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Creativity |
Creativity is the ability of a person or group to make something new and useful or valuable, or the process of making something new and useful or valuable. It happens in all areas of life - science, art, literature and music. As a personal ability it is very difficult to measure. The reason is that we don't understand the mental processes that help some people be more creative than others. Judging what is creative is also controversial. Some people say only things which are historically new are creative, while other people say that if it is new for the creator and the people around them, then it is also creativity. |
Some think that creativity is an important thing that makes humans different from apes. Others recognize that even apes, other primates, other mammals and some birds adapt to survive by being creative (for example - primates using tools). Liane Gabora believes that all culture comes from creativity, not imitation. Therefore, these people say, human science should focus on it (pay special attention to it): Ethics for example would focus on finding creative solutions to ethical dilemmas. Politics would focus on the political virtues that need some creativity. Imitation would not be the focus of education. Linguistics might be more interested in how new words are created by culture, rather than in how existing ones are used in grammar. |
Intellectual interests (recognized as intellectual rights or intellectual property in the law) are a way to reward creativity in law, but they do not always work very well. A good example is copyright which is supposed to pay authors and artists, but may only pay lawyers to make (imitative) arguments in court. |
Creativity is a central question in economics, where it is known as ingenuity (the ability to come up with new ideas) or individual capital - capacities that individuals have, that do not arise from simple imitation of what is known already. This is separate from the instructional capital that might try to capture some of that in a patent or training system that helps others do what the individual leader or founder of the system can do. In urban economics there are various ways to measure creativity - the Bohemian Index and Gay Index are two attempts to do this accurately and predict the economic growth of cities based on creativity. |
Catharism |
The Cathar faith was a version of Christianity. They were usually considered Gnostics. The word 'Cathar' comes the Greek word "katharos" meaning 'unpolluted' (from Tobias Churton, "The Gnostics") or "the pure ones". |
The Cathars believed that the world had been made by a bad god. They believed that this bad god had taken them from the good god and put them in the world, but inside their bodies there was a spirit, and that spirit needed to return to the good god. They were famous for a belief in a form of reincarnation and believed that when someone died the bad god would put that person's spirit in a new body. They believed this cycle of coming back to life could be escaped by a ritual cleansing. They were opposed to the doctrine of sin. |
Women were prominent in the faith. They were pacifists. They didn't eat anything that was made from other animals, including meat and cows milk. The only exception to this was fish. Fish was OK to eat because they believed fishes were not alive but just things that were sometimes produced from dirt and water. |
They preached tolerance of other faiths. They rejected the usual Christian rules of marriage and only believed in the New Testament. An earlier 10th-century Bulgarian heresy, Bogomilism and also Manichaeism started some of these trends. |
They used a bible in the language people spoke. Many other Christians used a Bible in Latin. Latin was spoken only by the priests. |
In 1145, open challenge to Catholic dominance began. In about 1165, the first Cathars said that the Church was "full of ravening (starving) wolves and hypocrites" and "worshipping the wrong God", right in front of the most powerful Catholics. In 1166, the Council of Oxford in England wiped out the English Cathars. It was also suppressed in Northern France. In 1167, Cathar bishops met to discuss organizing a counter Church - in the South of France, the Languedoc nobles protected it, and many noble women became "Perfects". Parish clergy had low morale, or confidence. |
The Catholic Church was against Catharism, seeing it as a heresy. |
In the South of France there was tremendous religious fervor, and an economy that was starting to grow, and a social class of merchants and peasants was starting to grow. Peasants owned their own land. Meanwhile, in other parts of Europe, peasants were forced to give up their land to nobles and become serfs or slaves - the system of feudalism. There was a strong central absolute monarchy that did not exist in the South of France. The burghers and bankers had more power in this looser system. R. I. Moore is a historian who believes that it was desire to crush this system and take over the land that drove the attack. |
However, there was real cultural and religious difference to cause problems: Troubadors, who combined some of the traditions of the Bards of the Celts, and Jews, were both part of the multicultural society in the South of France. Their influences were not appreciated by local or Roman Church figures. The 12th century Roman Catholic Monks were founding their monasteries outside the towns, drawing the best people there. |
The Cathars thus had little competition. The Cathar "Perfects", the so-called Good Men or Good Women, lived restrained lives and spread their faith in towns - where the Catholics in general did not have their best agents. Also, Cathars preached that only these Good leaders had to follow the regimens their whole lives - lay people could repent only on their deathbeds. Many 20th century Christian sects have similar beliefs. |
The Pope ordered a crusade against the Cathars in southern France. He said any crusader who answered the call would be given the same rewards as a crusader who went to the Holy Land. This was an absolution of all sin. |
In the Launguedoc, on the 22nd of July 1209, a force of about 30,000 Crusaders arrived at the walls of Beziers bearing the cross pattee to mislead and create ease among the Cathars, thinking they were friend, not foe, and demanded that about 200 Cathars be surrendered. The people of the town who were mostly Catholic, said that rather than turn over their friends and family, "we would rather be flayed alive." |
A mistake by the defenders of Beziers let thousands of attackers in. Arnauld Amaury made the famous quote "Kill them all, god knows his own" on being asked how to tell who were Cathars during the assault. Everyone in the town was killed, some while taking refuge in the church. It is guessed that 20,000 were killed, many of whom were Catholics and not Cathars at all. The crusade became known as the Albigensian crusade after the town of Albi. It was to wipe out the Cathars almost entirely over forty or so years. The Crusaders wanted to go home, but were ordered by the Pope to continue until the whole South of France was controlled and all Cathars were dead. In 1210, they attacked the fortress at Minerv and built "the first great bonfire of heretics" - beginning the practice of burning at the stake that would continue in the Inquisition of the Counter-Reformation. It is interesting to note that at the siege of Montsegur when the fires were lit the Cathars ran down the hill and threw themselves on, as their beliefs were very strong. |
Catharism disappeared from the northern Italian cities after the 1260s, pressured by the Inquisition. The last known Cathar perfectus in the Languedoc, Guillaume Bélibaste, was killed in 1321. |
Cosmology |
Cosmology is the branch of astronomy that deals with the origin, structure, evolution and space-time relationships of the universe. NASA defines cosmology as "The study of the structure and changes in the present universe". Another definition of cosmology is "the study of the universe, and humanity's place in it". |
Modern cosmology is dominated by the Big Bang theory, which brings together observational astronomy and particle physics. |
Though the word "cosmology" is recent (first used in 1730 in Christian Wolff's "Cosmologia Generalis"), the study of the universe has a long history. |
Until recently, people thought that the universe was only the Milky Way galaxy. They thought this because they could only see the planets up to Saturn and stars. With the invention of the telescope, we could see more of the universe. Even in the 20th century, people thought that the Milky Way was the entire universe. With the Hubble Space Telescope, people could see things far away. |
Modern cosmology is considered to have started in 1917 with the final paper of Albert Einstein's theory of general relativity. This paper was known as "Cosmological Considerations of the General Theory of Relativity" which made physicists start to change the assumption that the Universe never changed. When a scientific discipline begins to change an idea that is believed by many people, it is known as a paradigm shift. During this paradigm shift, the Great Debate took place. Many scientists debated if there were other galaxies. The debate ended when Edwin Hubble found Cepheid Variables in the Andromeda Galaxy in 1926. |
The Big Bang model was then created by Belgian priest, Georges Lemaître in 1927. This was supported by Edwin Hubble's discovery of the redshift in 1929 and later by the discovery of cosmic microwave background radiation. This was found by Arzo Penzias and Robert Woodrow Wilson in 1964. |
All of these discoveries have been further supported throughout the 20th century. Some more observations of the cosmic microwave background radiation were found by the COBE, WMAP, and Planck satellites. Some more observations of the redshift were found by the 2dfGRS and SDSS. These are known as redshift surveys. Survey is this context refers to an astronomical survey. An astronomical survey is a place in space. A redshift survey is a survey that looks for redshifts. |
On 1 December 2014, at the "Planck 2014" meeting in Ferrara, Italy, astronomers reported that the universe is 13.8 billion years old and is composed of 4.9% regular matter, 26.6% dark matter and 68.5% dark energy. |
Church (building) |
A church is a building that was constructed to allow people to meet to worship together. These people are usually Christians, or influenced by Christianity. Some other religious groups also call their religious buildings churches. |
Depending on the number of people that are in a community, the churches come in different sizes. Small churches are called chapels. The churches in a particular geographical area form a group called the diocese. Each diocese has a cathedral. In most cases, the cathedral is a very big church. Cathedrals are the seat of bishops. |
In the early days of Christianity people had to worship in secret. Christian worship was not allowed in the Roman empire, so Christians had to meet in a secret place. Sometimes they met in people’s houses or barns, sometimes they met underground. The first places that were built for Christian worship were small chapels that were cut into a rock where people could worship without being discovered. |
After the death of the Roman emperor Constantine in 337 A.D. Christians were allowed to have buildings to worship in. These first churches were built on a similar plan to Roman basilicas. This plan was later used for the fine Gothic cathedrals and churches that were built at the end of the Middle Ages. |
There are several parts in the architecture of a church. Not all churches will have all these parts: |
In Roman Catholic churches there is always a stoup (bowl) of holy water near the entrance of the church. This tradition comes from the fact that Roman basilicas had a fountain for washing in front of the entrance. The font is a bowl where people (often babies) are baptized. This is also near the entrance of the church. This is a symbol of the fact that it is welcoming the people into the Christian church. |
Traditionally the nave has long benches for the congregation to sit on. These are called pews. Some churches may now have replaced their pews with chairs so that they can be moved about for different occasions. At the front of the nave is the pulpit where the priest preaches (these talks are called “sermons”). There is also a lectern (like a large music stand) from where the lessons (the Bible readings) are read. |
If there are aisles along the side of the nave there will be pillars which hold up the roof. In large churches or cathedrals there may be a row of little arches along the top of these pillars. This is called the triforium. Over the triforium is the clerestory which is a row of windows high up in the church wall. |
The chancel is the most holy part of the church, and this is why it is often separated from the nave by a screen which can be made of wood or stone, or occasionally iron. The congregation can see through the screen. On the top of the screen there may be a cross. This is called a rood (pronounce like “rude”) screen. Priests used to climb up a staircase to the top of the rood screen to read the epistle and the gospel. Sometimes people sang from there. |
Inside the chancel are the benches where the choir sit. These are called choir stalls. They are on both sides. The two sides of the choir sit facing one another. The choir members who sit on the left (north side) are called “cantoris” (the side where the “cantor” sits) and those on the right (south side) are called “decani” (the side where the deacon sits). In some large churches or cathedrals the seats for the priests tip up. The top of these seats, when they are tipped up, are called misericords (from the Latin word for “mercy”). This is because the priests or monks were able to lean against them when they got tired if they had to stand up for a long time. |
Sometimes there are holes in the walls of the screen so that the congregation can see through. These are called squints. If there is a recess in the wall it is called an aumbry. It is a cupboard for communion wine and bread that have been consecrated by a priest. |
The altar may be right at the east end of the church, but in larger churches or cathedrals it is often much farther forward. In that case the very east end is called an apse. Sometimes it is a separate chapel called the “Lady Chapel”. |
The design of churches changed a lot during the course of history. Often churches were made bigger. When this happened there may be a mixture of architectural styles. These styles vary a lot in different countries. |
In English churches there were several different periods of architecture: |
In the 1600s, churches were built in a variety of styles. Often they copied some of the older styles. After the Great Fire of London many new churches were built by the architect Sir Christopher Wren. They were built in the classical style. Churches continued to be built in later centuries like this, but also the Gothic style continued to be used. |
Modern churches often do not have the traditional cross-shape. It is difficult for the congregation to see and hear what is happening in the chancel. Modern churches bring the congregation, choir and priests in closer touch. An example is the round design for the Church of Christ the Cornerstone in Milton Keynes. Modern churches are often simpler but with a warmer character than the Gothic churches. Many have beautiful mosaic glass windows. Coventry Cathedral is a famous example of a modern church building. |
City |
A city is a heavily inhabited community that may include structures, buildings, bridges, rivers or lakes, and landmarks. |
A city has many buildings and streets. It has houses, hotels, condominiums, and apartments for many people to live in, shops where they may buy things, places for people to work, and a government to run the city and keep law and order in the city. People live in cities because it is easy for them to find and do everything they want there. A city usually has a "city center" where government and business occur and suburbs where people live outside the center. |
No rule is used worldwide to decide why some places are called "city," and other places are called "town." |
Some things that make a city are : |
In American English, people often call all places where many people live cities. (See below: Size of cities ) |
The sizes of cities can be very different. This depends on the type of city. Cities built hundreds of years ago and which have not changed much are much smaller than modern cities. There are two main reasons. One reason is that old cities often have a city wall, and most of the city is inside it. Another important reason is that the streets in old cities are often narrow. If the city got too big, it was hard for a cart carrying food to get to the marketplace. People in cities need food, and the food always has to come from outside the city. |
Cities that were on a river like London could grow much bigger than cities that were on a mountain like Sienna in Italy, because the river made a transport route for carrying food and other goods, as well as for transporting people. London has been changing continually for hundreds of years, while Sienna, a significant city in the 1300s, has changed very little in 700 years. |
Modern cities with modern transport systems can grow very large, because the streets are wide enough for cars, buses, and trucks, and there are often railway lines. |
In the US, the word city is often used for towns that are not very big. When the first European people went to America, they named " city " to new places. They hoped the places would be great cities in the future. For example, Salt Lake City was the name given to a village of 148 people. When they started building the town, they made street plans and called it Great Salt Lake City (for the nearby Great Salt Lake). |
Now, 150 years later, it really is a big city. |
In modern times many cities have grown bigger and bigger. The whole area is often called a " "metropolis" " and can sometimes include several small ancient towns and villages. The "metropolis" of London includes London, Westminster, and many old villages such as Notting Hill, Southwark, Richmond, Greenwich, etc. The part that is officially known as the " City of London " only takes up one square mile. The rest is known as "Greater London. " Many other cities have grown in the same way. |
These giant cities can be exciting places to live, and many people can find good jobs there, but modern cities also have many problems. Many people cannot find jobs in the cities and have to get money by begging or by crime. Automobiles, factories, and waste create a lot of pollution that makes people sick. |
Urban history is history of civilization. The first cities were made in ancient times, as soon as people began to create civilization . Famous ancient cities which fell to ruins included Babylon, Troy, Mycenae and Mohenjo-daro. |
Benares in northern India is one among the ancient cities which has a history of more than 3000 years. Other cities that have existed since ancient times are Athens in Greece, Rome and Volterra in Italy, Alexandria in Egypt and York in England. |
In Europe, in the Middle Ages, being a city was a special privilege, granted by nobility. Cities that fall into this category, usually had (or still have) city walls. The people who lived in the city were privileged over those who did not. Medieval cities that still have walls include Carcassonne in France, Tehran in Iran, Toledo in Spain and Canterbury in England. |
People in a city live close together, so they cannot grow all their own food or gather their own water or energy. People also create waste and need a place to put it. Modern cities have infrastructure to solve these problems. Pipes carry running water, and power lines carry electricity. Sewers take away the dirty water and human waste. Most cities collect garbage to take it to a landfill, burn it, or recycle it. |
Transport is any way of getting from one place to another. Cities have roads which are used by automobiles (including trucks), buses, motorcycles, bicycles, and pedestrians (people walking). Some cities have trains and larger cities have airports. Many people in cities travel to work each day, which is called commuting. |
Houses and apartments are common places to live in cities. Great numbers of people in developing countries (and developed countries, in the past) live in slums. A slum is poorly built housing, without clean water, where people live very close together. Buildings are usually taller in the city center, and some cities have skyscrapers. |
City streets can be shaped like a grid, or as a "wheel and spokes": a set of rings and lines coming out from the center. Streets in some older cities like London are arranged at random, without a pattern. The design of cities is a subject called urban planning. One area of the city might have only shops, and another area might have only factories. Cities have parks, and other public areas like city squares. |
Cities in the US are usually very-left leaning. The best examples of these would be New York, New York, and Washington, D.C. For example, in Louisiana, the only Democratic delegate in US Congress who is a Democrat was elected from a district comprising in New Orleans. Below is a list of states and the major city/cities that provide much of the liberal support in them : |
These cities have more than 10 million people and can be called megacities: |
Cooking |
Cooking is a process to make food ready to eat by heating it. Cooking can kill bacteria that may be in the food. |
Raw food is food that is not cooked. Some foods are good to eat raw. Other foods are not good for the body when they are raw, so they must be cooked. Some foods are good to eat either raw or cooked. |
Cooking is often done in a kitchen using a stove or an oven. It can also be done over a fire (for example, over a campfire or on a barbecue). |
The heat for cooking can be made in different ways. It can be from an open fire that burns wood or charcoal. It can be on a stove or in an oven that uses propane, natural gas, or electricity. |
There are several different ways to cook food. Boiling cooks food in hot water. Frying (deep or shallow) cooks food in hot butter, fat or oil. Baking and roasting cook food by surrounding it with hot air. Grilling means cooking food on a metal grill that has heat under it. |
People often cook meat by boiling, roasting, frying, or grilling it. Some foods such as bread or pastries are usually baked. |
Usually food is cooked in some kind of pot or pan. Sometimes people cook food by putting it directly into the fire, or by wrapping the food in leaves before they put it into the fire. |
A person whose job it is to cook food may be called a "cook" or a "chef". The word "cooker" means a machine or tool that a cook might use to cook food. Rice cookers and pressure cookers are examples. |
Chat |
To chat is to talk about ordinary things that are not very important. A person can chat with another person, or to many people. People also use this word now for parts of the Internet where we can talk with many different people at the same time. Usually, people chat on the Internet in a chat room or messaging service like AOL Instant Messenger (AIM), Yahoo Messenger Windows Live Messenger or Tencent QQ. There are also programs which let people use different messaging services from one program, such as Pidgin. |
Cup |
A cup is any kind of container used for holding liquid and drinking. These include: |
Cup may also mean: |
Crime |
A crime (or misdemeanor or felony) is an act done by a person which is against the laws of a country or region. A person who does this is called a criminal. |
The basic idea of what things are called "crimes" is that they are thought to be things that might cause a problem for another person. Things like killing another person, injuring another person, or stealing from another person are crimes in most countries. Also, it can be a crime to have or sell contraband such as guns or illegal drugs. |
When some criminals make money from crime, they try to stop the police finding out where the money came from by money laundering. Men and boys commit many more crimes than women and girls. |
The word "crime" is derived from the Latin root "cernō", meaning "I decide, I give judgment". Originally the Latin word "crīmen" meant "charge" or "cry of distress." The Ancient Greek word κρίμα, "krima", from which the Latin cognate derives, typically referred to an intellectual mistake or an offense against the community, rather than a private or moral wrong. |
In 13th century English "crime" meant "sinfulness", according to the Online Etymology Dictionary. It was probably brought to England as Old French "crimne" (12th century form of Modern French "crime"), from Latin "crimen" (in the genitive case: "criminis"). In Latin, "crimen" could have signified any one of the following: "charge, indictment, accusation; crime, fault, offense". |
Whether a given act or omission constitutes a crime does not depend on the nature of that act or omission; it depends on the nature of the legal consequences that may follow it. An act or omission is a crime if it is capable of being followed by what are called criminal proceedings. |
For the purpose of section 243 of the Trade Union and Labour Relations (Consolidation) Act 1992, a crime means an offence punishable on indictment, or an offence punishable on summary conviction, and for the commission of which the offender is liable under the statute making the offence punishable to be imprisoned either absolutely or at the discretion of the court as an alternative for some other punishment. |
A normative definition views crime as deviant behavior that violates prevailing norms – cultural standards prescribing how humans ought to behave normally. |
There are various levels of crimes. In some jurisdictions they are: |
Different countries have different ideas of what things are crimes, and which ones are the worst. Some things that are crimes in one country are not crimes in other countries. Many countries get their ideas of what things are crimes from religions or controversial events which cause a law to be quickly created. For example, a religious Taboo might say eating a particular food is a crime. When automobiles became numerous, they killed or hurt many people in road accidents, so new laws were made for them. |
In many countries, if people say they made or wrote a book, movie, song, or Web page that they did not really make or write, it is a crime against copyright laws. In many countries, helping to grow, make, move, or sell illegal drugs is a crime. |
In most countries, police try to stop crimes and to find criminals. When the police find someone who they think might be a criminal, they usually hold the person in a jail. Then, usually, a court or a judge decides if the person really did a crime. If the court or judge decides that the person really did it, then he or she might have to pay a fine or go to prison. Sometimes the judge might decide that the criminal should be executed (killed). This is called Capital punishment (or the "Death Penalty"). There are countries in the world that execute criminals, and others that do not. |
In many countries, two conditions must exist for an act to be thought of as a crime: |
Both must be present for the act to be thought of as a crime. |
Time Cube |
Time Cube was a personal website created on 1997 by Otis Eugene Ray. On that website, Ray explained his theory of everything, known as "Time Cube". It described the planet Earth as having a cubic symmetry, and time as rotating four "corners". He also said that all of modern physics is wrong. Scientists reject these ideas, saying that they make no sense and cannot be tested. |
The Time Cube website was written in an angry and hateful voice. On his site, Ray said that not believing in Time Cube would be "stupid and evil". Some of the comments were racist and discriminatory, especially against black people and Jews. There were also many comments against gay people. Many people found the site to be difficult to understand. |
Subsets and Splits