 people and himself using a bomb.
Today
Today the Oktoberfest is the world's largest fair, and it has become very famous and popular. About six million people visit it every year. Many people and tourists from all over the world come to Munich for Oktoberfest. Other cities have copied the Oktoberfest, and now they also hold feasts that are similar to the Oktoberfest.
One of the famous attractions is a big dipper called the "Wilde Maus" which means "Wild mouse" in English.
The tents
There are 14 main tents at the Oktoberfest.
1810 establishments in Europe
1810s establishments in Germany
Entertainment in Germany
Festivals in Europe
Munich |
Tomb Raider is a computer and video game series. Originally the games were made by Core Design. Now they are being made by Crystal Dynamics. The first game was sold in 1996 for PC, PlayStation and Sega Saturn.
The main character of the game is a woman called Lara Croft. She is an archeologist and explores ancient places, searching old relics, often fighting a great danger to the world.
Since 2001, Paramount Pictures has made two movies like the game, starring Angelina Jolie. And 2018 movies, Angelina Jolie has been switch into Alicia Vikander.
Games in the series
The first six games in the series was made by Core Design. In 2003, parent company Eidos moved development of the Tomb Raider games from Core Design to Crystal Dynamics, another Eidos-owned studio, after the sixth game, Tomb Raider: The Angel of Darkness, was met with dislike from critics.
Main games
Tomb Raider (1996)
Tomb Raider II (1997)
Tomb Raider III (1998)
Tomb Raider: The Last Revelation (1999)
Tomb Raider Chronicles (2000)
Tomb Raider: The Angel of Darkness (2003)
Tomb Raider: Legends (2006)
Tomb Raider: Anniversary (2007)
Tomb Raider: Underworld (2008)
Tomb Raider (2013)
Rise of the Tomb Raider (2015)
Shadow of the Tomb Raider (2018)
Spin-offs
Tomb Raider (2000)
Tomb Raider: Curse of the Sword (2001)
Tomb Raider: The Prophecy (2002)
Lara Croft and the Guardian of Light (2010)
Released Tomb Raider movies
Lara Croft: Tomb Raider (2001)
Tomb Raider: The Cradle of Life (2003)
Tomb Raider Reboot (2018)
References
Video game series |
A hot dog (or hotdog) is an American fast food. It was first created in Germany. In the United States, hot dogs are very popular in areas with large numbers of European immigrants, such as Chicago, Brooklyn and Detroit. The word "hot dog" refers to the belief that many people thought hot dogs had actual dog meat. In a few places, hot dogs are also called red-hots.
A hot dog is made of the remains of the pig after other parts are cut off and sold as bacon, sausage patties, and ham. However many people across the world eat hot dogs and enjoy them very much. Hot dogs can be boiled, grilled, or fried. The word frankfurter comes from Frankfurt, Germany. This sausage is usually served in a bun or another type of bread. The most common type of hot dogs are made from beef, sometimes mixed with pork. Chicken and vegetarian hot dogs are popular as well. Hot dogs and other sausage products were first developed as a way to sell these parts that people would not normally eat. Nearly 20% of the weight of a hot dog is usually non-meat ingredients including water, sugar, and spices. Some legal categories of hot dogs, such as "frankfurters" can contain up to 3.5% of non-meat fillers as well, such as corn meal.
To add to the taste, various toppings and sauces are often added. The most common sauces in the United States are ketchup, mustard and pickle relish. Onions, chopped pickles, peppers, hot sauce and cheese are also sometimes added to the food. Onions cooked in tomato sauce and Sauerkraut are popular toppings, as is chili.
In the United States, there are many different types of hot dogs, with different combinations of chili, cheese, onions, mustard, and other products. One of the most popular types of hot dogs is a chili dog. There are many different types of chili dogs. One of the most well-known is a Coney Island dog, a dog topped with a blend of chili, cheese, mustard and onions that is originally from Michigan.
Other types of chili dogs include Michigan dogs, which are from upstate New York, and Texas dogs, which are from Pennsylvania. Both Michigan and Texas dogs are spicy; the Texas dog has spicy sauce and the Michigan dog has a spicy weiner. Chili dogs are also popular in the Southwestern United States. Another type of hot dog is a Chicago dog, which is a Vienna beef weiner topped with mustard, onion, neon green pickle relish, peppers, tomatoes and a pickle.
A type of hot dog called a "kosher hot dog" is very common in parts of the United States and overseas. It is similar to most hot dogs except that it is always made of Kosher beef, has more spice added to it. Kosher hotdogs contain less of the less desirable sounding ingredients (such as rectum) as these parts are not considered to be Kosher beef. Halal hot dogs are also made.
Though hot dogs are most popular in the United States, they are served in many places around the world. People in Japan eat a lot of hot dogs, and the world's largest hot dog ever was made there. In some countries, "hot dog" is the name of a completely different sausage dish; for example, in New Zealand it is used to mean corn dog, and hot dogs are called "American hot dogs" instead.
References
Sausage
German food
American food |
Constipation is when it is very hard to pass stool (defecate): that is, get rid of digested food waste (feces). Constipation can be caused by many things. One is eating or drinking too much dairy products that use cow milk. To solve this problem many people use a laxative or eat defecation-inducing foods such as plums. Another possible cause could be an obstruction somewhere along the digestive tract (the path that food travels inside the body). A person suffers from constipation if he or she passes stool three times in a week or more seldom. People suffering from constipation may defecate only once or twice in a week, and their stool is very solid and tough. Normally people defecate daily.
When a person is constipated their lower stomach and intestinal area will be blocked. People can usually conquer constipation by eating natural laxatives such a fruits, fruit juice and dietary supplements. Liquid will help get rid of constipation. Constipation can occur by eating hard food such as cheese or meat.
A good way on preventing constipation is to eat foods which contain fiber such as whole grain
Papaya and guava is very rich in fiber and potassium should be consume after meal everydayGet rid of constipation .
The seven types of stool are:
Type 1: Separate hard lumps, like nuts (hard to pass)
Type 2: Sausage-shaped, but lumpy, and passing it feels very painful, "like childbirth"
Type 3: Like a sausage but with cracks on its surface
Type 4: Like a sausage or snake, smooth and soft
Type 5: Soft blobs with clear cut edges (passed easily)
Type 6: Fluffy pieces with ragged edges, a mushy stool
Type 7: Watery, no solid pieces. Entirely liquid
Types 1 and 2 indicate constipation, with 3 and 4 being the "ideal stools", especially the latter, as they are the easiest to defecate, and 5–7 tending towards diarrhoea.
Diseases and disorders of the digestive system |
A kernel is the central part of an operating system. It manages the operations of the computer and the hardware, most notably memory and CPU time. Kernels also provide services which programs can use through system calls.
There are five types of kernels:
A micro kernel - A kernel which only contains the basic functionality;
A monolithic kernel - A kernel which contains many device drivers. The Linux kernel is an example of a monolithic kernel.
Hybrid Kernel - The Microsoft Windows NT kernel is an example of a hybrid kernel.
Exokernel
Nanokernel
A typical computer user never interacts directly with the kernel. It runs behind the scenes and cannot be seen, except for the text logs that it prints.
Operations of kernel
The kernel is the most fundamental part of an operating system. It can be thought of as the program which controls all other programs on the computer. When the computer starts, it goes through some initialization (booting) functions, such as checking memory. It is responsible for assigning and unassigning memory space which allows software to run.
The kernel provides services so programs can request the use of the network card, the disk or other pieces of hardware. The kernel forwards the request to special programs called device drivers which control the hardware. It also manages the file system and sets interrupts for the CPU to enable multitasking. Many kernels are also responsible for ensuring that faulty programs do not interfere with the operation of others by denying access to memory that has not been allocated to them and restricting the amount of CPU time they can consume.
It is the heart of the operating system.
Micro kernels and monolithic kernels
Operating systems commonly use monolithic kernels. In Linux, for example, device drivers are often part of a kernel (specifically Loadable Kernel Modules). When a device is needed, its extension is loaded and 'joined' onto the kernel making the kernel larger. Monolithic kernels can cause trouble when one of these drivers is faulty, such as if a beta driver is downloaded. Because it is part of the kernel the faulty driver can override the mechanisms that deal with faulty programs (see above). This can mean that the kernel, and thus the entire computer, can cease to function. If there are too many devices, the kernel can also run out of memory causing a system crash or making the computer very slow.
Microkernels are a way of solving this problem. In a microkernel operating system, the kernel deals only with critical activities, such as controlling the memory and CPU, and nothing else. Drivers and other functions that monolithic kernels would normally include within the kernel are moved outside the kernel, where they are under control. Instead of being an uncontrollable part of the kernel the beta driver is, therefore, no more likely to cause a crash than a beta web browser. That is, if a driver goes wrong it can simply be restarted by the kernel. Unfortunately, creating microkernel based operating systems is very difficult and there are no common microkernel operating systems. Minix and QNX are both microkernel operating systems.
References
Computer science |
Ulm is a city in Germany, in the state of Baden-Württemberg. It was started in about 850 AD.
It is on the left side of the river Danube. Across the river on the right side is Neu-Ulm in Bavaria. Together they have more than 170,000 inhabitants. Ulm alone has about 120,000 inhabitants.
The university of Ulm was started in 1967. It has about 7000 students.
The world's highest church tower is the Ulmer Münster (161,5m) in Ulm. Also, Ulm has the oldest city theatre in Germany. Albert Einstein was born in Ulm.
References
Other websites
Imperial free cities
850s establishments
9th-century establishments in Europe
Establishments in Germany |
A country is landlocked if it has no access to any oceans or seas.
As an example, Austria is landlocked. France is not landlocked because it has access to the Mediterranean and the Atlantic Ocean. A sea is also landlocked if does not have access to an ocean. This is also called an endorheic basin. As an example, the Caspian Sea is landlocked. The Gulf of Mexico is not landlocked because it has access to the Atlantic Ocean.
Examples of landlocked countries:
Armenia
Austria
Luxembourg
Chad
Examples of landlocked water:
Caspian sea
Great Salt Lake
The Black Sea is almost landlocked
If a country is landlocked by landlocked countries (surrounded by landlocked countries), then it is doubly landlocked. Liechtenstein, Uzbekistan and unrecognized state Artsakh are the only three doubly landlocked countries in the world. |
Kyrgyzstan, officially the Kyrgyz Republic, is a country in Central Asia. The country is landlocked (has no coast) and mountainous. It has borders with China, Kazakhstan, Tajikistan, and Uzbekistan. Its capital is Bishkek. It was a socialist republic of the Soviet Union, but became independent in 1991. The country was peaceful in the 1990s. Its president, Askar Akayev showed an autocratic and authoritarian character.
In 2005, there was an unexpected revolution after the elections of parliament (the legislature) in March. President Akayev resigned on April 4 of that year. Opposition leaders formed a coalition (a group from more than one party), and a new government was formed, led by President Kurmanbek Bakiyev and Prime Minister Feliks Kulov.
At the moment, different political groups are fighting for power in the republic. Three of the 75 elected members of Parliament have been murdered. Kyrgyzstan’s main religion is Islam.
Geography
Kyrgyzstan is a landlocked country in Central Asia. It is farther from the ocean than any other country in the world. It borders Kazakhstan, China, Tajikistan and Uzbekistan. Mountains cover over 80% of the country.
The land area of Kyrgyzstan is just a little bigger than the state of Nebraska.
Issyk-Kul Lake is the largest lake in Kyrgyzstan. It is the largest mountain lake in Asia and the second largest mountain lake in the world after Titicaca. Peak Jengish Chokusu, at 7,439 m (24,406 ft), is the highest point. The highest peaks are in the Kakshaal-Too range.
Bishkek, the capital city, is in the north. It is largest city in Kyrgyzstan. The second largest is the ancient town of Osh.
Cities
Economy
Kyrgyzstan was the second poorest country in the former Soviet Union next to Tajikistan. Now it is the second poorest country in Central Asia.
Agriculture is an important part of the economy in Kyrgyzstan. Much farming is still being done by hand and by horse. Main crops include wheat, sugar beets, potatoes, cotton, tobacco, vegetables, and fruit.
Kyrgyzstan is rich in mineral resources. It has small petroleum and natural gas reserves. Among its mineral reserves are solid amount of coal, gold, uranium, antimony and other metals but not iron. Metallurgy is an important industry.
Imports include petroleum and natural gas, ferrous metals, chemicals, most machinery, wood and paper products, food and construction materials. Its trade partners are Germany, Russia, China, Kazakhstan, and Uzbekistan.
Related pages
Kyrgyzstan at the Olympics
Kyrgyzstan national football team
List of rivers of Kyrgyzstan
References
Members of the Organisation of Islamic Cooperation |
Kebab (kebap in Turkish, kabab in Iran, Afghanistan, India and Pakistan, also spelled kebob, kabob; ) means "grilled (or broiled) meat" in Persian and Turkish. Kebab is usually made of lamb and beef. Sometimes chicken and fish are used for some styles. Pork is never used by Muslims but is sometimes used by non-Muslim sellers. Muslims are not allowed to eat pork, for religious reasons.
There are many varieties of kebab and the term means different things in different countries. The generic term kebab usually refers to doner kebab or döner kebap in Europe and to Gyros in the United States, though its meaning can vary. In South Asia the term can refer to a whole range of items such as Chappali kabab, Shami kabab, Bihari kabab and so on.
History
There are evidence of hominin use of fire and cooking that was used in the Middle East around 790,000 years ago, and prehistoric hearths, earth ovens, and burnt animal bones were spread across Europe and the Middle East by at least 250,000 years ago. Excavations of the Minoan settlement of Akrotiri unearthed stone supports for skewers used before the 17th century BC. In Ancient Greek times, Homer in the Iliad (1.465) mentions pieces of meat roasted on spits (),
Variations
There are many types of kebab. Below are just a few.
Shish
Shish kebabs are derived from the Turkish şiş which means skewer. They are cooked or grilled on skewers, over hot coals or wood. These kababs originated in Iran and Afghanistan and then spread out to Turkey, Azerbaijan, Pakistan, India. They are also very popular now in Europe and the United States.
Döner
Döner kebap (which means "rotating kebab" in Turkish) is sliced lamb, beef, or chicken, that is slowly roasted on a vertical rotating spit.
Chappali
Chappali kabab or chappal kabab or chapli kebab is a type of fried kebab. It started in the North-West Frontier Province (now Khyber Pakhtunkhwa) of present Pakistan and in Afghanistan. The name comes from the Pashto (and also Urdu) word for 'slipper' or 'shoe'. The kebab is actually called a 'slipper/shoe kebab'. Its shape is like that of a slipper or shoe.
This kebab is basically made from ground or minced beef or mutton mixed with tomatoes, onions and chillies, and a variety of herbs and spices. It is given its unique shape. It is fried in a special big pan. It is eaten with big roti bread typical of the Pathan region. Often Qahwa or green tea, is drunk with it or after it, to help digestion.
Chappali kabab is very popular throughout Pakistan. It has spread to major cities of the country such as Lahore and Karachi. According to gourmets, the best ones are still found in Peshawar city and Mardan. Today, the popularity of these kebabs is also gradually spreading to other parts of the world, including the United Arab Emirates, Saudi Arabia, the United Kingdom, Canada, Australia and the United States.
Related pages
Gyros (food)
Souvlaki
References
Middle Eastern foods
Afghanistan
Pakistani food
Persian food
Turkish food
Azerbaijani food
Greek food |
Halal (حلال, halāl, halaal) is an Islamic Arabic term meaning "permissible".
Muslims have strict rules of what they can and cannot eat:
Animals need to be killed in a special way. (The animal should be slaughtered by hand so that all the blood could be drained from the slaughtered {dead} animal before they can eat the animal. It is called "Zabihah Halal" in Arabic language meaning "Permissible Slaughter".)
Muslims cannot consume carcass animals even the animal slaughtered by knife not in its neck called Mari' and wajadan. Hunting animals can be eaten, but in a special manner.
Pork "He has only forbidden you what dies of itself, and blood, and flesh of swine, and that over which any other (name) than (that of) Allah has been invoked; but whoever is driven to necessity, not desiring, nor exceeding the limit, no sin shall be upon him; surely Allah is Forgiving, Merciful." (Quran 2:173)
According to the Shafi'i, Maliki and Hanbali branches of Islam, all fish and shellfish would be halal. All sea food is allowed to Muslims.
They should not drink alcohol or consume other intoxicating substances in the wrong way (for example, narcotics). All substances that takes away the minds - with no medical purpose- are forbidden.
Some sources even argue caffeine, like alcohol and drugs, to be haram, which is the full opposite of halal.
References
Food and drink
Islam
zh:清真#符合“清真”的食物 |
Surat is a city in the State of Gujarat, India. It is on the banks of the Tapti river. Surat used to be a large seaport. It is the eighth largest city in India. According to the 2020 reports on the ‘cleanest cities of India’, Surat ranked second out of 4,242 cities in India.
References
Cities in India
Settlements in Gujarat |
Kanpur is a city in Uttar Pradesh, India. Almost three million people live in Kanpur.
It was called the Manchester of India.
References
Cities and towns in Uttar Pradesh
Towns in India |
An internet portal or web portal is a website used to enter the Internet. It can also be used to describe a website to enter certain parts of the Internet, like Wikipedia's Community Portal. A web portal can be used to provide the user with personalised information such as employee training, safety manuals or a customer profile. A web portal can also be used to enhance the collaboration of information and improve the way employees, customers and suppliers interact with your business.
A web portal is capable of handling both structured and unstructured information. For users, it provides ease of navigation, and for enterprises it provides significant cost savings, improved productivity and a way to establish a long-lasting relationship with users.
Many ISPs have their own portals, but there are many other portals by other companies, like Microsoft's MSN, Ask.com, and Yahoo!.
References
Internet |
Humanism is a philosophy or a way of thinking about the world. Humanism is a set of ethics or ideas about how people should live and act. People who hold this set of ethics are called humanists. Humanists prefer critical thinking and evidence (rationalism and empiricism) over acceptance of dogma or superstition.
In modern times, humanism is close to secularism. It refers to a non-theistic approach to life, looking to science instead of religious dogma in order to understand the world. The term was made widely known by scientists in the mid-20th century. Many wanted to recognise human values, but without depending on religion as the main source of values.
Views held by many humanists include:
Humans deserve respect. Every human should be treated with respect and allowed to have dignity. If all people act with respect for others, then people will live in peace and trust.
People should all be able to decide how they want to live their lives. They should use reasoning to make decisions and solve problems.
Humanists decide what choices are good by whether those choices will help make human life better and the world around them.
History
Humanist ideas were discussed in Ancient Greece, from Thales to Anaxagoras and Protagoras. The teachings of Zarathushtra and Lao Tzu had strong elements of humanism, and there are many other examples.
The writings of the ancient Greeks were studied in the 1400s during the Renaissance. However, in this period the term "humanism" came to mean educated in the humanities, a rather different kind of idea. Petrarch is often cited as the first modern humanist, but he pointed backwards to classical authors. The modern meaning of humanism is more to do with using science to make the world a better place.
A comment by the English mathematician and philosopher Alfred North Whitehead in 1925 was
"The prophecy of Francis Bacon has now been fulfilled; and man, who at times dreamt of himself as a little lower than the angels, has submitted to become the servant and the minister of nature. It still remains to be seen whether the same actor can play both parts".
References
Humanism |
The Guardian is a British newspaper. It is published every day, except on Sunday. It is owned by the same company as The Observer, which only publishes on Sunday. The Guardian is edited by Katharine Viner.
History
The newspaper was founded in 1821. It was founded by textile traders and merchants. The Guardian was seen as "an organ of the middle class", or, in the words of C.P. Scott's son Ted, "a paper that will remain bourgeois to the last". In 2005, Sir Max Hastings stated that he writes for The Guardian "because it is read by the new establishment", reflecting the paper's growing influence.
Until 1959 The Guardian was called The Manchester Guardian.
Three of the four people who wrote leaders for the Guardian joined the Social Democratic Party on its foundation in 1982. The paper supported Tony Blair when he wanted to lead the Labour Party and to become Prime Minister.
In 1999 theguardian.com started. At the time it was a website called Guardian Unlimited.
Characteristics
The Guardian describes itself as centre-left.
References
Other websites
History of the Guardian
Founding of the Manchester Guardian
1821 establishments
Newspapers published in the United Kingdom
1820s establishments in the United Kingdom
Guardian Newspaper (e-paper) |
Algae (one alga, but several algae) are a type of plant-like living things that can make food from sunlight by photosynthesis. The study of algae is called phycology or algology.
The term covers a range of photosynthetic organisms, and many are not closely related. They are a polyphyletic group.
The term lumps together many different kinds of organisms. They have in common only that they are autotrophic: they use natural sources of energy and simple inorganic materials to build their forms. As non-vascular plants they do not have the kind of cell and tissue structure of land plants. They are a convenient but very loose term. Only in recent years has it become clear how different the many kinds of algae are.
Etymology and study
The singular is the Latin word for 'seaweed' and retains that meaning in English. Although some say that it is related to Latin , 'be cold'. But, no reason is known to associate seaweed with temperature. A more likely source is , 'binding, entwining'.
The Ancient Greek word for 'seaweed' was (), which could either mean the seaweed (probably red algae) or a red dye that is got from it.
Biology and taxonomy
Algae are a large and diverse group of simple, typically autotrophic organisms. Some have one cell and others have many cells. The largest and most complex marine algae are called seaweeds. They are like plants, and "simple" because they lack the many distinct organs found in land plants. For that reason they are not classified as plants.
Though the prokaryotic cyanobacteria (formerly referred to as blue-green algae) were included as "algae" in older textbooks, it is not now. The term algae is now used for eukaryotic organisms. All true algae have a nucleus within a membrane and chloroplasts inside one or more membranes. However, algae are definitely not a monophyletic group, as they do not all descend from a common algal ancestor. Modern taxonomists propose splitting them up into monophyletic groups, but not everyone agrees how to do this.
Algae do not have the same structures that land plants do, such as leaves, roots, and other organs. Nearly all algae have parts that do photosynthesis the same way as cyanobacteria. They make oxygen, unlike other photosynthetic bacteria such as purple and green bacteria. Some unicellular species use only external energy sources and have limited or no photosynthetic parts.
Fossilized filamentous algae from the Vindhya basin have been dated back to 1.6 to 1.7 billion years ago.
Types of algae
Below are some important kinds of algae. The list is not complete.
Green algae: they are regarded as plants because they use the same type of chlorophyll as green plants do. An evolutionary relationship between green algae and green plants is assumed.
Red algae: use a red pigment to capture the energy of sunlight, and so thought to have evolved separately from green plants.
Brown algae: use chlorophyll a, but have several other biochemical differences. Also not considered a green plant.
Yellow-green algae: the Xanthophyceae.
Golden algae: the Chrysophyceae.
Life style
Ecology
Algae are usually found in damp places or water, and are common on land and water. However, algae on land are usually inconspicuous and are far more common in moist, tropical regions than dry ones. Algae do not have vascular tissues and other adaptations to live on land, but they can endure dryness and other conditions in symbiosis with a fungus as lichen.
The various sorts of algae play significant roles in aquatic ecology. Microscopic forms that live suspended in the water column are called phytoplankton. They provide the food base for most marine food chains. Kelp grows mostly in shallow marine waters. Some are used as human food or harvested for agar or fertilizer. Kelp can grow in large stands called kelp forests. These forests prevent some of the damage from waves. Many different species live in them, including sea urchins, sea otters, and abalone.
Some algae may harm other species. Some algae may reproduce a lot, and make an algal bloom. These algae may make protective toxins which kill fish in the water. Dinoflagellates make a compound that turns the flesh of fish into slime. Then the algae eats this nutritious liquid.
Symbiosis
Algae have evolved a number of symbiotic partnerships with other organisms. The most famous is the plant-like lichen, which are each formed by a fungus with an alga. It is a highly successful life-form, and twenty thousand 'species' are known. In all cases the lichen are quite different in appearance and life-style from either constituent; it is possibly the most complete symbiosis known. Both constituents gain from their access to niches with low nutrient value, which is where lichen are found.
Less well known are the algal relationships with animals. Reef-building corals are basically social Cnidarian polyps. Corals are dependent on light, because the algae are important partners, and they require light. Corals have evolved structures, often tree-like, which offer the algae maximum access to light. The coral weakens the algal cell walls, and digests about 80% of the food synthesised by the algae. The corals' waste-products provide nutrients for the algae so, as with lichen, both partners gain from the association. The algae are golden-brown flagellate algae, often of the genus Symbiodinium. A curious feature of the partnership is that the coral may eject the algae in hard times, and regain them later. The ejection of the algal partner is called bleaching, because the coral loses its colour.p200
Other types of Cnideria, such as sea anemones and jellyfish, also contain algae. Jellyfish with algae behave so that their partners get the best light during the day, and descend to depths at night, where the water is rich in nitrates and brown with decay. Sea slugs and clams are also well known for harbouring algae. Both groups are molluscs. The sea slugs graze on coral, and are the same colour as the coral they graze. They are able to separate the algae from the polyp tissues they digest. The algal cells are moved to its tentacles, where they continue to live. The otherwise defenceless slug gains both camouflage and nutrition.p204 The giant clam keeps algae in its mantle, which is revealed when the clam is open. The coloured mantle has places where the skin is transparent, and acts like a lens to concentrate light on the algae beneath. When the algae get too numerous, the clam digests them.p203
Various other marine invertebrate groups have members which symbiose with algae. Flatworms (Platyhelminths) and Polychaete worms (Annelids) are two such groups.
References
Non-vascular plants |
Alga (; ) is a hamlet in the Korday District of Kazakhstan. It is one of several communities in Kazakhstan with this name. The A-2 highway from Bishkek to Almaty runs through the town. A significant architectural feature is its mosque.
Hamlets
Settlements in Kazakhstan |
Kelp forests are a type of marine ecosystem that is present around colonies of kelp; they contain rich biodiversity. Kelp can stretch 2-30 meters or more (up to 60 m in Macrocystis pyrifera) from their anchors on the sea floor to the surface. It provides a vertical infrastructure that is home to many fish and invertebrate species. Kelp forests also often attract mammalian visitors, including whales, sea lions, sea otters, and SCUBA-diving humans.
Kelp forests draw their name from an analogy to forests on land.
In some places, sea urchins eat so many kelp plants that the kelp forest becomes an urchin barren.
Ecosystem architecture
Giant kelp uses gas-filled floats to keep the plant suspended, allowing the kelp blades near the ocean surface to capture light for photosynthesis.
The architecture of a kelp forest ecosystem is based on its physical structure, which influences the associated species that define its community structure. Structurally, the ecosystem includes three guilds of kelp and two guilds occupied by other algae:
Canopy kelps include the largest species and often constitute floating canopies that extend to the ocean surface (e.g., Macrocystisand Alaria).
Stipitate kelps generally grow a few meters above the sea floor and can grow in dense aggregations (e.g., Eisenia and Ecklonia).
Prostrate kelps lie near and along the sea floor (e.g., Laminaria).
The benthos is composed of other algal species (e.g., filamentous and foliose functional groups, articulated corallines) and sessile organisms along the ocean bottom.
Encrusting coralline algae directly and often extensively cover ocean floor.
Multiple kelp species often co-exist within a forest; the term understory canopy refers to the stipitate and prostrate kelps. For example, a Macrocystis canopy may extend many meters above the seafloor towards the ocean surface, while an understory of the kelps Eisenia and Pterygophora reaches upward only a few meters. Beneath these kelps, a benthic assemblage of foliose red algae may occur. The dense vertical structure with overlying canopy forms a system of microenvironments similar to those observed in a terrestrial forest, with a sunny canopy region, a partially shaded middle, and darkened seafloor. Each guild has associated organisms, which vary in their levels of dependence on the habitat, and the assemblage of these organisms can vary with kelp morphologies. For example, in California, Macrocystis pyrifera forests, the nudibranch, Melibe leonina, and skeleton shrimp, Caprella californica, are closely associated with surface canopies; the kelp perch Brachyistius frenatus, rockfish Sebastes spp., and many other fishes are found within the stipitate understory; brittle stars and turban snails Tegula spp. are closely associated with the kelp holdfast, while various herbivores, such as sea urchins and abalone, live under the prostrate canopy; many seastars, hydroids, and benthic fishes live among the benthos; solitary corals, various gastropods, and echinoderms live over the encrusting coralline algae. In addition, pelagic fishes and marine mammals are loosely associated with kelp forests, usually interacting near the edges as they visit to feed on resident organisms.
References
Biomes |
Symbiosis (pl. symbioses) means living together. It describes close and long-term relationships between different species. The term was
used by Anton de Bary in 1879, as "the living together of unlike organisms".
A symbiont is an organism living in a relationship with another species in which one or both get benefits. When one species lives inside another species, or a microscopic symbiont lives inside the cells of a host, it is called an endosymbiont.
The relevance of symbiosis is its frequency and its evolutionary significance. There appear to be no higher plants or animals without symbionts. Those symbionts are of great importance to the larger organisms, who in most cases would be unable to live as they do without their symbionts. Mycorrhiza in higher plants, and gut flora in insects and vertebrates are examples. Humans are no exception.
Furthermore, most of these associations are between organisms not just from different species, but from different kingdoms. And lastly, the cells of all eukaryotes contain organelles which are descendants of symbiotic relationships which began at least a billion years ago. Mitochondria and plastids are examples. The conclusion must be that symbiosis has been highly significant in the evolution of life.
Definition
The definition of symbiosis has been controversial. Some believe symbiosis should only refer to persistent mutualisms, while others believe it should apply to all kinds of long-term biological interactions.
After 130 years of debate, current biology and ecology textbooks now use the latter "de Bary" definition or an even broader definition (where symbiosis means all species interactions). The restrictive definition (where symbiosis means mutualism only) is no longer used.
The widest definition includes parasitism (in which one organism is helped and the other organism is hurt), mutualism (in which both organisms are helped), commensalism (in which one organism is helped and the other is not affected), and competition (in which both organisms are hurt).
Types of symbiosis
The various forms of symbiosis include:
Type 1: Partners keep their bodies separate
Symbiosis does not always benefit both partners. This is what may happen:
parasitism, in which the association has disadvantages for one of the two. One may even destroy or kill the other. (+ –)
mutualism, in which the association has advantages for both (+ +)
commensalism, in which one member of the association benefits while the other is not affected (+ 0)
competition, in which both members of the association are fighting over food or other needs. (– –)
Type 2: Partners live as one organism
This kind of symbiosis is called endosymbiosis. Examples are:
Rhizobia: nitrogen-fixing bacteria which live in root nodules on plants of the pea family.
Singly-celled forams which include a single-celled alga inside the cell. This is 'facultative', which means they may or may not do it. A more far-reaching version is idioplastic endosymbiosis. Here, the foram consumes the alga, but keeps its chloroplasts in working order.
Green algae inside marine polychaete worms.
Single-celled algae inside reef-building corals.
Bacteria inside the guts of those insects and vertebrates which digest plant cellulose. These are 'obligate' symbionts, which means the host must have them.
Lichen: fungus+alga or bacterium.
Mycorrhiza: fungal hyphae and roots of trees.
Almost for certain, this happened to form the eukaryote cell. That's the type of cell all animals and plants are made of. The organelles inside the cell, such as mitochondria and chloroplasts, contain some DNA. This DNA is the remnant of a once separate bacterium. The theory is that the eukaryote cell evolved by the fusion of several bacteria or archaea organisms.
Examples of symbiosis
An example of mutual symbiosis is the relationship between clownfish that live among the tentacles of tropical sea anemones. The clownfish protects the anemone from other fish. Clownfish waste excreted provides vital nutrients, and they can boost their hosts’ oxygen supplies at night too. The stinging tentacles of the anemone protect the anemone fish from its predators. A special mucus on the clownfish protects it from the stinging tentacles.
Another example is the goby fish, which sometimes lives together with a shrimp. The shrimp digs and cleans up a burrow in the sand in which both the shrimp and the goby live. The shrimp is almost blind, and is vulnerable to predators when above ground. When a predator approaches, the goby touches the shrimp with its tail as a signal. When that happens both the shrimp and goby quickly retreat into the burrow.
A lichen is an intimate combination of a fungus with an alga. The alga lives inside the fungus, which must have the alga to survive. The alga, on the other hand, can survive on its own. The result of the union is a flat, coloured lichen which grows on rocks and other surfaces in the open air.
Herbivores are host to gut bacteria which help them digest plant material. Plant cell walls are made of cellulose, and almost no animal has developed an enzyme to digest this material. Therefore, at least for herbivores which eat leaves, the bacteria are essential.
Some species of ants 'farm' aphids, protecting them from predators, and moving them from one feeding site to another. The ants consume the sweet sticky fluid which aphids secrete after sucking plant sap.
References
Cell biology
Evolutionary biology |
Al Ain (Arabic: العين) is a city in the United Arab Emirates. The city name literally means "the spring" or "the eye" in Arabic. This name come from the water sources in the area. The city is in the emirate of Abu Dhabi, right next to the border with Oman. It is often called the 'Garden City of the Persian Gulf' because of the many parks, tree-lined avenues and decorative roundabouts within the city. Al Ain, Abu Dhabi and Dubai form a kind of geographic triangle in the center of the country. Each city is around 150 kilometers from the other two.
Economy
Al Ain is the fourth largest metropolitan area by population in the Emirates, with a population of 348,000 (2003 census estimate). There are more Emirati nationals in Al Ain than other places in the country, but most who live there are people who left other countries, particularly from the Indian sub-continent. There are fewer Western people than in the larger centers of Abu Dhabi and Dubai. This gives Al Ain a more 'Arabic' look and feel, compared to the larger cities of the Emirates.
History
People have lived in Al Ain for more than 4000 years, and the area is central to the cultural heritage of the country. There are many underground water springs in the area. This explains why people wanted to live there. Traces of its past remain, including camel racing and breeding. The ancient falaj system of irrigation is still in use in some areas. The system brings underground water to people by a network of tunnels that come out into open channels. The flow of water in the channels can be controlled.
Tourism
Al Ain is becoming a place that tourists visit, with attractions such as Jebel Hafeet, a 1340 metre high mountain that dominates the surrounding area. Many tourists like to visit the mineral springs at the base and drive to the top of this mountain for sunset. Al Ain regularly records the highest summer temperatures in the country, but the dry desert air makes it a welcome escape from the coastal humidity of the larger cities. Other attractions include the Al Ain Oasis in the city centre, and other oases around the area, cool places to escape the summer heat, a zoo, amusement park named "Fun City", many well kept parks, popular with families in the summer evenings, a heritage village, as well as malls and other modern sites. Important buildings include United Arab Emirates University, Higher Colleges of Technology, well-equipped medical facilities, including the teaching hospital at Tawam, military training areas and Al Ain International Airport.
Sports
The city is home to the successful association football (soccer) club, Al Ain FC.
Cities in the United Arab Emirates |
Jutland (Danish: Jylland; German: Jütland) is a peninsula in northern Europe. It forms the mainland part of Denmark and a northern part of Germany. It separates the North Sea from the Baltic Sea. Its terrain is relatively flat, with low hills and peat bogs. It has an area of 29,775 km² (11,496 square miles), and a population of 2,491,852 (2004).
The northern two thirds of the peninsula are occupied by the westernmost portion of the Kingdom of Denmark. There is no separate name for the Danish portion of the peninsula, so it is simply called the same name.
The northernmost part of Jutland became an island following a flood in 1825; the Limfjord now separates it from the mainland. This island is called Vendsyssel-Thy or Nørrejyske Ø ("North Jutlandic Island") and is still commonly reckoned as part of the peninsula; it is also partly coterminous with the county and future region called North Jutland.
The southern third is made up of the German Bundesland of Schleswig-Holstein, with the duchies of Schleswig (also Sønderjylland/Southern Jutland) and Holstein. Both duchies have passed back and forth between the Danes and various German rulers. In the last border movement, Denmark regained North Schleswig (Nordslesvig in Danish) by plebiscite in 1920. Southern Schleswig remained German.
The River Elbe forms the southern border of Jutland with the city of Hamburg on its shore. The Danish Wadden Sea Islands and the North Frisian Islands stretch along the southwest coast of Jutland in the German Bight.
There are two bridges which link the central part ofJutland to the island of Funen to the east. They are the Little Belt Bridge and the New Little Belt Bridge. The roads which use these bridges are part of the European road network.
Cities
The largest cities on the Jutland Peninsula are:
Århus, Denmark
Kiel, Germany
Lübeck, Germany
Aalborg, Denmark
Flensburg, Germany
Esbjerg, Denmark
Randers, Denmark
Kolding, Denmark
Vejle, Denmark
Horsens, Denmark
References
Peninsulas
Geography of Denmark
Geography of Schleswig-Holstein
Regions of Germany |
A plebiscite or referendum is a type of voting, or of proposing laws. Some definitions of 'plebiscite' suggest that it is a type of vote to change the constitution or government of a country. Others define it as the opposite. Australia defines 'referendum' as a vote to change the constitution and 'plebiscite' as a vote that does not affect the constitution.
There are two types of result
Mandatory - meaning the government must do what the result says
Advisory - meaning the result of the vote is only to help the government make the final choice.
It usually depends on the country's history and constitution what sort of referendum/plebiscite is used. In Switzerland a referendum is usually mandatory, because the people are seen as the source of the government's mandate (power) to govern. For example, during Switzerland's basic income campaign the country utilized a national referendum for the polling.
In the United Kingdom referendums have only been advisory, because the government says that the people elected to Parliament make the decisions. The referendum on the independence of Scotland was an exception. It was legally binding, but it was not a referendum of the UK electorate. It was restricted to present residents of Scotland.
An example of a proposed plebiscite was the 2011 decision by Greek Prime Minister George Papandreou to let the Greek people vote on whether the heavily indebted nation would accept a €130 billion bailout package from the European Union. The idea shocked eurozone nations, as a "no" vote could mean Greece defaulting on its national debt, and leaving the European Union and the eurozone. However, the vote was cancelled.
Another example was the voting on the European Constitution in 2005. The vote took place in some countries. France and The Netherlands had a referendum on the subject. In both states, the voters said no to the proposal and no constitution was made.
The separate simultaneous referendums held on 24 April 2004 in the Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus and the Republic of Cyprus on the comprehensive settlement plan of the UN Secretary-General provides yet another example of such a vote. The Plan was approved in the Turkish Cypriot referendum by 65%, while it was rejected in the Greek Cypriot referendum by 75%.
Problems with referendums
Many political problems can be solved by asking the people their opinion because the supporters of the argument will be forced to accept the decision of the people. However:
It is feared that the electorate do not have sufficient political knowledge to truly understand what they are voting for
Philosophers Plato and Madison thought voters are too easily persuaded by their own internal feelings of a matter instead of focusing on the good of the nation. That is to say they vote selfishly.
References
Voting |
The city of Dubai is the largest and most populated city in the United Arab Emirates (UAE) and the capital city of the emirate of Dubai, UAE. The city is sometimes called "Dubai City" to prevent it from being mixed up with the emirate.
Dubai is a city and emirate in the United Arab Emirates known for luxury shopping, ultramodern architecture and a lively nightlife scene. Burj Khalifa, an 830m-tall tower, dominates the skyscraper-filled skyline. At its foot lies Dubai Fountain, with jets and lights choreographed to music. On artificial islands just offshore is Atlantis, The Palm, a resort with water and marine-animal parks.
History
There are records of the town of Dubai from 1799. The city was a dependent of Abu Dhabi until 1833. The town of Dubai was an important port of call for foreign tradesmen (chiefly Indians), who settled in the town. Until the 1930s, the town was known for its pearls.
Famous places
Burj Khalifa
Burj al-Arab
Dubai International Airport, is in the middle of the city.
Dubai Mall, is one of the largest malls in the world
Global Village
Dubai park
IMG world of adventure
23 Marina
Dubai Desert Safari Experiences
Dubai Attractions
Climate
Dubai has a hot desert climate. Summers are extremely hot, windy, and humid. The highest recorded temperature in the UAE is 52.1 °C (126 °F), recorded in July 2002.
According to the UN, about 14 percent of the world population will face water scarcity by the year 2025. This shortage of water is expected to be worse in arid countries like the UAE. The UAE cloud seeding initiative is part of the government’s attempt to deal with the existing and future water needs of the country’s growing population.
Specific rules
Dubai has strict rules like:
The drinking age is 21. Drinking in public or being drunk in public are not tolerated.
Offensive language, spitting, aggressive behavior and smoking outside designated areas are not tolerated.
Public displays of affection such as holding hands or kissing are not tolerated.
Men should avoid staring at local women or attempting to make eye contact.
During Ramadan while Muslims are fasting from sunrise to sunset, non-Muslims can only eat and drink in screened-off areas.
References
Other websites
www.dubai.ae – The Official Portal of Dubai Government
www.dm.gov.ae – Dubai Municipality website
dubijobs.com – Dubai Job Portal
Settlements established in the 18th century |
An exclave is strip of land that belongs to an entity (like a country or a region) but that is not connected to it by land (islands are not counted). The strip of land is surrounded by other political entities. A good example is Kaliningrad Oblast (the region around the Russian city Kaliningrad). It belongs to the Russian Federation, but is separated from the rest of that country by territory belonging to Lithuania and Poland.
Although both meanings are close, an exclave might not be an enclave. An enclave is completely surrounded by one other country. For example, Kaliningrad is surrounded not by one state, but by two: Lithuania and Poland. It also borders the Baltic Sea. It is not an enclave. On the other hand, the Spanish exclave of Llivia is an enclave in France.
Many exclaves today have some of idea of becoming independent, especially if the exclave is far away from the mainland.
A much more obscure use means, in medical discussion, a detached part of an organ, as of the pancreas, thyroid, or other gland.
The lists below are of various types of exclaves that are not enclaves.
True exclaves
Angola: Cabinda
Azerbaijan: Nakhichevan
Belgium: Baarle-Hertog
Brunei: Temburong
Croatia: Dubrovnik
East Timor: Oecussi-Ambeno
Germany: Büsingen am Hochrhein
Italy: Campione
Netherlands: Baarle-Nassau (parts)
Oman: Musandam
Russia: Kaliningrad
Spain: Llivia
Northern Cyprus: Kokkina (de facto).
United States: Alaska
Subnational exclaves
Exclaves of administrative divisions below the national level.
Many of the cantons of Switzerland have exclaves:
Bern has two small exclaves, Münchenwiler and Clavaleyres; the first is entirely surrounded by Fribourg, the second by Fribourg and Vaud's exclave.
Lucerne has two pieces separated from the main territory by the Vierwaldstättersee; one borders Schwyz, the other Nidwalden.
The "half-canton" of Obwalden is in two large pieces, separated by a strip of Nidwalden.
Nidwalden's district of Hergiswil is separated by an arm of the Vierwaldstättersee.
Fribourg is a large exclave bounded by Vaud and Lake Neuchâtel; two enclaves, Surpierre and Vuissens, within Vaud; and another enclave, Wallenbuch, within Bern.
Solothurn has two exclaves, Dorneck and Thierstein, both bounded on the south by Basel-Country and on the north by France; as well as the enclave of Steinhof which is entirely surrounded by Bern.
Schaffhausen, the only canton lying mostly on the north bank of the Rhine, is cut into three parts by German territory that links Germany to the Rhine. The middle part is the largest, and surrounds the German enclave of Büsingen. The upper and middle parts border on Thurgau, the middle and lower parts on Zürich.
The divided canton of Appenzell is surrounded by Sankt-Gallen. Since its partition on religious lines in 1597, Appenzell Innerrhoden has three small exclaves, one enclave in Appenzell Ausserrhoden and two bordering also on Sankt-Gallen.
Vaud has one exclave, Avenches, bordered by Lake Neuchâtel, Fribourg and the tiny Bernese exclave of Clavaleyres. The coast of Lake Neuchâtel is thus in seven pieces belonging to four cantons: clockwise from the north they are Neuchâtel, Bern (main), Vaud (Avenches exclave), Fribourg (main), Vaud (main), Fribourg (exclave), Vaud (main).
Geneva has two small exclaves within Vaud, together making the commune of Céligny. The larger has a shoreline on Lake Geneva.
The secession of the new canton of Jura in 1979 left Bern temporarily with an exclave bounded by Jura, Solothurn (main and both exclaves), Basel-Country and France. The exclave, Laufental, joined Basel-Country in 1994.
United States:
Kentucky: The westernmost part of the state, a piece of land known as the Kentucky Bend, is surrounded on three sides by the Mississippi River, with Missouri on the opposite shore. Road access to the rest of Kentucky is only available by first going south into Tennessee. This exclave exists because the Mississippi, which forms the boundary between Missouri (right bank) and Kentucky/Tennessee (left bank), crosses latitude 36°30', which is part of the border between Kentucky and Tennessee, three times.
Louisiana: St. Martin Parish has an exclave which is separated from the main part of the parish by Iberia Parish.
Massachusetts: Norfolk County is not in one piece. The towns of Brookline and Cohasset are part of Norfolk County, but are surrounded on all sides by other counties: Brookline by Suffolk and Middlesex, Cohasset by Plymouth.
California: The City and County of San Francisco has an exclave on Alameda Island, across San Francisco Bay and adjoining Alameda County. The exclave came into being as land on the border between the two counties was reclaimed from the Bay to build the Naval Air Station Alameda, now decommissioned. This small piece of open space cannot be reached from San Francisco (except by boat) without passing through Oakland and Alameda.
Michigan: The "Lost Peninsula" in Monroe County, Michigan, can only be reached via Toledo, Ohio. It is surrounded by Maumee Bay in Lake Erie. (Map)
Sandoval County, New Mexico: During World War II, Los Alamos County was created out of parts of Sandoval and Santa Fe Counties, for the convenience of the Manhattan Project. That portion of Sandoval County which is within the San Ildefonso Indian Reservation, about 3 km², became an exclave bounded by Los Alamos County on the southwest, Santa Fe County on the east and Rio Arriba County on the north.
"Practical" exclaves
Some territories are not geographically detached from their motherland. Nevertheless, they are more easily reached by entering a foreign country. Very often, this is because of their location in a hilly area. It may also be because the only road enters that foreign place before coming back to the mother country. These territories may be called "practical exclaves," "pene-exclaves" or "quasi-exclaves" and can be found along many borders, particularly those that are not heavily defended. They will only be attached to the motherland via an extremely small or thin slice of land.
Canada: St. Regis, Quebec: Part of the Akwesasne Mohawk Nation on the south shore of the Saint Lawrence River, it is attached by land to the St. Regis Mohawk Reservation in New York State; road access to the rest of Canada is only available through New York State.
United States:
Alaska: The Alaska Panhandle, though connected geographically, is inaccessible by road from the rest of the state. One must drive through Canada to reach the area from elsewhere in the state
Minnesota: The Northwest Angle is attached by land to the Canadian province of Manitoba; road access to the rest of the United States is only available through Manitoba
Washington: Point Roberts is at the southern end of a peninsula; land access to the rest of the United States is only available through the Canadian province of British Columbia
"Practical" subnational exclaves
United States:
Virginia :The Eastern Shore, comprising Accomack County and Northampton County, is located at the southern tip of the Delmarva Peninsula. It is connected to the rest of Virginia via the 23 mile (37 km) long Chesapeake Bay Bridge-Tunnel.
Iowa: Carter Lake, a part of Pottawattamie County, Iowa, is surrounded by Omaha, Nebraska on three sides and the Missouri River on the fourth; road access to Iowa is only available through Nebraska.
Michigan: The Upper Peninsula is attached by land to Wisconsin. It can be reached from the Lower Peninsula of Michigan by the 5 mile (8 km) long Mackinac Bridge.
United Kingdom:
England: Pentreheyling can only be reached by road through Wales.
Historical exclaves
East Prussia, a German exclave during the Weimar Republic: it was separated from Germany after World War I, when Poland regained access to the Baltic sea. East Prussia (essentially the old Duchy of Prussia) is now divided into Kaliningrad Oblast in Russia (see above) and the Warmian-Masurian Voivodship in Poland.
later became part of Poland and Russia (see Kaliningrad above).
East Bengal (1947-1955) / East Pakistan (1955-1971), now Bangladesh, was an exclave separated from West Pakistan by 1600 kilometres of India's territory. East Pakistan accounted for 70% of the exports of the country and was more populous than West Pakistan, and so in a sense it was actually the physically larger and politically more influential West that was the enclave and East Pakistan that was the Mainland.
Walvis Bay was a South African exclave in Namibia, before being incorporated with Namibia upon its independence.
Related pages
Enclave
Panhandle
List of countries that border only one other country
Other websites
Enclaves of the world
Jan S. Krogh's Geosite
Article 'Tangled Territories' on European exclaves by Nicky Gardner of hidden europe magazine
exclave.info |
In general use, an enclave can be any special area of a bigger area of land, such as a part of a city that has different taxes than the rest of the city.
In political geography, an enclave is a piece of land which has a different country totally around it. If another country has sovereignty over it, it is also called an exclave of that other country. It is usually landlocked, meaning it is completely encased by the surrounding country
Exclaves can also exist within a country. This is when some administrative regions have holes (of other such regions) in them.
The word enclave is a relatively new word in the language of diplomacy: Diplomats are used to speaking French. The word comes from late Latin inclavatus, which can be translated as shut in, locked up (with a key, from Latin clavis, key). The word got in the English language in the year 1868. exclave (with a similar meaning) followed 3 decades later.
Enclaves may be created for a variety of historical, political or geographical reasons. Some areas have been left as enclaves simply because a river changed its course.
Since living in an enclave can be very inconvenient and many agreements have to be found by both countries over mail addresses, power supply or passage rights, enclaves tend to be eliminated and many cases that existed before have now been removed. Sometimes it is the case, that enclaves are traded for one another.
In English Church history, subnational enclaves were known as peculiars (see also Royal Peculiar).
Enclaved countries
Some enclaves are countries that are not part of any other country, and therefore not exclaves. Three such countries exist:
The republic of San Marino, enclaved within Italy
Vatican City, within the city of Rome, in Italy
The Kingdom of Lesotho, inside South Africa |
A panhandle is a word used in geography. What people mean when they talk about panhandles is a narrow strip of land, that is surrounded on all sides except one, by one or more countries or regions. The strip of land is connected to the country or region it belongs to on one side only. This looks like the handle of a frying pan.
Panhandles include:
Florida Panhandle
Oklahoma Panhandle
Alaska Panhandle is the state's southeast
Landforms |
A new town, planned community, or planned city is a kind of city that is designed by architects and engineers before it is built. Most cities and towns just develop over the years, without a clear plan. Urban planning is only used for later expansion.
Planned communities are designed with separate districts of the city for parks, stores, homes, and offices. Many planned communities have a transportation system for commuters.
There are many examples of capital cities being planned throughout history: Baghdad, Iraq; Washington D.C., United States; New Delhi, India; Canberra, Australia; Brasília, Brazil; and Naypyidaw, Myanmar were all planned.
Pictures
Related pages
City
Urban planning
Other websites
The International New Town Institute, a research organization
Social sciences
Settlements
Urban planning |
A park is an open place in a city or town for nature. There are often trees, benches, statues, and ponds in a park. Some parks built in big cities are very large. These can have fountains or picnic areas.
A park is an open area,often found with trees,benches,statues,etc.
There is also lots of nature around, such as flowers, animals, trees, and much more.
It is mostly used for recreational activities such as walking, exercising, cycling, playing,etc.
A play park can even have swings,slides and some adventurous activities.
Sometimes, countries or regions set up national parks. These are usually large areas of land. Those areas are made to protect the habitats of animals. Very often, a special permit is necessary to enter. Building things in the park is usually forbidden, or needs a special permit.
An example of a national park is Yellowstone National Park.
Related pages
Botanical garden
Garden |
A pond is a body of water smaller than a lake. Ponds support wide range of wildlife: ducks, turtles, swans, small fish, and frogs can live in a pond. Usually, in most ponds sunlight can reach to bottom. In some cases ponds do not last all year round. This type of pond is called a vernal pond, or ephemeral, seasonal, or temporary wetlands. These types of ponds do not have any fish. Some ponds are now getting polluted because of humans.
Biomes |
A swan (Cygnini) is a kind of water bird, from the genera Cygnus and Coscoroba. They are in the subfamily Anserinae, in the family Anatidae, which also includes geese and ducks.
Many swans live in colder places, such as northern Europe, Asia and North America. They live on water. They swim on top of the water and eat plants off the bottom of ponds, lakes, or oceans. They also eat insects and other small animals. A baby swan is called a cygnet.
Swans are tough, strong birds who will stand no nonsense from dogs or cats. They may open their wings as a warning, but from then on a person is advised to keep clear. Swans are highly protective of their nests. They will attack anything they see as a threat to their chicks, including humans.
Description
The swans are some of the largest flying birds. They are large in size and have large feet and long necks. The males are usually bigger and heavier than females. The mute swan, trumpeter swan, and whooper swan are the largest swans. They can be over 1.5m (60 inches) long. They can weigh over 15kg (33 pounds). Their wingspans (this means the length of both wings) can be almost 3m (10 ft).
Most swans are white. They are found in the Northern Hemisphere. This means they are found in Europe, Asia and North America. However, the black swan is black with a red beak. It lives in Australia. The black necked swan has white flight feathers, and black outer feathers. It lives in South America. They also have a small area of skin between the eyes and beak that has no feathers. This area can be different colors, such as yellow (for example, on a Bewick's swan) or orange (for example, on a mute swan).
Wild swans migrate. They spend the cold part of the year eating and getting fat in one place and move to a warmer place to lay eggs and raise chicks, called cygnets.
The coscoroba swan is different to the other swans. Some scientists think it is more like a duck or a goose. It is the smaller than the other swans. This swan lives in South America.
Climate change
Bewick's swans used to spend a lot of time in Ireland and Britain and the Netherlands, but scientists say they have been moving east into Germany. They spend less time in their winter feeding grounds than they did in 1970. Scientists say they are following the changes in temperature in Europe. The scientists found that individual swans do not change where they like to go during their own lifetimes. Instead, different generations of swans go to different places from their parents and grandparents.
Taxonomy
Genus Cygnus
Black swan (Cygnus atratus)
New Zealand swan (Cygnus atratus sumnerensis) †
Trumpeter swan (Cygnus buccinator)
Bewick's swan (Cygnus bewickii)
Whistling swan (Cygnus columbianus)
Whooper swan (Cygnus cygnus)
Black-necked swan (Cygnus melancoryphus)
Mute swan (Cygnus olor)
Genus Coscoroba
References
Anatidae |
A pupa (plural: pupae or pupas) is part of becoming an adult for some insects, like some butterflies, moths, beetles, flies, and bees. The pupal stage comes after being a larva; the next stage is adulthood.
The pupa stage of a butterfly, called a chrysalis (plural "chrysalids"), is a well-known example of a pupa because they are often found in the open.
Insects |
Paul might mean:
People
Paul the Apostle
Paul of Russia, a Russian Tsar
Prince Paul of Yugoslavia ("Pavle"), a prince of the Kingdom of Yugoslavia in the 1930s
Other
Paul (movie), a 2011 movie
Paul, Idaho, a city in the U.S. state of Idaho
Paul the Octopus, an octopus who seemed able to say who would win football matches |
Goose (plural geese, genus Anser) is a genus containing 11 species within the swan subfamily.
This family also includes the swans, which are mostly larger than geese, and the ducks, which are smaller and have short necks.
Geese are famously gregarious: they like to stick together. They can be moved in large herds because of this feature of their behaviour. Both as chicks and as adults, geese show collective animal behaviour. Geese migrate in groups in the spring and fall, flying together in a V-shape.
A male goose is called a "gander" and a baby goose is called a "gosling". A group of geese is called a "gaggle".
Related pages
Bar-headed goose
Canada goose
Magellan goose
Barnacle goose
Pink-footed goose
Swan goose
Chinese goose
Poultry |
Ovaries (Singular: Ovary) are organs found in female organisms. Ovaries are part of the reproductive system needed to reproduce sexually.
Most vertebrates have ovaries. Usually animals have two ovaries. Birds usually have only one working ovary; snakes have one ovary in front of the other. The ovaries are similar to testicles in men.
Anatomy
Ovaries are shaped like eggs and are around 3 cm by 1.5 cm by 1.5 cm. The ovary is found in the side walls of the pelvis.
Each ovary is attached to the Fallopian tube. Usually each ovary takes turns releasing eggs every month.
Uses
Ovaries have two purposes:
Produce female sex hormones resulting in puberty
Produce ova (also called "egg cells"), which are the female reproductive cells.
Menstruation
During menstruation, an ovum is released from the ovary and enters one of the Fallopian tubes. There, the ovum can be fertilised. Ovaries have a certain number of eggs in them, so when eggs stop being released, this is the start of the menopause. During this time, female hormones stop being produced.
Related pages
Cervix
Fallopian tube
Menopause
Ovum
Vagina
Other websites
Merck Online Medical Library: Female Reproductive System
Anatomy of the female reproductive system |
An axe (or ax) is an ancient tool. It is used to shape, split and cut wood.
The hand axe was probably the first tool in the Stone Age. It did not have a handle.
In the past, axes were used as weapons by soldiers. Today, axes are usually related to woodcutters and firemen.
Axes are simple machines. They are in the category of wedges. They are usually made of some sort of metal, mainly steel or iron. They can have a metal or wooden handle.
Cutting tools
Blades
Woodworking tools |
A rhinoceros (rhino for short) is any animal in the family Rhinocerotidae. They are in the order Perissodactyla, or odd-toed ungulates. There are five living species. Two of these species are native to Africa. Three of these species are also native to Southern parts of Asia.
Taxonomy
Family Rhinocerotidae
Black rhinoceros, Diceros bicornis
White rhinoceros, or square-lipped rhinoceros Ceratotherium simum
Javan rhinoceros, Rhinoceros sondaicus
Indian rhinoceros, Rhinoceros unicornis
Sumatran rhinoceros, Dicerorhinus sumatrensis
Habitat
All five rhinoceros species are native to Africa or Asia. The two species in Africa are the White rhinoceros and the Black rhinoceros. The three species in Asia (including islands of Indonesia) are the Javan rhinoceros, Sumatran rhinoceros, and Indian rhinoceros.
Life
The rhinoceros is a herbivore. Its favourite food is plants, branches and bushes (if it is a browser species), or grass (if it is a grazer species).
Rhinoceroses have a large horn on the nose. Their horns are not like those of other horned mammals: the rhinoceros' horn is made of keratin packed together very tightly.
The rhinoceroses can weigh up to and be up to tall.
Rhinoceros and humans
Only the white rhinoceros is not in critical danger of becoming extinct. They are protected, but hunted mainly by poachers, for their horns. The horns are used in Asian medicine, similar to elephants and tigers, and for dagger handles in Yemen and Oman. Loss of habitat is also a danger to rhinos. Governments have made logging their habitat and poaching illegal.
Related pages
Elasmotherium, a large extinct rhinoceros.
Other websites
Rhinoceros information from the International Rhino Foundation |
Alcoholic proof is a measure of how much ethanol there is in an alcoholic drink. It is commonly used the world over, on the basis that 100 degrees proof is the equivalent of 50 % alcohol by volume (ABV or Alc/Vol). In the United States, it is double the percentage of ABV.
Where it comes from
This system was introduced in the 18th century. The British claim that this term has a nautical background. Every evening, sailors would line up for their daily quota of grog/rum. This had to first be proved to be as strong as promised and not watered down. The spirit was tested with gunpowder: a mixture of water and alcohol proved itself when it could be poured on a small amount of gunpowder and still light up the wet powder. If the powder did not ignite, the mixture had too much water in it and the grog was considered below proof. It might have happened earlier, as the Americans claim that this definition came about in the 17th century when European traders began making a large quantity of distilled spirits and wine available to American Indians. The very same process led to the nickname firewater, this time given by Native Americans. There is no record of the finite strength of the distilled spirits in the context of its sale to or consumption by Native Americans.
A "proven" solution was defined as 100 degrees proof (100°). People have found out that this takes 57.15% ethanol. This value is still used as the British definition. A simpler ratio to remember is seven to four: 70° proof is 40% alcohol by volume.
A hydrometer can be used to measure the precise proof of a spirit. This test has gone through many formal changes.
Laws
EU
The European Union member nations have broadly adopted the recommendation of the International Organization of Legal Metrology (OIML) which measures percentage of alcohol by volume at 20 °C.
British proof spirits
In Britain, this replaced the Sikes hydrometer system (based on proof spirit) which was used since 1816, although officially the Customs and Excise Act of 1952 defined "spirits of proof strength" (or proof spirits):
"Spirits shall be deemed to be at proof if the volume of the ethyl alcohol contained therein made up to the volume of the spirits with distilled water has a weight equal to that of twelve-thirteenths of a volume of distilled water equal to the volume of the spirits, the volume of each liquid being computed as at fifty-one degrees Fahrenheit."
Previously, Clarke's hydrometer had been used since the 1740s when Customs and Excise and London brewers and distillers began to use Clarke's hydrometer.
United States
In the definition of the United States, the proof number is twice the percentage of the alcohol content measured by volume at a temperature of 60°F (15.5°C). Therefore, "80 proof" is 40% alcohol by volume (most of the other 60% is water). If a 150 proof beverage is mixed half-and-half with water, the drink is 75 proof.
US Federal regulation (CFR 27 5.37 Alcohol Content) requires that liquor labels state the percentage alcohol by volume (sometimes abbreviated ABV). The regulations permit (but do not require) a statement of the degrees proof as long as it is right next to the percentage alcohol by volume.
Alcohol during production
Alcohol is produced by yeast during the process of fermentation. The other product of fermentation is carbon dioxide, which is the gas that can make beer bottles explode or blow their tops off. The amount of alcohol in the finished liquid depends on how much sugar there was at the beginning for the yeast to convert into alcohol. In beer, the alcohol is generally 3% to 12% (6 to 24 proof) and usually about 4% to 6% (8 to 12 proof). Depending on the strain of yeast, wines top out at about 14% to 16% (28 to 32 proof), because that is the point in the fermentation process where the alcohol concentration denatures the yeast. Since the 1990s, a few alcohol-tolerant 'superyeast' strains have become commercially available, which can ferment up to 20%.
Very few microorganisms can live in alcoholic solutions. The main three are yeast, Brettanomyces, and Acetobacter. In what is essentially disinfection, yeast keeps multiplying as long as there is sugar to "eat", gradually increasing the alcoholic content of the solution and killing off all other microorganisms, and eventually themselves. There are "fortified" wines with a higher alcohol concentration than that because stronger alcohol has been mixed with them.
Stronger liquors are distilled after fermentation is complete to separate the alcoholic liquid from the remains of the grain, fruit, or whatever it was made from. The idea of distillation is that a mixture of liquids is heated, the one with the lowest boiling point will evaporate (or "boil off") first, and then the one with the next lowest boiling point, and so on. The catch is that water and alcohol form a mixture (called an azeotrope) that has a lower boiling point than either one of them, so what distills off first is that mixture of 95% alcohol and 5% water. Thus a distilled liquor cannot be stronger than 95% (190 proof); there are other techniques for separating liquids that can produce 100% ethanol (or "absolute alcohol"), but they are used only for scientific or industrial purposes. 100% ethanol does not stay 100% for very long, because it is hygroscopic and absorbs water out of the atmosphere.
References
Other websites
History of the Sikes Hydrometer
Alcoholic drink |
Acetobacter is a kind of bacteria. These bacteria are
known by their ability to change alcohol to acetic acid in the presence of air. There are several species within this genus, and there are other bacteria that can form acetic acid under different conditions; but all of the Acetobacter are known by this ability.
Why Acetobacter is important
Acetobacter are important to people, because:
they are used to make vinegar (intentionally converting the ethanol in the wine to acetic acid)
they can destroy wine which it infects by producing big amounts of acetic acid or ethyl acetate.
Sometimes, Acetobacter is not wanted. It can be killed by adding preservatives like Sulfur dioxides, or by getting rid of the air when the wine is stored.
Gram-negative bacteria |
The Archbishop of Canterbury is the spiritual leader of the Church of England and in the Anglican Communion the leader of its mother church. He is the head of the Church, and lives in the English city of Canterbury. The Archbishop is chosen by the English monarch (the church's "supreme governor"), under guidance from senior bishops, acting in cooperation with the prime minister of the UK.
The office of Archbishop of Canterbury was founded in the year 597. In that year, Saint Augustine came to England, to the area called Kent. He had been sent by the Pope to convince the local people to become Christians. The people accepted him and Christianity when their King (Ethelbert of Kent) became a Christian. Augustine became the first bishop in the kingdom of Kent and was later recognised as archbishop when a second diocese was created. Since then, there has been an Archbishop at Canterbury in Kent.
The Archbishop of Canterbury used to be head of the Roman Catholic Church in England, but in the early 16th century the English church broke away from the Roman church. The new church called itself the Church of England, and now the Archbishop is the leader of that church. The current Archbishop is Justin Welby (from 2013).
The archbishop oversees the Province of Canterbury that is all the Church of England dioceses in the south and midlands of England. The dioceses of Wales were also within the Province of Canterbury until 1920 when the Church in Wales became independent. In the north of England another archbishop has the Diocese of York and other northern dioceses (including the diocese of Sodor and Man) to oversee. Both archbishops are members of the House of Lords and rank very high in the official English order of precedence. When a new monarch is crowned the placing of the crown on his head is done by the Archbishop of Canterbury. The principal home of the archbishops is at Lambeth Palace in the south of London rather than at Canterbury itself. Within the Diocese of Canterbury (which consists of eastern Kent and a small enclave in Surrey) the archbishop has at least two assistant bishops.
Justin Welby (formerly the Bishop of Durham) became Archbishop on 21 March 2013.
References
Other websites
Official web site |
Ethanol, also known as ethyl alcohol, grain alcohol or just alcohol, is a flammable, colorless chemical compound. Its chemical formula is C2H5OH, also written as C2H6O. It is the active part of alcoholic drinks, which are drunk in most cultures worldwide. It is also used as a solvent because it can dissolve many other chemicals and is not very toxic. Yeast makes most of the ethanol that people use.
Ethanol fuel
Ethanol fuel can be used instead of gasoline in cars and other engines. Engines can use pure ethanol or ethanol mixed with gasoline.
In Brazil, ethanol fuel made from sugar cane provides 18 percent of the country's fuel for cars. Because of this, Brazil does not have to buy oil from other countries.
To do this, Brazil cut down much of the rain forests to grow more sugar cane, which is then fermented into Ethanol.
Most cars in the U.S. can run on fuels that have of up to 10% ethanol in them. Car makers like Ford, DaimlerChrysler, and GM also make vehicles specifically designed to run on higher ethanol blends. Some of their engines can run on up to 85% ethanol (E85). By mid-2006, there were about six million E85-compatible vehicles on U.S. roads.
References
Other websites
US E85 refueling map
International Chemical Safety Card 0044
Molview from bluerhinos.co.uk See Ethanol in 3D (may take over a minute to load using a dial-up connection)
Fuel
2 |
The boiling point of a substance is the temperature at which the substance boils, or enters a state of rapid evaporation. For pure water this is 100° Celsius or 212° Fahrenheit. This is measured at one atmosphere, that is, the air pressure at sea level
Boiling points can be changed in several ways. The addition of solutes or other substances usually changes the boiling point. Additionally, changing the pressure on a liquid changes its boiling point.
The boiling point of a liquid depends on the pressure of the surrounding air. An increase in air pressure increases the boiling point; a decrease decreases the boiling point. In the low pressure environment at the top of Mt Everest for example, water boils at only 69 °C. (156.2 °F).
It can also be defined in terms of vapour pressure as the temperature at which vapour pressure of liquid becomes equal to atmospheric pressure
Sugar, salt or other non-volatile solutes in water will usually make the boiling point higher. Alcohol, in contrast, is a volatile chemical that lowers the boiling point of water. Even a large amount dissolved in the water will usually make only small changes in the boiling point.
Thermodynamics
Basic physics ideas |
A platonic solid is a kind of polyhedron. It has the following characteristics:
Each face is built from the same type of polygons
There are the same number of polygons meeting at every corner of the shape.
The platonic solids
The following Platonic solids exist; there are only 5:
Tetrahedron, has 4 sides, is made of triangles, and looks like a pyramid.
Cube, Hexahedron, has 6 sides, and is made of squares.
Octahedron, has 8 sides, and is made of triangles.
Dodecahedron, has 12 sides, and is made of pentagons.
Icosahedron, has 20 sides, and is made of triangles.
Uses
There are a lot more uses for Platonic Solids, but some of the main reasons are:the shapes are often used to make dice, because dice of these shapes can be made fair. 6-sided dice are very common, but the other numbers are commonly used in role-playing games. Such dice are commonly referred to as D followed by the number of faces (d8, d20 etc.).
The tetrahedron (4 sided), cube (6 sided), and octahedron (8 sided), are found naturally in crystal structures. The dodecahedron (12 sides) is combinatorially identical to the pyritohedron (in that both have twelve pentagonal faces), which is one of the possible crystal structures of pyrite. However, the pyritohedron is not a regular dodecahedron, but rather has the same symmetry as the cube.
In meteorology and climatology, global numerical models of atmospheric flow are of increasing interest which use grids that are based on an icosahedron (20 sides,refined by triangulation) instead of the more commonly used longitude/latitude grid. This has the advantage of better spatial resolution without singularities (i.e. the poles) at the expense of somewhat greater numerical difficulty.
Geometry of space frames is often based on platonic solids.
Other websites
Stella: Polyhedron Navigator Tool for exploring polyhedra
Paper Models of Polyhedra Many links
The Uniform Polyhedra
Virtual Reality Polyhedra The Encyclopedia o Polyhedra
London South Bank University Water structure and behavior
Book XIII of Euclid's Elements.
Interactive 3D Polyhedra in Java |
The Euclidean algorithm is an algorithm. It can be used to find the biggest number that divides two other numbers (the greatest common divisor of two numbers).
What the algorithm looks like in words
Euclid solved the problem graphically. He said
If you have two distances, AB and CD, and you always take away the smaller from the bigger, you will end up with a distance that measures both of them.
The algorithm as an enumerated list
Start out with two positive integers m and n.
If the value of m is less than the value of n, switch the values of m and n
Find a number r equal to m modulo n
Let m have the same value as n
Let n have the same value as r
If n does not have the value of 0, go to step 2
The wanted value is in m.
The algorithm in pseudocode
Note: This pseudocode uses modular arithmetic instead of subtraction. It does the same thing as above, but gets the answer faster.
Precondition: two positive integers m and n
Postcondition: the greatest common integer divisor of m and n
if m < n, swap(m,n)
while n does not equal 0
r = m mod n
m = n
n = r
endwhile
output m
C/C++ source code
Iterative (Non-recursive):
int euclid_gcd(int m, int n)
{
int temp = 0;
if(m < n)
{
temp = m;
m = n;
n = temp;
}
while(n != 0)
{
temp = m % n;
m = n;
n = temp;
}
return m;
}
Recursive:
int euclid_gcd_recur(int m, int n)
{
if(n == 0)
return m;
return euclid_gcd_recur(n, m % n);
}
Algorithms |
An eukaryote is an organism with complex cells, or a single cell with complex structures. In these cells the genetic material is organized into chromosomes in the cell nucleus.
Animals, plants, algae and fungi are all eukaryotes. There are also eukaryotes amongst single-celled protists. In contrast, simpler organisms, such as bacteria and archaea, do not have nuclei and other complex cell structures. Such organisms are called prokaryotes.
The eukaryotes are often treated as a superkingdom, or domain.
Eukaryotes evolved in the Proterozoic eon. The oldest known probable eukaryote is Grypania, a coiled, unbranched filament up to 30 mm long. The oldest Grypania fossils come from an iron mine near Negaunee, Michigan. The fossils were originally dated as 2100 million years ago, but later research showed the date as about 1874 million years ago. Grypania lasted into the Mesoproterozoic era.
Another ancient group is the acritarchs, believed to be the cysts or reproductive stages of algal plankton. They are found 1400 million years ago, in the Mesoproterozoic era.p57
The classification of the Eukaryota is under active discussion, and several taxonomies have been proposed. Modern versions disagree about the number of kingdoms. It carrys DNA as well as it is an organism
Structure
Eukaryotic cells are usually much bigger than prokaryotes. They can be up to 10 times bigger. Eukaryote cells have many different internal membranes and structures, called organelles. They also have a cytoskeleton. The cytoskeleton is made up of microtubules and microfilaments. Those parts are very important in the cell's shape. Eukaryotic DNA is put in bundles called chromosomes, which are separated by a microtubular spindle during cell division. Most eukaryotes have some sort of sexual reproduction through fertilisation, which prokaryotes do not use.
Prokaryotes do not have sexes, but they can pass DNA to other bacteria. Their cell division is asexual. Bacterial conjugation is when bacteria move a genetic element (often a plasmid or transposon) from one to another.
Eukaryotes have sets of linear chromosomes located in the nucleus and the number of chromosomes is usually typical for each species.
Internal membrane
In eukaryotic cells, there are many things with membranes around them. All of them together are called the endomembrane system. Simple bags, called vesicles or vacuoles, are sometimes made by budding off other membranes, just like how children make bubbles with their toys. Many cells take in food and other things using something called endocytosis. In endocytosis, the membrane closest to the outside bends inwards and then pinches off to make a vesicle. Many other organelles that have membranes probably started off as vesicles.
The nucleus is surrounded by two membranes membrane that has holes in it so things can go in and out. The nuclear envelope has things sticking out of it that look like tubes and sheets. These are called the endoplasmic reticulum which is often shortened to ER. The ER is works with moving proteins around and allowing them to mature.
The ER has two parts, the rough ER and the smooth ER. The rough ER has ribosomes attached to it. The proteins made by the ribosomes attached to the rough ER go to the inside the rough ER, called the lumen. After that, they usually go into vesicles, which grow and pinch off from the smooth ER. In most eukaryotes, the vesicles with proteins inside fuse with piles of flattened vesicles called the Golgi bodies, where the proteins inside are changed again.
Vesicles are sometimes changed so they can do one thing very well. This is called specialization, or differentiation. For example, lysosomes have enzymes inside them that break down the food the comes from food vacuoles, and peroxisomes have enzymes that break down peroxide, a poison, so it is not poisonous anymore.
Many protozoa have contractile vacuoles, which are vacuoles that can fuse or pinch off from the outer membrane. Contractile vesicles are often used to get and get rid of unneeded water. Extrusomes shoot out stuff that make predators go away or catch food. In multicellular organisms, hormones are often made in vesicles. In the complicated plants, most of the inside of a plant cell is taken up by a central vacuole. That central vacuole is the main thing that keeps osmotic pressure so the cell can hold its shape.
Origin
Because the cell organelles of eukaryotes have different (polyphyletic) origins, the question arises as to whether the group is a unified clade or not. It is certain that the protists are not. Cell organelles are specialised units which carry out well-defined functions, like mitochondria and plastids. 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'. The first such events took place between ancient bacteria to produce the double-membrane class known as gram-negative bacteria. Since the gram-negative bacteria include the cyanobacteria, this was the first of several such events in the history of the eukaryotes.
Role of the Archaea
Recent research shows that "the known repertoire of ‘eukaryote-specific’ proteins in Archaea [indicate] that the archaeal host cell already contained many key components that govern eukaryotic cellular complexity".
Taxonomy
Protista is a group of different single-celled organisms. More accurate taxonomies have been proposed, but scientists are still discussing them. For this reason, Protista is still useful for talking about these organisms. One modern scheme for the classification of the Eukarya is as follows:
However, in 2005, doubts were expressed as to whether some of these supergroups were monophyletic, particularly the Chromalveolata, and a review in 2006 noted the lack of evidence for several of the supposed six supergroups.
The Eukarya may only be unified in the sense that the cells are a community derived from bacteria and archaea; opinions vary. Like the Protista, the Eukarya may be a polyphyletic assembly, though a useful one. However, as mentioned above, all branches of the Eukarya have sexual reproduction. That, and the general organisation of the nucleus, are the defining features. These two points are the main evidence for monophyletic origin.
Related pages
Life timeline
References
Cell biology
Taxonomy |
Unicellular organisms are organisms that have one cell. They are divided into two quite different types, from different classification kingdoms.
The prokaryotes, bacteria and archaea, have cells with no nucleus and a simple cell structure.
Eukaryotes have a nucleus, and a more complex cell structure.
The differences between the prokaryota and eukaryota are significant. Eukaryotes possess a nucleus and various subcellular organs called organelles, and prokaryotes do not.
Observations
Almost all unicellular organisms are microorganisms but you can observe eukaryotes and many prokaryotes by using a compound microscope. Bacteria just appear as dark dots. To gather unicellular organisms for observation, one can place a cover slip on the surface of pond water, and leave it overnight. By the next morning, numerous unicellular organisms will have grown entire colonies on the bottom of the slip. They multiply fast: colonies can double their size in between 30 minutes and a few hours.
Unicellular organisms can be found everywhere. The oldest forms of life existed 3.8 billion years ago, if not longer. They pursue a variety of strategies for survival: photosynthesis (cyanobacteria), chemotrophy (many archaea), and heterotrophy (amoeba). Some unicellular organisms have flagella, little tails they use for locomotion, or lobopods, extensions of the cellular skeleton (cytoskeleton), which appear as bloblike arms. The flagella of our unicellular ancestors occurs all the way up into the animals, where it makes an appearance as flagellated sperm.
Of all the six eukaryote supergroups, four are exclusively composed of unicellular organisms. Unicellular organisms vary in size, with the smallest bacteria measuring only a third of a micron (300 nanometers) across, ranging up to the titanic plasmodial slime molds, which can grow to 20 cm (8 in) across. The largest unicellular organisms may have millions of nuclei scattered throughout the cellular envelope. To observe some of the smallest unicellular organisms requires an electron microscope, while the very largest can be seen with a microscope or anything that enhances images.
Related pages
Life timeline
Multicellular organisms
Microorganism
Other websites
About the kingdom Protista
Microbiology |
Multi-cellular organisms are organisms with more than one cell. This is the case for animals, plants and most fungi. In such organisms, cells are usually specialised. All the cells with the same function work together. Such a group of cells is then called a tissue.
Multi-cellular organisms have a set of cells that specialize in reproduction. Reproduction in such organisms is usually sexual. The sex cells are either sperm or ovum (also named "egg") cells. If they are sperm cells, the organism is male, if they are egg cells it is female. If both are present, the organism is a hermaphrodite.
Evolutionary history
We know, from their cell structure, that multicellularity has evolved independently many times in Earth history, for example in plants and animals.
The earliest forms of life in the fossil record are cyanobacteria from the Archaean era at 3.5 billion years ago. They grew as single cells but lived in colonies as stromatolites.
The first multicellular fossils have been found in 2.1 billion years old Palaeoproterozoic rocks from the Gabon in Africa. These are eukaryotic cells which live colonially. The fossils are visible to the naked eye, and hence much larger than bacteria. The authors comment that one advantage of multicellularity is larger size, and that an adequate level of oxygen is required to support this kind of life.
Consequences of multicellularity
To reproduce, multicellular organisms must solve the problem of regenerating a whole organism from germ cells (i.e. sperm and egg cells), an issue that is studied in developmental biology.
Multicellular organisms, especially long-living animals, also face the challenge of cancer, which occurs when cells fail to regulate their growth within the normal program of development.
Related pages
Life timeline
Metazoa
Unicellular organism
References
Evolutionary biology
Cell biology |
A hexahedron (plural: hexahedra) is any polyhedron with six faces. A cube, for example, is a regular hexahedron with all its faces square, and three squares around each vertex.
There are seven topologically distinct convex hexahedra, one of which exists in two mirror image forms. (Two polyhedra are "topologically distinct" if they have intrinsically different arrangements of faces and vertices, such that it is impossible to distort one into the other simply by changing the lengths of edges or the angles between edges or faces.)
There are three further topologically distinct hexahedra that can only be realised as concave figures:
Related pages
Prismatoid
References
Other websites
Polyhedra with 4-7 Faces by Steven Dutch
Polyhedra |
Kazan (Volga region) Federal University (, Kazanskiy (Privolzhskiy) federalnyy universitet; ) is a university in Kazan, Tatarstan, Russia. It was founded in 1804. The famous Russian mathematician Lobachevsky was its headmaster from 1827 till 1846. The post is now being held by Myakzyum Salakhov (Mäğzüm Säläxev).
Kazan University is also known as "the birthplace of organic chemistry" because of the works of Aleksandr Butlerov, Vladimir Markovnikov, Aleksandr Arbuzov, and others.
Notable graduates
Aleksandr Arbuzov
Mily Balakirev
Aleksandr Butlerov
Vladimir Lenin (expelled)
Nikolay Lobachevski
Vladimir Markovnikov
Leo Tolstoy
Nikolay Beketov
Afanasy Shchapov
Vladimir Galkin
Michael Minsky (Spirin)
Related pages
List of Kazan State University's rectors
Other websites
Kazan State University Official Site
Colleges and universities in Russia
Tatarstan |
The New World is a name used for the Western Hemisphere. It specifically refers to the Americas. It can also refer to certain Atlantic and Pacific islands (like Bermuda) and sometimes Oceania, (Australasia). The name started in the early 16th century, shortly after America was colonized. The people of the European Middle Ages thought the world was only Europe, Asia, and Africa. These continents are called the Old World. The Americas were also referred to as the "fourth part of the world".
The continent (North and South America) was named America after Amerigo Vespucci.
Oceania, which was colonized some centuries later, is referred to as "The Newest World".
Related pages
The Americas
Western Hemisphere
History of North America
History of South America |
Rabbits are mammals of the order Lagomorpha. There are about fifty different species of rabbits and hares. The order Lagomorpha is made of rabbits, pikas and hares. Rabbits can be found in many parts of the world. They live in families and eat vegetables and hay. In the wild, rabbits live in burrows, that they dig themselves. A group of rabbits living together in a burrow is called a warren. Rabbits are famous for hopping and eating carrots.
A male rabbit is called a buck, and a female is called a doe. A baby rabbit is called a kit, which is short for kitten. Rabbits have a gestation period of around 31 days. The female can have up to 12-13 kits, very rarely litters as big as 18 and as small as one. When the doe gives birth her babies are collectively referred to as a litter. Some people have rabbits as pets. Rabbits are also raised for their meat. Rabbits are of a different biological classification than hares.
Since rabbits are prey animals, they are careful in open spaces. If they sense danger, they freeze and watch. Rabbit vision has a very wide field, including overhead scanning. Their enemies are foxes and dogs; also bears, raccoons, minks, weasels and snakes. Birds of prey sometimes take rabbits. People are also known to shoot rabbits, because they eat crops. Their escape method is to run for their burrow, where they are usually safe.
Rabbits have a complex social structure and, like dogs, they have a hierarchy. Rabbit ears probably have several functions. The main function is to give warning of predators, but they may be used for signalling, and temperature regulation.
Rabbits as pets
In the wild, rabbits have plenty to keep them occupied, from foraging to reproduction to territorial defense. Captive rabbits, on the other hand, often lack stimulation. This can lead to behavioral problems and poor health. The expected lifespan of a rabbit in the wild is about three years.
References
Lagomorphs
Pets |
Louis Pasteur (December 27, 1822 – September 28, 1895) was a French microbiologist and chemist.
He and his wife, Marie, are best known for their experiments supporting the germ theory of disease, and he is also known for his vaccinations, most notably the first vaccine against rabies.
Career
He made many discoveries in the field of chemistry, including the asymmetry (different shapes) of crystals. He is also well known for his way of keeping milk and wine from going sour for longer periods of time. That process is called pasteurization. It is when the milk and or wine is put under about 161 Fahrenheit (72 Celsius) for fifteen seconds.
Pasteur's later work on diseases included work on chicken cholera. During this work, Pasteur noticed how a culture of the responsible bacteria had spoiled, and it failed to induce the disease in some chickens, which he was infecting, with the disease.
Personal life
Louis Pasteur was born on December 27, 1822 in Dole in the Jura region of France, into the family of a poor tanner. Louis grew up in the town of Arbois. He gained degrees in Letters and in Mathematical Sciences before entering the École Normale Supérieure, an elite college.
After serving briefly as professor of physics at Dijon Lycée in 1848, he became professor of chemistry at the University of Strasbourg, where he met and courted Marie Laurent, daughter of the university's rector, in 1849.
Louis Pasteur and Marie were married on May 29, 1849, and together had five children. Only two survived to adulthood; his other three children had died of typhoid fever. These personal tragedies inspired Pasteur to try to find cures for diseases, such as typhoid.
Death
In 1895 at Marnes-la-Coquette, a commune in Paris, Pasteur died after several strokes.
References
1822 births
1895 deaths
Cardiovascular disease deaths in France
Deaths from stroke
French chemists
French microbiologists
Vaccinologists |
Akrotiri and Dhekelia are two British overseas territories that borders the Republic of Cyprus and Northern Cyprus. They are used as military bases by the United Kingdom. The bases were kept by the UK after Cyprus changed from being a colony in the British Empire, to being an independent republic. The United Kingdom kept them because of the important location of Cyprus in the Mediterranean Sea.
British overseas territories
Cyprus |
A transcontinental country is a nation that is in more than one continent. Examples:
Africa and Asia
Egypt
Asia and Europe
Cyprus
Georgia
Kazakhstan
Russia
Turkey
Most of the other examples are contentious, based on the possession of small islands in another region. For example, Spain controlling the Canary Islands which is geologically located in Africa. A few are undoubtedly intercontinental:
Asia and Oceania
Indonesia, controlling large islands in Oceania.
America and Oceania
United States, because Hawaii is a state located in Oceania.
America, Oceania and Antarctica
Chile, because Easter Island is a province in Oceania and Chilean Antarctic is a territory in Antarctica.
Oceania and Antarctica
Australia, Australian Antarctic Territory is a territory in Antarctica.
New Zealand, Ross Dependency is a territory in Antarctica.
Europe, Africa, and America
• France, because Réunion, Mayotte, Martinique, Guadeloupe, and French Guiana are regions of France
References
Countries |
For the place of similar name in New Zealand see: Kurow
Kurów is a village in south-eastern Poland, near Puławy and Lublin, on the Kurówka River. It is the main village of a gmina within the Lublin Voivodship and has 2826 people living there (as of 2010). The village was built before 1185 and made bigger between 1431 and 1442 with city rights based on the Magdeburg Law. The former President of Poland, Wojciech Jaruzelski was born in Kurów in 1923.
Other websites
Wiki about Kurów
Villages in Poland |
Scorpions are eight legged venomous arachnids. They have a long body with an extended tail with a sting. The average adult scorpion is about 3 inches in length. The longest scorpion is the African scorpion, which can be 9 inches long. There are about 1,750 species of scorpions worldwide.
The evolutionary history of scorpions goes back to the Silurian, 430 million years ago. They have adapted to a wide range of environments, and live on all continents except Antarctica. There are 13 living families. Only about 25 species have venom which can kill a human being.
Anatomy
They have eight legs and a pair of grasping pedipalps (like claws). The tail is narrow, with segments. It usually has a forward curve over the back, ending with a venomous stinger.
Their body is in three parts. The front section is the cephalothorax; the abdomen is called the mesosoma, and the tail is the metasoma. The body is covered by an exoskeleton which gives them good protection.
Survival in the desert
Scorpions have many ways to survive in the desert. They can slow down their metabolism. This allows them to survive on as little as one insect per year. This ability also allows them to shelter from the sun and heat for extended periods of time, using only little amounts of oxygen.
Many people also believe that their claws, or pincers, were once front legs that have turned into what they now are by going through evolution. Nevertheless, the scorpions' claws play a crucial part in their hunting and mating rituals.
Scorpions also possess a special, feather-like pair of organs, called pectines that they use to sense even the smallest of movements around them. This allows them to effectively track down and hunt their prey, either above or below the surface. This also warns them of possible dangers, such as other bigger hunters.
The scorpion’s most feared and recognized feature is its sting. The sting contains a neurotoxin, which the scorpion uses to paralyze the victim, so it would be easier to kill and eat. They also stay hidden under rocks and that makes their body temperature cool.
Breeding cycle
The mating ritual of scorpions begins when the male and female connect claws. After this they verify that the other scorpion is of the same species, and is the opposite gender. After this, the male leads the female around until it finds a suitable spot to deposit its spermatophore. Once the male has found a suitable spot, he guides the female over it, where it enters her and fertilizes her. The mating ritual can take anywhere between 1 and 26 hours, depending on the male’s ability to find a suitable spot. Only a scorpion that has reached maturity may go through the mating ritual. A scorpion reaches maturity after it has gone through 5 to 7 moults.
Related pages
Arachnid
Desert scorpion
Scorpion Tattoo
References
Arachnids |
1216 was a leap year starting on a Friday in the Julian calendar.
Events
April 10 – Eric X of Sweden dies. He is succeeded by Johan Sverkersson.
April – Prince Louis of France, the future King Louis VIII, invades England in the First Barons' War
July 24 – Ascension of Pope Honorius III; in the same year, he officially recognises the Order of Preachers (the Dominican Order)
October 19 – Henry III becomes King of England, after the death of King John of England.
Dresden, Germany becomes a city
Ballintubber Abbey is founded by King Cathal Crovdearg O'Connor of Connaught in Ireland.
Births
Eric IV of Denmark (d. 1250)
September 17 – Robert I, Count of Artois (d. 1250)
Deaths
Shota Rustaveli, Georgian poet (b. 1172)
April 10 – King Eric X of Sweden (b. 1180)
June 11 – Henry of Flanders, Emperor of the Latin Empire (b. 1174)
July 16 – Pope Innocent III (b. 1161)
October 19 – King John of England (b. 1167) |
John Richard Schlesinger, CBE (16 February 1926 – 25 July 2003) was a British movie director. He was born into a Jewish family in London. He was openly gay. He died of a stroke in Palm Springs, California, United States.
Schlesinger's acting career began in the 1950s. He started to direct in 1956. By the 1960s he was not acting so he could just direct. His documentary Terminus (1961), got a Venice Film Festival Gold Lion and a British Academy Award. A Kind of Loving won the Golden Bear award at the 12th Berlin International Film Festival in 1962. Schlesinger's movie, Midnight Cowboy (1969), made in the United States, was internationally successful. A story of two hustlers living on the fringe in the bad side of New York City, it was Schlesinger's first movie shot in the U.S. It won Oscars for Best Director and Best Picture. In 1996 he received the BAFTA Academy Fellowship Award, a lifetime achievement award.
Filmography
Feature and television movies (as Director)
A Kind of Loving (1962)
Billy Liar (1963)
Darling (1965)
Far From the Madding Crowd (1967)
Midnight Cowboy (1969)
Sunday Bloody Sunday (1971)
Visions of Eight (1973)
The Day of the Locust (1975)
Marathon Man (1976)
Yanks (1979)
Honky Tonk Freeway (1981)
Privileged (1982)
Separate Tables (1983) (TV)
An Englishman Abroad (1983) (TV)
The Falcon and the Snowman (1985)
The Believers (1987)
Madame Sousatzka (1988)
Pacific Heights (1990)
A Question of Attribution (1991) (TV)
The Innocent (1993)
Cold Comfort Farm (1995) (TV)
Eye for an Eye (1996)
The Tale of Sweeney Todd (1998) (TV)
The Next Best Thing (2000)
References
Other websites
1926 births
2003 deaths
Academy Award winning directors
Actors from London
BAFTA Award winners
British television directors
Cardiovascular disease deaths in California
Deaths from stroke
English movie actors
English movie producers
English television actors
English LGBT people
Jewish British actors
LGBT directors
Gay Jews
Jewish screenwriters
Movie directors from London |
Landjäger (or Landjaeger) is a type of German sausage. The name stands for "hunter's sausage". It is smoked, so it does not need refrigeration. Usually, some of the water has also been taken out (they are dehydrated).
Sausage |
The Gilbert and Ellice Islands were a British protectorate from 1892 and colony from 1916. They are formed from two groups of islands in the Pacific Ocean. On 1 January 1976 the islands were split into two different colonies that became independent states. The Gilbert Islands have been the biggest part of the nation of Kiribati since 1979, and the Ellice Islands became Tuvalu in 1978.
Kiribati
Pacific islands
History of the United Kingdom
1892 establishments in the United Kingdom
19th-century establishments in Oceania |
Casablanca (classical Arabic name: الدار البيضاء, "the white house"; Spanish:Casablanca, "whitehouse") is a city in western Morocco, on the Atlantic Ocean.
With 2.95 million people (September 2004 census), Casablanca is Morocco's biggest city.
Casablanca has a Mediterranean Climate with hot dry summers and wet rainy winters.
Education
EMLYON Business School
Toulouse Business School
References
Other websites
Official web site of Casablanca |
Flatulence or farting is when intestinal gas leaves the anus. This often happens with a sound that can be embarrassing to some people, but in some cultures it is treated like humor. The word flatuence comes from the Latin word flatus, which means blowing or breath, but people today usually call it farting.
In mammals like humans, the gases come from two sources: swallowed air (for example, while eating, talking or drinking) and gases naturally created by bacteria in the body during digestion. Of the gases that come out during flatuence, most of it is nitrogen (which has the chemical formula N2 and makes up between 20% to 90% of all the gases), followed by hydrogen (H), carbon dioxide (CO2), oxygen (O2) and methane (CH4).
References
Other websites
7 Easy Ways to Tame Excessive Gas
Digestive system |
Computability theory is part of computer science. Scientists want to know what can be computed, and what can not.
There is a model of a computer that is used for this. It is called the Turing machine. A Turing machine basically is a special typewriter with an endless ribbon. The machine is named after the mathematician Alan Turing.
A problem is computable if it can be expressed in such a way that a Turing machine can solve it.
One of the best known examples is the Halting problem. The task is to write a program which says for all programs whether they will finally stop. This is impossible to decide. Mathematicians say the problem is undecidable.
Theoretical computer science |
Batman is a city in southeast Turkey. It is the capital (city) of the province with the same name. In 2010, 325,000 people lived there. There are many Kurds in that area. The area has much oil and gas.
There is a railway track at Kurtalan, near this city. The track runs all the way to Istanbul. There is also an airport near Batman. The name is short for the Bati Raman mountains.
Other websites
Batman Municipality
Batman |
A typewriter is a machine that is for typing on a piece of paper instead of writing by hand. It has keys for typing letters, numerals, and symbols one at a time. Typewriters were created in 1829. Typewriters were originally invented to make writing faster and printing. The earliest typing was done on stone, clay, or metal sheets by inscribing them.
A typewriter does not have computer memory. As with writing with a pen, it is difficult to correct mistakes. One advantage is that many of them are not electrical, so you do not need to plug them in. Hackers cannot see what you have typed. On many typewriters, a separate type element (called a typebar) corresponds to each key. The first commercial typewriters were introduced in 1874. They did not become common in offices until after the mid-1880s.
Typewriters quickly became a necessary tool for almost all writing other than personal handwritten letters. They were used a lot by professional writers, in offices, and for business correspondence in private homes. Typewriters were common in most offices up to the 1980s. After that, computers often replaced them. Nevertheless, typewriters are still common in some parts of the world. They are needed for a few specific applications, and they are popular in certain subcultures. Early typewriters, and later cheap ones, were "manual" typewriters. This means they were powered completely by the user. After the mid-20th century, electric typewriters with a motor became most common.
Related pages
Teletypewriter
Writing tools |
Nocturnal (Latin: nox - night, darkness) animals are animals that are mainly active during the night. They hunt or feed during the night, and sleep during the day. Diurnal animals do it the other way around.
Crepuscular animals are mostly active near dawn, dusk, and sometimes when the full moon throws light. Domestic cats hunt mice and voles mostly at this time.
Cathemeral animals are equally likely to be awake and active at any time of day or night.
Many nocturnal animals have good night vision. Their large eyes may be highly reflective when a bright light flashes on them. Owls and bats are typical nocturnal predators. More specifically, they have a larger cornea relative to their eye size than diurnal creatures. This increases their visual sensitivity in low-light conditions.
Examples of nocturnal animals
Owls
Bats
References
Zoology |
Censorship is when an authority (such as a government or religion) cuts out or suppresses communication.
This has been done widely. All countries, religions and societies have their limits as to what can be said, or written or communication by art or nowadays by computer.
Certain facts are changed or removed on purpose. This may be done because it is considered wrong, harmful, sensitive, or inconvenient to the government or other authority. This can be done for different reasons.
A censor is a person whose job is to look at all types of media and remove material. There are many reasons to censor something, like protecting military secrets, stopping immoral or anti-religious works, or keeping political power. Censorship is almost always used as an insult, and there is much debate over what censorship is and when it is okay.
When there is freedom of speech and freedom of the press, most information can published. However, even in developed countries with much freedom of the press, there are some things that cannot be published. For example, journalists are usually not allowed to publish many secrets about the military, like where troops will be sent on a mission. Pornography is censored in some countries because it is seen as not moral. For these reasons, the government might arrest anyone who publishes it.
Reasons
Most often things are censored for one or more of the following reasons:
Moral censorship: It is thought that certain facts may be inappropriate for the audience. There are many countries that limit who may see pornography. Additionally, it may be forbidden to show or write about certain forms of pornography, such as child pornography. Obscene words may be forbidden. Since about 1960 pressure groups have tried to stop the use of some words in favour of others. This has happened especially with words that describe race and gender.
Military censorship: In a war, all news reports might be censored. This is done to guarantee that the enemy cannot get information that might be used to plan an attack. Very often, this includes the size of military troops, but also the strategies and tactics used
Political censorship: A government (or a political party) may hold back certain kinds of information. This is done to avoid rebellions or embarrassment, or control the population by withholding certain information which those in power feel would damage their reputation or image,
Religious censorship: Often, there is a dominant religion which removes or changes certain kinds of information. Examples for this are the Vatican censoring Galileo Galilei, or the Iranian Ayatollah Khomeini banning The Satanic Verses, a novel by Salman Rushdie. In Romania, many schools no longer teach evolution, and many schools in the US and UK refuse to discuss Creationism.
Corporate censorship: (Often large) businesses stop the publication of material because it shows some of their business idea, or their employees in a bad light, and bad light is not good
Debate
There is much debate about when censorship should be allowed. For example, U.S. President Richard Nixon censored the New York Times when they tried to publish articles about the Pentagon Papers, a group of classified military documents that showed that Nixon and the military lied about the Vietnam War. The Supreme Court in New York Times Co v. United States overturned the censorship, saying that Nixon had not shown it would be dangerous to the military, just embarrassing. In other countries, journalists and bloggers (who are usually not seen as journalists) are sometimes arrested for saying bad things about the government. In Egypt, Kareem Amer was famously arrested for insulting Islam and calling the president of Egypt, Hosni Mubarak, a dictator.
Non-governmental censorship
Governments are not the only ones who censor information. For example, when the history department at Middlebury College did not allow professors to accept Wikipedia as a source in papers, some said it was censorship. This was because the department was telling professors (who usually have academic freedom) what works they should or should not accept. Sometimes, a group or a website will not allow some facts, articles, and pictures that they do not think should be seen. There is much debate over the difference between censorship and editing, that is, deciding what should or should not be published.
Censorship of knowledge
Sometimes there is censorship of knowledge because it is believed that the average person can be harmed by access to it.
Slate Magazine wrote that in the 18th century the French king’s council stopped the distribution of Encyclopédie because it was “destroying royal authority and encouraging a spirit of independence and revolt,”
The Chinese government has blocked the Chinese-language Wikipedia since June 2015.
On July 16, 2019 the National Post ran an article about a woman who was banned fromTwitter. Lindsay Shepherd who is described as a Free speech advocate claimed that twitter has been too eager to censor right-wing public figures. Shepherd was a teaching assistant at Wilfrid Laurier University.
Related pages
Movie censorship
Censorship by Google
Censorship of YouTube
Reporters Without Borders
Wikileaks
References
Politics
Freedom |
Częstochowa is a city in south Poland on the Warta River. It has 248,894 residents. It has been in the Silesian Voivodeship (administrative division) since 1999, and was once the capital of Częstochowa Voivodship (1975-1998).
The town is known for the famous monastery of Jasna Góra Monastery, which is the home of the Black Madonna painting, a shrine of the Virgin Mary. Every year, thousands of people from all over the world come to Częstochowa to see it.
City name
The name Częstochowa means Częstoch's place, and comes from the name of a person, Częstoch. It is mentioned in medieval documents also as Częstobor and Częstomir. Częstochowa is also known as Czestochowa, Czenstochov, and Chenstochov.
Tourism
Currently, the city is one of the main tourist attractions in the area. It attracts hundreds of thousands of visitors every year.
The Black Madonna of Częstochowa, kept at the Jasna Góra Monastery, is a very popular attraction.
Cities in Poland |
A Voivodeship is one of 16 different divisions of land in Poland. The word comes from the Polish "wojewoda" meaning a governor. |
This is an article about the years 50 AD to 59 AD. Sometimes, the 50s is used for the 1950s.
Events and trends
The Roman emperor Claudius is murdered in (54). Nero be comes emperor.
Buddhism comes to China through the Emperor Ming of Han China
Significant people
Claudius, Roman Emperor (41–54).
Nero, Roman Emperor (54–68).
Kujula Kadphises, Kushan emperor
Saint Paul, Christian evangelist
Emperor Ming of Han China
Births
Juvenal, Roman poet.
Domitian, Emperor of Rome
Deaths
Claudius, Emperor of Rome
Agrippina the younger, mother of Nero |
Volleyball is a team sport. The teams are separated by a large net. It has six players on each side of the net. Each team is allowed twelve substitution players. The game starts when the captain from each team decides which side of the court they will play on, by the toss of a coin, which also determines who will serve (hit) the ball first. The point of the game is to keep the ball in the air. The ball can be played with any part of the body, with a maximum of three strokes a team. If at any point the ball hits the floor, the side that the ball landed on it is a point for the other team.
History
In 1895, William G. Morgan invented a new game called "Mintonette". However, when an observer named Alfred Halstead saw the game being played, he noticed the volleying action used to get the ball over the net, so he decided to change the name to "volleyball".
Morgan wanted to create a skilled activity, which required more players, less space, and less exertion than basketball. The first net was a “rope” and the first ball was a basketball air bladder. Until 1960, men and women played with different rules. Now the rules are the same except for the height of the net, the men’s net is higher.
A player cannot hit the ball twice. A point is gained when a team plays the ball in the opposition's court and the ball is not defended, therefore it lands within the court. The ball must be served (hit) from outside the court, otherwise, it will be regarded as a foul. The game is played in sets of 25 points (sometimes 21). The team that reaches 25 (or 21) points first, wins the set. Each game consists of 3-5 sets (or the first one to 3 in middle school). The fifth set is played to 15 points.
A player usually wears knee pads to protect their knees from becoming bruised during dives for the volleyball. In order to win the game, the winners must be ahead by 2 points or the game goes on until you win by 2 points.
The sports governing body is the (FIVB). Digging is the ability to prevent the ball from touching one's court after a spike or attack, particularly a ball that is nearly touching the ground. Usually, the player is diving (throwing themselves towards the ground) to be the barrier to block the ball from hitting the court. In many aspects, this skill is similar to passing, or bumping: overhand dig and bump are also used to distinguish between defensive actions taken with fingertips or with joined arms.
Some specific techniques are more common in digging than in passing. A player may sometimes perform a "dive", i.e., throw his or her body in the air with a forward movement in an attempt to save the ball, and land on his or her chest. When the player also slides his or her hand under a ball that is almost touching the court, this is called a "pancake". The pancake is frequently used in indoor volleyball. Besides being one of the best-known sports in the world, and being a favourite to millions of people, it is in the Olympics.
Positions
The positions in volleyball are separated into 6 areas, the first being Position 1 which is the back right side on the side that you are. Position 2 is on the right side of the court closest to the net, Position 3 is in the middle of the front part of the court right beside the net, Position 4 is on the left side of the court right beside the net, Position 5 is in the back left side of the court, and Position 6 is in the middle of the back of the court.
Court
The court is . A net is stretched tightly in the middle. The height of the net is for middle and high schools and college women, 7,11 feet (2.43 m) for college men.
The game
The objective of the game is to legally return the ball over the net in such a manner that the opponent’s team cannot make a legal return. The main causes of illegal plays are: holding, carrying, or lifting with the palm of the hands, four touches on one side, and two consecutive touches by one player. A regulation game is played with six players on the court. They are to rotate to serve in a clockwise direction when facing the net. The server will come from the right front position, serve, then play the right back position.
Scoring
Rally scoring is used in volleyball, which means a point will be awarded to one of the two teams when a rally ends or a mistake is made. A rally is a play in volleyball and can be started by a serve. A regulation game is played to 25 points and the winners must be ahead by 2 points. A middle and high school game is played best out of three games. If the games are tied at 1-1, the 3rd game is played to 15 points and the winners must be ahead by 2 points.
Skills
Serving: may be underhand or overhand. If the serve touches the net and goes to the opponent’s side, it must be played. The server is not allowed to step on or over the end line when serving. In class, the server must say the score before serving.
Float: Similar to a knuckle ball in baseball, the server stands flat footed and contacts the ball with a stiff wrist and does not swing through after contact. This causes no spin to be on the ball, allowing it to catch any air current and causes the ball to change directional course throughout the whole air course.
Top Spin: This serve is executed by snapping hard on the ball during contact. This puts a forward spin on the ball, which causes it to drop faster than a float.
Jump Serve: A jump serve is used to assist the server get more height. By jumping they have a better angle to put the ball down into the court, and are less likely to be underneath the ball. This can be a float or topspin ball depending on the contact, arm swing, and approach.
Pass or Bump (underarm pass): This is a pass used when the ball approaches a player below their shoulders. You are to hold your fingers together, elbows straight, and contact the ball with the forearms with shoulders facing the net on impact. Defined as a dig when passing a hard driven hit. Also pancaking is a form of passing. This is when the player has sprawled out to the floor in a last hope type of decision for the ball to land on their hand and it pop straight up.
Set or volley: (overhead pass) direct the ball to a place specifically. Hands high, flex wrist, contact the ball with the finger pads, and elbows bent. Use your legs and arms to project the ball into the air.
Hit: A hard hit ball from a height above the net, straight to the opponent’s side. Contact the ball with the cupped fingers and a long arm swing.
Block: (defensive hit) Two hands above the head, jumping with arms reaching for a ball that has been spiked. A block is used to prevent a volley from crossing the net. it usually hits the ball straight down or up!
Dig: Digging is the ability to prevent the ball from touching one's court after a spike or attack, particularly a ball that is nearly touching the ground.
Terminology
Serve: to put the ball into play from the end line.
Side out: the team that served made a mistake, ball now goes to the opponent’s for service.
Set: overhead pass that allows a player to spike
Bump: an underhand pass performed when a ball is below the shoulders
Spike: a hard driven ball aimed at the opponents.
Block: a defensive play to prevent the ball from crossing the net.
Double: Contacting the ball twice typically while settings
Kill: Any hit, rollshot, or tip that automatically results in a point.
Incredible Volleyball Actions
Summer Olympic sports |
Subsets and Splits
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