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Cheese is made using milk. The milk of cows, goats, and sheep are most popular. Buffalo, camel, donkey and even hippopotamus milk can also be used. Cheese makers usually cook the milk in large pots. |
Most cheeses are acidified by bacteria. This bacteria turns milk sugars (such as lactose) into lactic acid. |
Salt is added, and a substance from the stomach of young cows called rennet. This curdles the cheese and makes it solid. Some makers do not add rennet, but curdle the cheese in other ways. Vegetarian alternatives to rennet are made by fermentation of a fungus called "Mucor miehei". Other alternatives use species of the "Cynara" thistle family. |
Other ingredients are added and the cheese is usually aged for a varied length of time. |
There are many different ways to classify cheeses. Some ways include: |
There are also man-made foods that some people use instead of cheese. These are called Cheese analogues. |
Different types of cheese include: |
Constitution |
The constitution of a country (or a state) is a special type of law document that tells how its government is supposed to work. It tells how the country's leaders are to be chosen and how long they get to stay in office, how new laws are made and old laws are to be changed or removed based on law, what kind of people are allowed to vote and what other rights they are guaranteed, and how the constitution can be changed. |
Limits are put on the Government in how much power they have within the Constitution "(see Rule of Law )". On the other hand, countries with repressive or corrupt governments frequently do not stick to their constitutions, or have bad constitutions without giving freedom to citizens and others. This can be known as dictatorship or simply "bending the rules". A Constitution is often a way of uniting within a Federation. |
The UK's constitution is not written in one single document like many other countries' are. In fact, the UK's constitution is not completely written down at all. Some of it can be found in writing, starting with the Magna Carta of 1215 and the Bill of Rights Act 1689 and including more modern Acts of Parliament. Other parts of it are considered common law and are made up of the decisions of judges over many hundreds of years in a system called legal or judicial precedence. Because of this, some people say that the United Kingdom has a "de facto" or "unwritten" constitution. |
The United States in 1787 began a trend in the writing of constitutions. The United States Constitution is also the shortest that people are still using, and it has been changed (amended) many times over the years. It was made after the colonists won their independence from Britain. At first they had the Articles of Confederation but the Articles were replaced with today's Constitution. |
The Indian constitution of 1950 is the longest ever written constitution in the world. It has 448 Articles and 12 Schedules in it, with 5 appendices and 98 amendments. |
Circle |
A circle is a round, two-dimensional shape. All points on the edge of the circle are at the same distance from the center. |
The radius of a circle is a line from the centre of the circle to a point on the side. Mathematicians use the letter "r" for the length of a circle's radius. The centre of a circle is the point in the very middle. It is sometimes written as formula_1. |
The diameter (meaning "all the way across") of a circle is a straight line that goes from one side to the opposite and right through the centre of the circle. Mathematicians use the letter "d" for the length of this line. The diameter of a circle is equal to twice its radius ("d" equals 2 times "r"): |
The circumference (meaning "all the way around") of a circle is the line that goes around the centre of the circle. Mathematicians use the letter "C" for the length of this line. |
The number "π" (written as the Greek letter "pi") is a very useful number. It is the length of the circumference divided by the length of the diameter ("π" equals "C" divided by "d"). As a fraction the number π is equal to about or 355/113 (which is closer) and as a number it is about 3.1415926535. |
The area, "A", inside a circle is equal to the radius multiplied by itself, then multiplied by π ("A" equals π times "r" times "r"). |
π can be measured by drawing a large circle, then measuring its diameter ("d") and circumference ("C"). This is because the circumference of a circle is always π times its diameter. |
π can also be calculated by only using mathematical methods. Most methods used for calculating the value of π have desirable mathematical properties. However, they are hard to understand without knowing trigonometry and calculus. However, some methods are quite simple, such as this form of the Gregory-Leibniz series: |
While that series is easy to write and calculate, it is not easy to see why it equals π. A much easier way to approach is to draw an imaginary circle of radius r centered at the origin. Then any point ("x","y") whose distance d from the origin is less than r, calculated by the Pythagorean theorem, will be inside the circle: |
Finding a set of points inside the circle allows the circle's area A to be estimated, for example, by using integer coordinates for a big r. Since the area A of a circle is π times the radius squared, π can be approximated by using the following formula: |
Capitalization |
Capitalise (British spelling) or capitalize (North American spelling) means to make one or more letters upper case. The first letter of a sentence is capitalised in many languages, as are the first letters of proper nouns such as names of people and places. In German, however, all nouns are capitalized. It is the only language to do that. |
In the Latin alphabet, which is used in English, these are the upper case or capital letters: |
A,B,C,D,E,F,G,H,I,J,K,L,M,N,O,P,Q,R,S,T,U,V,W,X,Y,Z |
These are the lower case letters: |
a,b,c,d,e,f,g,h,i,j,k,l,m,n,o,p,q,r,s,t,u,v,w,x,y,z |
The homonym capitalize is a different word, and means "to fully fund as an investment". |
Cuba |
Cuba is an island country in the Caribbean Sea. The country is made up of the big island of Cuba, the Isla de la Juventud island ("Isle of Youth"), and many smaller islands. Havana is the capital of Cuba. It is the largest city. The second largest city is Santiago de Cuba. In Spanish, the capital is called "La Habana". Cuba is near the United States, Mexico, Haiti, Jamaica and the Bahamas. People from Cuba are called Cubans ("cubanos" in Spanish). The official language is Spanish. Cuba is warm all year. |
In 1492, Christopher Columbus landed on the island of Cuba. He claimed it for the Kingdom of Spain. Cuba became a Spanish colony until the Spanish–American War of 1898. After the war, it was part of the United States. It gained independence in 1902. |
In 1959, guerrilla fighters led by Fidel Castro and Che Guevara overthrew Cuba's dictator, Fulgencio Batista, in what became the Cuban Revolution. Castro began making relations with the Soviet Union and tried to close a lot of American businesses in Cuba; the United States did not like this. In 1961 Castro officially announced that his government was socialist. The US attempted to invade Cuba to regain control of it and overthrow it's communist led government but failed. The Communist Party of Cuba was created in 1965 and has ruled the island ever since. Today, Cuba is the only communist state outside of Asia, in the Caribbean, and in the western hemisphere. |
Cuba is famous for many types of music, especially dance music such as the Salsa and Mambo. Because Cubans have ancestors from Spain, Africa, South America and North America, Cuban music is special and different. |
Reading is very popular in Cuba. Many people especially enjoy reading books or things that come from outside the country, even though the government does not approve of this. They also love music and sports. Cuban music is very lively. This is because a lot of it comes from African and Spanish rhythms. Baseball, basketball, and athletics events are loved by many Cuban people. The Cheifs football-team took at one Football-World-Cup part. In 1938, they reached the quarter-final and lost against Sweden 0:8. |
Before Cuba was conquered by the Spaniards, three tribes lived on the island. They were the Taínos, the Ciboneys, and the Guanajatabeyes. The Taínos were the largest and most common of the three tribes. They farmed crops such as beans, corn, squash, and yams. The Taínos also slept in hammocks which the Spaniards would introduce to the rest of the world. Then, in 1492, Christopher Columbus arrived in Cuba on his first trip to the Americas. Three years later he claimed the islands for the Spanish. The Spanish began to rule Cuba afterwards. The Spanish brought thousands of slaves from Africa to Cuba to work for them. Most of the native Cubans died because of the new diseases brought by the Spanish and Africans. The Spanish also treated the native Cubans very cruelly and massacred many of them. |
The Spanish ruled for many years. Cuba became the most important producer of sugar. In the early 1800s, Cubans rebelled against the Spanish rulers, but failed until 1898, when the United States went to war with the Spanish and defeated them. Cuba became American for four years afterwards, before it became an independent republic in 1902. Even though Cuba was independent, the Americans still controlled the island by a law called the Platt Amendment. In 1933 the Cubans stopped the Platt Amendment, but the Americans still had a big say in Cuban politics. Americans owned most of Cuba’s businesses. The Americans supported the leader Fulgencio Batista, who was seen by many Cubans as corrupt. |
In addition to political control, the United States also exercised significant control over the Cuban economy. At the time, Cuba was a monoculture economy. While they produced coffee, tobacco, and rice, they relied primarily on sugar. Thus, they were known by other countries as the "sugar bowl of the world." The United States bought sugar from the Republic of Cuba at a price higher than the global standard. In exchange, Cuba was to give preference to the United States, and its industries. Cuba depended on the United States and their investments. Cuba was not industrialized and needed the revenue for goods and oil. They also needed the US investment for gas, electricity, communications, railways, and banks. While Cuban workers had better conditions than other countries in the continent, they still faced inequality, lack of infrastructure, high illiteracy rates, and a lack of full-time work (the sugar industry was seasonal). |
In 1959, Fidel Castro led a revolution against Fulgencio Batista. Castro took power in Cuba with Che Guevara from Argentina, his brother Raul, and others who fought against Batista. Castro made many changes to Cuba. He ended American ownership of Cuban businesses. This made Castro unpopular in America and the United States banned all contact with Cuba. Many Cubans went to America because of this. In 1961, the Americans helped some of these Cubans to attack Cuba and try to remove Castro, but they failed. Castro then asked the Soviet Union to help defend them from the Americans, which they did. The Soviet Union put nuclear weapons in Cuba and aimed them at the United States. American President Kennedy demanded that they be removed or a new war would begin. This was known as the "Cuban Missile Crisis". The Soviet Union removed the missiles when the United States agreed to not continue attacking Cuba and to remove missiles from Turkey. |
Cuba became a communist-led country like the Soviet Union after this. The Soviet Union bought most of Cuba’s sugar for expensive prices. Cuba spent this money on health, education and the army. This made Cuba’s schools and hospitals some of the best in the world. The army fought in Africa to support black Africans against the white South African army. Cuba also supported groups in South America fighting against the dictators of those countries. |
However, the Cuban government began to control most of life in Cuba under the communist system. Disagreeing with the Cuban government and Fidel Castro in public was not allowed. Some Cubans did not like this and tried to leave Cuba. Most Cubans who left went to the United States. Some Cubans who did not like the government and stayed were put in jail. Many groups from around the world protested against Cuba because of this, and demanded that Fidel Castro give up power. |
In 1991, the Soviet Union collapsed. This meant that Cuba, which had sold most of its products to the Soviet Union, had no money coming into the country. The Americans made the restrictions against contact with Cuba tighter. America said the restrictions on contact would continue unless Fidel Castro gave up power. Cuba became very poor in the 1990s. This became known in Cuba as “The Special Period”. Because of the disaster, Cuba changed to allow less control by the government, more discussion amongst the people, and private shops and businesses. Cuba also tried to get tourists to visit the island. |
In the 2000s, tourism to Cuba began to make money for the island again. Though Fidel Castro had remained in power, he had passed all duties to his brother Raul after an illness. Fidel Castro was one of the longest-serving heads of state. In 2018, Miguel Díaz-Canel became the official President of Cuba. |
In April 2015, historic talks took place with US President Obama and Cuban General Secretary Raúl Castro in improving relations between the two nations. |
The trade embargo issued by President Kennedy in the 1960s has been considerably loosened under Obama's administration. US citizens can now travel directly to Cuba at certain times of the year. Before, Americans had to go via Mexico if they wanted to go to Cuba. Americans are still not allowed to purchase or smoke Cuban cigars. The cigars are smuggled over the US-Canadian border since they are legal in Canada. |
For military service, men from the age of 17 to 28 years old must go into the army for two years. It is optional for women. |
The country is divided into 15 provinces and one special municipality (Isla de la Juventud). The provinces are divided into municipalities. |
The population of Cuba is close to 13 million. The people of Cuba come from three different groups. The largest group is the descendants of the Spanish settlers who came to Cuba. The smallest group is the descendants of the black African slaves who were brought in to do the work and birth children (in the barracoon) as New World slaves who could be legally sold into life time bondage in the United States. The middle-sized group is a mix of African and Spanish. The government succeeded in seeing that the three different groups were treated the same. According to a DNA Caribbean Studies Institute, the racial-makeup of the population of Cuba is: |
Cuba is a developing country, and is often depicted as a very poor country. In some aspects, however, like education, health care and life expectancy it ranks much better than most countries in Latin America. Its infant death rate is lower than some developed countries. The average life expectancy is 78 years. |
All the children are required to go to school from six to twelve years old, and nearly everybody is able to read and write at least. There is free education at every level. Because of this, Cuba has a 99.8% literacy rate. |
In 2006, the World Food Programme certified Cuba to be the only country in this region without undernourished children. In the same year, the United Nations said that Cuba was the only nation in the world that met the World Wide Fund for Nature's definition of sustainable development. |
Cuba is the largest island in the West Indies. It has many resources. Only about one-fourth of the land is mountains or hills. Much of the land is gentle hills or plains which are good for farming or raising cattle. Cuba has fertile soil and a mostly warm and humidodity climate that makes it a great place for growing crops. |
Sugar is the most important crop of Cuba, and they may get it from the sugar cane. Sugar cane is the largest cash crop grown in Cuba, and it brings in most of the money. After that, the second is tobacco. Tobacco is made into cigars by hand. A hand-made cigar is considered by many people to be the finest in the world. Other important crops are rice, coffee, and fruit. Cuba also has many minerals. Cobalt, nickel, iron, copper, and manganese are all on the island. Salt, petroleum, and natural gas are there too. The coast of Cuba has many bays and a few good harbors. Havana, which is the capital, is also a port. Other harbors have port cities. Nuevitas is a port city on the north coast. Cienfuegos, Guantánamo, and Santiago de Cubaare some of the port cities on the south coast. |
Cuba has a semi-tropical climate. That means that the cool ocean winds keep it becoming hot, despite its being in the tropiocal zone. Cuba has a wet season and a dry season. The dry season is from November to April, and the wet season is from May to October. August to October is also the hurricane season in the Atlantic Ocean. Because of this, most of Cuba's port cities can be flooded along the coast. |
Cube |
A cube is a block with all right angles and whose height, width and depth are all the same. |
A cube is one of the simplest mathematical shapes in space. Something that is shaped like a cube is sometimes referred to as "cubic". |
Surface area of cube=6l^2 |
Lateral Surface area of cube=4l^2 |
Volume of cube=l^3 |
The basic difference between a cube and a square is, a cube is a 3D figure (having 3 dimensions) i.e. length, breadth and height while a square has only 2 dimensions i.e. length and breadth. |
The 2-dimensional (2D) shape (like a circle, square, triangle, etc.) that a cube is made of is squares. The sides (faces) of a cube are squares. The edges are straight lines. The corners (vertices) are at right angles. A cube has 8 corners, 12 edges and 6 faces, as in the most usual kind of dice. A tesseract carries this idea into the fourth dimension (4D) and is made of 8 cubes. |
Cost of living |
Cost of living is the amount of money it costs just to live in a certain place. It includes food, housing, etc. |
December |
December (Dec.) is the twelfth and last month of the year in the Gregorian calendar, with 31 days, coming between November (of the same year) and January (of the following year). With the name of the month coming from the Latin "decem" for "ten", it was the tenth month of the year before January and February were added to the Roman calendar. |
December always begins on the same day of the week as September, and ends on the same day of the week as April. |
December's flower is the Narcissus. Its birthstone is the turquoise. The meaning of the turquoise is prosperity. |
Some of the holidays celebrated in December are Christmas, New Year's Eve, Kwanzaa, and Hanukkah. |
December is the 12th and last month of every calendar year in the Gregorian calendar, and is one of seven months of the year to have 31 days. December 31 is followed by January 1 of the following year. |
December begins on the same day of the week as September every year, as each other's first days are exactly 13 weeks (91 days) apart. December ends on the same day of the week as April every year, as each other's last days are exactly 35 weeks (245 days) apart. |
In common years, December starts on the same day of the week as April and July of the previous year, and in leap years, October of the previous year. In common years, December finishes on the same day of the week as July of the previous year, and in leap years, February and October of the previous year. In leap years and years immediately after that, December both starts and finishes on the same day of the week as January of the previous year. |
In years immediately before common years, December starts on the same day of the week as June of the following year, and in years immediately before leap years, March and November of the following year. In years immediately before common years, December finishes on the same day of the week as September of the following year, and in years immediately before leap years, March and June of the following year. |
December is one of two months to have a solstice (the other is June, its seasonal equivalent in both hemispheres), and in this month the Tropic of Capricorn in the Southern Hemisphere is turned towards the Sun, meaning that December 21 or December 22 is the Northern Winter Solstice and the Southern Summer Solstice. This means that this date would have the least daylight of any day in the Northern Hemisphere, and the most in the Southern Hemisphere. There are 24 hours of darkness at the North Pole and 24 hours of daylight at the South Pole. |
In mainly Christian countries, December is dominated by Christmas, which is celebrated on December 25 in most of those countries, though Eastern Orthodox Christians celebrate it on January 7. It marks the birth of Jesus Christ. Epiphany, January 6, is also important in relation to Christmas. Advent starts on the Sunday on, or closest to, November 30, and some countries have their own related celebration before the 25th. Sinterklaas is celebrated on December 5 in the Netherlands and Belgium, and St. Nicholas Day on December 6 is also celebrated in some countries. The Scandinavian countries, mainly Sweden, celebrate St. Lucia Day on December 13, while Iceland celebrates Thorlaksmessa on December 23. The week after Christmas is spent preparing for New Year. |
Judaism's festival of light, Hanukkah, is also celebrated over eight days in this month. |
Dublin |
Dublin () is the capital of the Republic of Ireland, and the biggest city on the island of Ireland. In 2011 there were over 1.1 million people living in the Greater Dublin Area. |
Dublin was built by the Vikings upon the river Liffey. The river divides the city into two parts, North Dublin and South Dublin. |
Many famous writers lived in Dublin. Oscar Wilde and George Bernard Shaw were born in Dublin. James Joyce is probably Dublin's best known and most international writer. |
Dublin is home to Ireland's largest stadium for all sports, Croke Park. It can hold up to 85,000 people. Croke Park is the usual venue for all Ireland hurling and football finals. The Aviva Stadium hosts rugby and soccer. |
Dance |
Dance is a performing art. It is described in many ways. It is when people move to a musical rhythm. They may be alone, or in a group. The dance may be an informal play, a part of a ritual, or a part of a professional performance. There are many kinds of dances, and every human society has its own dances. |
As with other performing arts, some people dance to express their feelings and emotions, or to feel better. Dance can be used to tell a story. In some societies, dance goes with song as well as music. Dancing is sometimes done as sport, and has similar athletic aspects. People who want to learn to dance can go to dance schools. It may take years of practice to become an experienced and capable dancer. |
To plan a dance is called "choreography", done by a choreographer. Often this goes with music, and fits into a certain style. Dances may be planned in detail, or they may be whatever dancers feel like doing. However, most dancing does follow some general style or pattern. One style is the couple dance, where (usually) a man and a woman dance together. Other dances need an ensemble, a group of people together to make it work. |
People have always danced. Every society has its own dances. There are pictures, on pottery and stone, which show dances from several thousand years ago, in Egypt and Greece. |
Sachs divides early dances into 'Imageless dances' and 'Image dances'. By 'imageless dances' he meant dances which have no set form, but aim at getting the dancers into a state of ecstasy. In this state the dancer(s) seem changed, in a trance, and are often thought of (by their society) as being 'possessed by spirits'. These dances are done on certain occasions: marriage, war, famine, illness or death, and so on. They are found in all early ('primitive') societies. |
The 'image dances', according to Sachs, are to do with the world outside the dancer. By imitating an animal or object, the dancer believes he can capture a power and make it useful. To dance in imitation of the animal which is going to be hunted is to become one with them. To imitate the act of sex is to achieve fertility. This is the kind of thinking behind an image dance. Sachs points out that societies of this kind do not really understand the connection between cause and effect. They really believe the image dances work. The dance type which is used in image dances is mime. |
The two styles of dance may be joined together. Fertility dances may involve both ecstatic states and mime. The great dancer Nijinsky used some of these ideas in his choreography for the ballet "Le Sacre du Printemps" (The Rite of Spring), a ballet about the sacrifice of a girl during a primitive celebration of Spring. |
In more recent times, the first dance school we know about was opened in 1661 in Paris. Only men were accepted until 1681. After 1681, women were accepted too. Ballroom dances are forms of modern dance. Ballroom dances such as the waltz are done by couples. |
Until the 20th century, most ballroom dances were sequence dances. The way people moved was planned in set formation. These formations were usually lines or squares. Everyone moved at the same time, and finished at the same time. The music played for a set time, and then stopped. After the invention of the waltz, around 1800, another style of dancing developed. In the waltz, and later dances, people danced in couples, but they did so separately. They did not dance in formation, but moved round the room as they pleased (but anti-clockwise). Often, new dance styles arrive. Some dance as individuals, separately, as they please. Street dance is like that. All these types of dance have music. |
At the same time, round the world there are many traditional dances. Some of them have been going for hundreds of years. We call them folkloric dances. |
The coming of popular music videos and DVDs led to a kind of dancer previously seen in some stage shows. A backup dancer (or background dancer) is a performer who dances with or behind the lead performers in a live musical act or in a music video. |
There are many different styles of dance, which fall into these general types: |
Dissolution of the monasteries |
The dissolution of the monasteries was an event that happened from 1536 to 1540, when English King Henry VIII took away the land and money that the nuns and monks of the Roman Catholic church owned. Henry VIII then gave this land and money to people that supported him. |
This was also when Henry VIII made himself the new head of the Church of England (which is a type of Christianity). Parliament made the Act of Supremacy to give him the right to do both these things. It was part of the Protestant Reformation in England. |
Deadline |
Subsets and Splits