Aarushhh/wikipedia-simple-splitted huggingface dataset:
A hundred years later, Katara and Sokka, two siblings who live in the Southern Water Tribe, free Aang and Appa from the iceberg. Katara is the only waterbender in her small tribe. She has taught herself how to bend. Her older brother, Sokka, cannot bend, but he is a warrior. Katara, Sokka, and Aang travel to the Northern Water Tribe so Aang and Katara can learn waterbending from a master. Aang does not know about the war or the genocide of the Air Nomads. While on their journey, they visit the Southern Air Temple, where Aang used to live. There, Aang discovers that the Fire Nation destroyed the Air Nomads. He also meets his Avatar guide, Avatar Roku, who is the Avatar who came before Aang. Roku tells Aang that he must learn to bend all four elements by the summer solstice. This is because Sozin's Comet will return on that day, and it will make the firebenders' bending very powerful
. If Aang does not defeat the current Fire Lord, Ozai, by the summer solstice, then the Fire Nation will take over the world and no one will be able to stop them anymore.
While Katara, Sokka, and Aang travel to the Northern Water Tribe, they are constantly chased by Prince Zuko. Zuko is the son of the current Fire Lord, Ozai, but Ozai banished him from the Fire Nation three years before the story starts. Zuko can only return to the Fire Nation and get back his honor if he captures the Avatar. He travels with his uncle Iroh, nicknamed "Dragon of the West", a legendary Fire Nation general and the older brother of Ozai. Zuko and another Fire Nation military officer, Admiral Zhao, compete to capture the Avatar. At the end of the season, Admiral Zhao leads the Fire Nation navy in attacking the Northern Water Tribe. During the attack, Zhao also kills the Moon Spirit. But Aang and his friends help fight back against this attack, and Yue, the princess of the Northern Water Tribe, sacrifices herself (in other words, she decides to die) so she can become the new Moon Spirit. In the end, Aang and his friends win the battle.

Season Two (Book Two: Earth)
While Team Avatar travels to Ba Sing Se so they can tell the Earth King about the eclipse, Zuko's younger sister Azula and her two friends Mai and Ty Lee try to capture them. Finally, the three of them capture the Kyoshi Warriors (friends of Team Avatar) and pretend to be them, so that they can invade Ba Sing Se. Azula persuades an elite group of Earthbenders called the Dai Li to instigate a coup d'état, allowing the Fire Nation to capture Ba Sing Se. At the end of the season, when Team Avatar is fighting against Azula and her allies, Zuko sides with Azula, who promises to restore his honor. When Aang enters the Avatar State, Azula shoots him with lightning. It hurts him very badly, and he almost dies. Katara brings Aang back to life with spirit water that she got from the North Pole in the previous season. But Aang's seventh chakra is blocked, and he cannot enter the Avatar State.

Season Three (Book Three: Fire)
Aang awakens to find the group disguised as Fire Nation soldiers heading West on a Fire Nation ship, while Zuko has been restored to his position as crown prince. Sokka has planned a small-scale invasion of the Fire Nation to capture the Fire Lord's palace and defeat Fire Lord Ozai, taking advantage of the solar eclipse. The invasion will be staged by a ragtag group of benders and warriors who Aang has helped along his journey. Initially the invasion proceeds as planned, but Aang fails to find the Fire Lord before the eclipse ends, because Azula knew about the invasion. The invasion ultimately fails, and only Aang and his closest friends are able to escape. Zuko, in a change of heart, decides to defy his father and join the Avatar. Zuko catches up with Aang at the Western Air Temple and offers to teach Aang Firebending. After some reluctance from Katara and Sokka, Team Avatar allows Zuko to join the group. In the series finale, Aang defeats Fire Lord Ozai by taking away his ability to firebend
. With Ozai defeated, the war quickly ends. Zuko is crowned the new Fire Lord and, with the help of the Avatar and his friends, begins rebuilding the four nations. The series ends as Aang and Katara kiss in front of the sunset.
Characters

Aang (Zach Tyler Eisen) is a 12 year old. He is the most important character in the series. He was frozen in ice with his flying bison, Appa, for 100 years. He was found by a young Waterbender named Katara. Now he is the Avatar, the master of 4 different powers: water, earth, fire and air. Aang is a hero, but he doesn't want to be a hero. He is trying to make the world good again.

Katara (Mae Whitman) is 14 years old. She is a Waterbender. This means she can move water by moving her body. She is in the Southern Water Tribe. Katara has a brother. His name is Sokka. They find Aang in a big ball of ice. He had been frozen for 100 years. Katara and Sokka go with Aang on an adventure to kill the evil Lord. His is called Fire Lord Ozai. She is his first teacher for water.Katara can do bloodbending. This means she can move peoples' bodies by "bending" their blood. She does not like to do this.
Toph  (Jessie Flower) is 12 years old. She is blind. She is an Earthbender. Her family is rich, but she doesn't like money. She is very strong and she likes to fight. When she meets Aang and his friends she thinks they are strange. She wants to help them, so she goes with them on their adventure. She is Aang's teacher for Earthbending. She is blind, but she can still see things. Toph "sees" with her feet. She feels the earth move a little bit. Then she knows what is happening. Toph is the most powerful Earthbender ever.
Zuko (Dante Basco) is 16 years old. He is the son of the evil Fire Lord, so he is a prince. In Season 1 he is the most important bad guy. Zuko's life was hard. Something happened and now his father doesn't like him. Zuko wants to catch the Avatar because he thinks his father would like that. Zuko does not like himself, he is angry, and his family is crazy. In the show Zuko learns how to be nice. He wears a blue mask to hide himself and then he saves people. In season three, he leaves the Fire Lord. He goes to Aang and becomes his friend. He becomes a Firebending teacher for Aang. At the end, he is the new Fire Lord.

Azula (Grey DeLisle) is a bad princess. She is a Firebender. She is Zuko's younger sister. She is an important bad guy in the show. Azula is very good at Firebending. It is easy for her to do it. She can make lightning. She is very mean to her friends Mai and Ty Lee. She uses fire to scare them. The Fire Lord likes her more than Zuko.
Iroh (Mako in season one and two, Greg Baldwin in season three used to be a general for the Fire Lord. He can make fire in his nose and mouth, so they call him the Dragon of the West. He is Prince Zuko's uncle and teacher. The Fire lord is Iroh's brother. Iroh is older than the Fire Lord. He should be the Lord, but the Fire Lord lied, so that he could be the Lord. People think Iroh is nice, kind, and happy. He does silly things so people think he is not strong or smart. But Iroh is very smart and strong. Iroh has a secret group of friends. They are strong and good at fighting. The friends are called The Order of the White Lotus. In the last episode they fight the Fire Nation. They win and the world becomes a good place. Iroh is special because he learned how to do Firebending from Dragons.

Other characters

Production
Production

Avatar: The Last Airbender was co-created and produced by Michael Dante DiMartino and Bryan Konietzko at Nelvana Limited in Tortnto Onartio, Canada. Animation work was done by the Korean animation studio DR Movie. According to Bryan Konietzko, the program was conceived in the spring of 2001 when he took an old sketch of a balding, middle-aged man and re-imagined the character as a child. Konietzko drew the character herding bison in the sky, and showed the sketch to Mike DiMartino. At the time, DiMartino was studying a documentary about explorers trapped in the South Pole.

Konietzko described their early development of the concept: The co-creators successfully pitched the idea to Nickelodeon VP and executive producer Eric Coleman just two weeks later.
The show was first revealed to the public in a teaser reel at Comic-Con 2004, and started show the episodes from 21 February 2005. In the United States, first two episodes of the series were shown together in a one-hour premiere event. A second twenty-episode season ran from 17 March 2006 through 1 December. A third and final season, beginning September 21, 2007, featured twenty-one episodes rather than the usual twenty. The final four episodes were packaged as a two-hour movie.

Cultural influences
Avatar is notable for borrowing extensively from Asian art and mythology to create its universe. The show's character designs are heavily influenced by anime as well as Chinese art and history, Hinduism, Taoism, Buddhism, and Yoga.  Traditional East Asian calligraphy styles are used for nearly all the writing in the show. For each instance of calligraphy, an appropriate style is used, ranging from seal script (more archaic) to clerical script. The show employed a cultural consultant, Edwin Zane, and calligrapher Siu-Leung Lee as consultants for the show's cultural influences.
The choreographed martial art bending moves were profoundly affected by Asian cinema. In an interview, Bryan revealed that, "Mike and I were really interested in other epic 'Legends & Lore' properties, like Harry Potter and Lord of the Rings, but we knew that we wanted to take a different approach to that type of genre. Our love for Japanese anime, Hong Kong action and kung fu cinema, yoga, and Eastern philosophies led us to the initial inspiration for Avatar."

All music and sound used in the series was done by Jeremy Zuckerman and Benjamin Wynn, who form "The Track Team". They made use of a wide range of different instruments (such as the guzheng,  pipa and duduk) to compose a background music that fits into the world.

Avatar
Avatar

The term "Avatar" comes from the language of Sanskrit, one of the most ancient languages of India. The word Avatāra, (Sanskrit: ), which means "descent"; its roots are ava means "down," and tri means "to pass." In the Hindu scriptures, avatara signifies the descent of Divinity into flesh. One who attains union with Spirit and then returns to earth to help humanity is called an avatar. The Chinese characters that appear at the top of the show's title card mean "the divine medium who has descended upon the mortal world."
When Aang was young, he unknowingly revealed that he was the Avatar when he chose four toys out of thousands, each of which were the childhood toys of the previous Avatars. In Tibetan Buddhism, there is a similar test for reincarnations of a Tulku Lama. In Magic and Mystery in Tibet, Alexandra David-Neel writes that "a number of objects such as rosaries, ritualistic implements, books, tea-cups, etc., are placed together, and the child must pick out those which belonged to the late tulku, thus showing that he recognizes the things which were theirs in their previous life." Each successor is expected to show signs of continuity with the previous Avatar, such as being born within a week of the death.

Elements and fighting styles
Avatar draws on the four classical elements common to many ancient philosophies for its bending arts: Water, Earth, Fire and Air. Although each has its own variation, most ancient philosophies incorporate these four elements in some way. Examples include the classical Hindu, Buddhist, and Greek elemental traditions. In the show’s opening, each element is accompanied by two Chinese characters: an ancient Chinese seal script character on the left representing the element being shown and a modern Chinese character on the right describing some feature of the element.
The character 水 (pinyin: shui), which stands for water, is shown with 善 (pinyin: shan), which means benevolence and adaptivity. The character 土 (pinyin: tu), which stands for earth, is shown with 強 (pinyin: qiang), which means for strength and stability. The character 火 (pinyin: huo), which stands for fire, is shown with 烈 (pinyin: lie), which means intensity and passion. Finally, the character 气 (pinyin: qi), which stands for air, is shown with 和 (pinyin: he), which means peace and harmony.
In addition to the use of four classical elements in the series, the fighting styles associated with each element are all taken from different styles of Chinese martial arts. The series employed Sifu Kisu of the Harmonious Fist Chinese Athletic Association as a martial arts consultant. Each fighting style was chosen to represent the element it projected. Tai Chi was used for "Waterbending" in the series, and it focuses on alignment, body structure, breath, and visualization. Hung Gar was used for "Earthbending" in the series, and was chosen for its firmly rooted stances and powerful strikes to present the solid nature of earth. Northern Shaolin, which uses strong arm and leg movements was used for "Firebending". And Ba Gua, which uses dynamic circular movements and quick directional changes, was used for "Airbending". The only exception to these styles is Toph, who can be seen practicing a Chu Gar Southern Praying Mantis style.

Awards

Nielsen ratings
Nielsen ratings

When the show first was shown it was rated the best animated television series in its demographic; new episodes averaged 3.1 million viewers each. A one-hour special showing of "The Secret of the Fire Nation" which was shown on 15 September 2006, consisting of "The Serpent's Pass" and "The Drill", gathered an audience of 5.1 million viewers. According to the Nielsen Media Research, the special was the best performing cable television show airing in that week. In 2007, Avatar was syndicated to more than 105 countries worldwide, and was one of Nickelodeon's top rated programs. The series was ranked first on Nickelodeon in Germany, Indonesia, Malaysia, Belgium, and Colombia.
The series finale, Sozin's Comet: The Final Battle, received the highest ratings of the series. Its 19 July 2008 premiere averaged 5.6 million viewers, 95% more viewers than Nickelodeon had received in mid-July 2007. During the week of 14 July, it ranked as the most-viewed program for the under-14 demographic. Sozin's Comet also appeared on iTunes' top ten list of best-selling television episodes during that same week. Sozin's Comets popularity affected online media as well; "Rise of the Phoenix King", a Nick.com online game based on Sozin's Comet, generated almost 815,000 game plays within three days.

Other awards

Other media

Literature

Dark Horse Comics released an art book titled Avatar: The Last Airbender — The Art of the Animated Series, on 2 June 2010 which contains 184 pages of the original art and creation behind the Avatar animated series.

Promotion and merchandising
Avatar'''s success has led to some promotional advertising with third-party companies, such as Burger King and Upper Deck Entertainment. Avatar-themed roller coasters at Nickelodeon Universe in the Mall of America and one formerly at Kings Island also appeared. During the show's runtime, Nickelodeon published two special issues of Nick Mag Presents dedicated entirely to the show. Various members of the Avatar staff and cast appeared at the 2006 San Diego Comic-Con International convention, while Michael Dante DiMartino and Bryan Konietzko appeared with Martial Arts Consultant Sifu Kisu at the Pacific Media Expo on October 28, 2006. Avatar also has its own line of T-shirts, LEGO playsets, toys, a trading card game, a cine-manga, and three video games, as well as an MMO.
The Mattel-produced action figure toy line generated some controversy with its exclusion of any female characters. Mattel came to release information stating that they have taken account of Katara's increased role within the program, and that she would be included in the figure assortment for a mid 2007 release. The figure ultimately went unreleased, however, as the entire line was canceled before she could be produced.

Nickelodeon executives have since released optimistic plans for upcoming marketing strategies in regards to Avatar. Nickelodeon President Cyma Zarghami openly stated his belief that the franchise "could become their Harry Potter". They expect consumers to spend about $121 million in 2007, rising to $254 million by 2009. The marketing plans are to be coincided with the release of the first live-action movie based on the series in 2010, which will be the first movie in a trilogy.

Video games
Video games

In the series of Avatar: The Last Airbender based a video game trilogy:
 Avatar: The Last Airbender, based on the first season of Avatar: The Last Airbender Avatar: The Last Airbender - The Burning Earth, based on the second season of Avatar: The Last Airbender.
 Avatar: The Last Airbender - Into the Inferno, based on the third season of Avatar: The Last Airbender.Avatar: Legends of the Arena, a video game for Microsoft Windows, was launched on 25 September 2008 by Nickelodeon. Each user is able to create their own character, choose a nation, and to interact with others across the globe.

Movie adaptation
Movie adaptation

In the series of Avatar: The Last Airbender based the trilogy The Last Airbender:
 The Last Airbender, which was released on 1 July 2010 (based on the first season of Avatar: The Last Airbender)
 The Last Airbender 2, which was set to be released in 2012 (based on the second season of Avatar: The Last Airbender). There is no further announcement.
 The Last Airbender 3, which was set to be released in 2014 (based on the third season of Avatar: The Last Airbender). There is no further announcement.

 List of actors 

 Avatar: The Legend of Korra
A series based on Avatar: The Last Airbender is currently in development at Nickelodeon and due for release in 2011. It will be created by Michael Dante DiMartino and Bryan Konietzko. the creators of Avatar: The Last Airbender.Rumors Of New ‘Avatar: The Last Airbender’ Animated Series Confirmed The show, tentatively titled Avatar: The Legend of Korra, will be a twelve-episode mini series that takes place in the same universe, 70 years after the defeat of Fire Lord Ozai. The development period and release dates were announced at the annual Comic-Con in San Diego on 22 July 2010.
While not targeting a different demographic than Avatar: The Last Airbender, Michael and Bryan have stated that the show won't cover more mature subject material necessarily, just different mature subjects, "It won't be another war, but a different sort of conflict." The creators also explained that there would be some "cheesy teen romance" for the main character, Korra. At the 2010 Comic-Con, it was revealed that the creators will continue to work with Joaquim Dos Santos and Ryuki Hung on the animation and design of the show. The creators also confirmed that they will directly write all twelve episodes, explaining that as a mini-series, episode fillers will be omitted, allowing for a "really tight" and "cool" story. In late July, Jeremy Zuckerman, composer of the original series, was confirmed to be returning to score The Legend of Korra''.

Live action remake
A live action remake is in the works for Netflix. Production and filming began in Vancouver, British Columbia on November 16, 2021. It ended on  June 17, 2022.\\ Stewart Whelan served as a cinematographer.

Notes

References

Other websites

 
 
 

 
 
Nickelodeon television series
Nicktoons
 2000s American animated television series
Peabody Award winners
Emmy Award winners
English-language television programs
2005 American television series debuts
2008 television series endings
Toul is a city in the Northeastern part of France. There are about 17,000 people living there. Toul is a fortified town, with a long history. The people who started building the city were the Romans. It was the capital of the Leuci tribe. When the Carolingian Empire was split by the Treaty of Meerssen, in 870, Toul was  given to East Francia. In the early 1800s, the importance of the city diminished, and Nancy took its place.

Communes in Meurthe-et-Moselle
Subprefectures in France
Blessthefall is an American post-hardcore band from Phoenix, Arizona. The band was formed in 2004 and released the first album His Last Walk in April 2007. The lead vocalist, Craig Mabbitt leaves the band in November 2007, the bassist Jared Warth was lead vocalist/bassist, replacing the Mabbitt place touring. Mabbitt joined Escape the Fate in mid-2008. Beau Bokan joined to the band in September 2008. With Bokan, the band released the second studio album, Witness in October 6, 2009, with Fearless Records. The third studio album, Awakening will released in October 4, 2011.

Members
 Current members
 Beau Bokan - lead vocals/screams, keyboard (since 2008)
 Eric Lambert - lead guitar, backing vocals (since 2004)
 Jared Warth - bass/screams (since 2004), lead vocals (2004, 2007-2008)
 Matt Traynor - drums (since 2004)
 Elliott Gruenberg - rhythm guitar (since 2011)
Former members
 Mike Frisby - rhythm guitar (2004-2011)
 Craig Mabbit - lead vocals (2004-2007)
 Miles Bergsma - lead guitar (2004-2005)
 Aiden Louis - bass, backing vocals (2008, Touring member only)

Discography 
 Black Rose Dying EP (2005)
 Blessthefall EP (2006)
 His Last Walk (2007)
 Black On Black Tour EP (2007)
 Witness (2009)
 Awakening (2011)

American punk bands
Emo bands
Post-hardcore bands
Metalcore bands
Musical groups from Arizona
Musicians from Phoenix, Arizona
Musical groups established in 2004
2004 establishments in the United States
2000s establishments in Arizona
Amber is the common name for fossil resin. It occurs in different colours, and is widely used for making jewellery and other ornaments. Although not mineralized, amber is sometimes considered  as a gemstone.

Most of the world's amber is in the range of 30–90 million years old. Semi-fossilized resin or sub-fossil amber is called copal. Baltic amber was called 'Freya's tears' by the Norse and the 'tears of the Heliades' by the ancient Greeks.

Amber consists of several resinous bodies that can mostly dissolve in alcohol, ether and chloroform, associated with a bituminous substance that does not dissolve.

Amber in geology 
Amber is formed from resin coming out of certain trees. It is not tree sap or gum. The resin soon becomes sticky, and later fossilises as amber. The amber can look different depending on its origin, and its later geological history.
To end up as amber, the starting resin must resist decay. Many trees produce resin, but usually it is broken down by physical and biological process. Exposure to weather tends to disintegrate resin, assisted by microorganisms such as bacteria and fungi. For resin to survive long enough to become amber, it must resist such forces, or be produced under conditions that exclude them.

Baltic amber (historically called Prussian amber) is found as irregular nodules in a marine sand, known as blue earth, in the Lower Oligocene strata of Sambia in Kaliningrad Oblast, where it is now systematically mined.

Agathis amber comes from the conifer Agathis, a tree that used to grow over a much wider area.

Amber from America and Africa often comes from the Hymenaea protera, a genus of legume  tree.
Amber inclusions 
The resin can contain, in addition to the beautifully preserved plant-structures, remains of insects, spiders, annelids, frogs, crustaceans and other small organisms that became trapped while it was fluid. In most cases the organic structure has disappeared, leaving only a cavity, with perhaps a trace of chitin.
Locations and use 
Amber can be found on all continents of the earth, with exception of the pole regions, mainly at the east coast of the USA, Canada, Burma, Mexico, Lebanon, Borneo, Romania and Sicily and other places. According to scientists, the oldest amber originates from the carbon time and has an age of approximately 345 million years (Upper Carboniferous, Northumberland, USA). There is Amber in Mexico and in the Caribbean, mainly in the Dominican Republic. But most of these offer by far a smaller yield than amber found in the Baltic Region around the Baltic Sea. Baltic amber is also the best known amber due to European history. Homer mentions it in his Odyssee, Book 15, 459-465, B.C.E.: “… a necklace of gold, with amber beads was it strung between…”. Amber from the "New World" like Mexico and the Dominican Republic was commercially mined only since the last century.
Baltic Amber is found along the shores of a large part of the Baltic Sea and the North Sea. The greatest amber-producing country is the promontory of Sambia, now part of Russia's Kaliningrad Oblast. About 90% of the world's extractable amber is in the Kaliningrad region of Russia on the Baltic Sea.

This amber was deposited in the late Eocene and early Oligocene in a delta of a prehistoric river, in a shallow part of a marine basin. In addition to the coast near Kaliningrad, amber is also found elsewhere in the Baltic Sea region. Small amounts of  Baltic amber can even be found outside the Baltic region, for example on the coastline of the south east of England. On the evidence of Fourier-transform infrared microspectroscopy  (FTIR) analysis of amber and resin from living trees, that conifers of the family Sciadopityaceae were responsible. The only living representative of this family is the Japanese umbrella pine, Sciadopitys verticillata.
Resin from the extinct tree Hymenaea protera is the source of Dominican amber and probably of most amber found in the tropics. Dominican amber differentiates itself from Baltic amber mainly by being nearly always transparent, and it has a higher number of fossil inclusions. This has enabled the detailed reconstruction of the ecosystem of a long-vanished tropical forest.

Amber is extensively used for beads and other ornaments, and for cigar-holders and the mouth-pieces of pipes. The Amber Room in the Catherine Palace near Saint Petersburg is notable. It is a reproduction of the original Amber Room, destroyed in WWII.
In Baltic countries, amber is often treated in autoclave, mainly to produce and enhance the colors and visual effects  thus creating beautiful jewelry. When gradually heated in an oil-bath, amber becomes soft and flexible. Two pieces of amber may be united by smearing the surfaces with linseed oil, heating them, and then pressing them together while hot. Cloudy amber may be made clearer in an oil-bath, as the oil fills the numerous pores to which the turbidity is due. Small fragments, formerly thrown away or used only for varnish, are now used on a large scale in the formation of "ambroid" or "pressed amber". The pieces are carefully heated with exclusion of air and then pressed into one mass by intense hydraulic pressure, the softened amber being forced through holes in a metal plate. As mentioned, the product is extensively used for making cheap jewelry and articles for smoking.
Amber was much valued as an ornamental material in early times, but also for religious purpose.   Rosary beads are used by Catholics and Muslims alike up too our days. Around 58 A.D., the Roman Emperor Nero sent a Roman knight on a search for this “Gold of the North” and brought hundreds of pounds of amber to Rome. In later days, from 1283 on, the Teutonic Knights, after returning from the crusades, became absolute rulers of Prussia and the Baltic sources of amber, as well as the manufacture of objects made of amber, punishing transgressors with death by hanging. History has it that when they arrived in 1492 at the Caribbean island of “La Hispaniola” (Dominican Republic), Columbus received from a young Taino prince a pair of shoes decorated with Dominican amber, in exchange for a strand of Baltic amber beads that he had offered.

Related pages
 Amber (colour)
 List of minerals
 Static electricity

References
References

Other websites
 The World of Amber  A comprehensive website maintained by the Earth Science Department of Emporia State University, Emporia, Kansas (Accessed 29 May 2005)
 Publications on amber inclusions 
 Baltic amber information page 
http://www.webmineral.com/data/Amber.shtml
http://www.mindat.org/min-188.html
http://www.gemstone.org/gem-by-gem/english/amber.html 

Minerals
Resin is a mixture of organic compounds secreted by many plants, especially coniferous trees.

Plants evolved many complex chemicals as  defences against herbivores. That may be the origin of these resins, which are certainly not good to eat. Plants secrete resins for their protective benefits in response to injury. 

The resin protects the plant from insects and pathogens. Resins confound a wide range of herbivores, insects, and pathogens. The volatile phenolic compounds may attract benefactors, that is, parasitoids or predators of the herbivores which attack the plant.

Humans also value resins for their many uses. They are used in varnishes, adhesives, as raw materials for organic synthesis, or for incense and perfume. Fossilized resins are the source of amber. The term is also used for synthetic substances with similar properties.

Resins contain chemicals composed of carbon, hydrogen, oxygen, nitrogen and sulfur.  Synthetic resins are used in laminates, adhesives, flooring, linings, etc.
Rosin 
Rosin, (also called 'colophony' or 'Greek pitch') is a solid form of resin. It is got from pines and some other plants, mostly conifers. Heating fresh liquid resin vaporizes light volatiles like terpenes. 

Rosin is semi-transparent and yellow to black in colour. The term "colophony" comes from colophonia resina or "resin from the pine trees of Colophon", an ancient Ionic city.

Uses 
Rosin has hundreds of uses, of which only a few can be mentioned here. These uses fall into  groups, such as:
Resisting slippages (increasing friction): used on stringed instruments, dancers' shoes, in gymnastics, in rock climbing, and on hands of various types of games players.
In manufacturing soap, inks, some paints, paper, varnish, glue, soldering fluxes, and sealing wax.
Pharmaceutical products: tablet film and enteric coating, microcapsules and nanoparticles.
Copal and amber are natural rosins: the lighter components of tree resin evaporated and left a hardened rosin.
The exit of the resin from the tree
In each type of wood, the resin comes out in a different way. There are trees in which the resin comes from the "trunk" and there are types of trees in which the resin comes out of the "tree branches".

Resin Harvesting 
Some countries in the world also have wood resin harvesting:

In "Greece" there is the picking of a wooden resin "Mastic (plant resin)" with a "slitting".
In "Sudan" there is the picking of of "Acacia wood resin" in the form of resin removal from the tree.
In "Oman" there is the picking of the "Frankincense resin" (the resin also the same name) in the form of peeling the tree trunk.
The Agricultural Research
There is still no extensive agricultural research regarding the tree resins and also, the exact benefit of the resin production by the tree is currently unknown, but some possible hypotheses have been proposed such as plugging holes (scab of wounds), protection against insects that want to penetrate the tree, and preventing the growth of fungi parasites.

References 

Natural materials
Varnish is a transparent, hard, protective finish or film primarily used in wood finishing but also for other materials. Varnish is traditionally a combination of a drying oil, a resin, and a solvent.

Resin 
Most resin or "gum" varnishes are made of a natural substance dissolved in a solvent. The two main types of natural varnishes are spirit varnish (which uses alcohol as a solvent) and turpentine or petroleum-based varnish. Some resins are soluble in both alcohol and turpentine.

Shellac is a very widely used single component resin varnish that is dissolved in alcohol. It is not used outdoors or where it will touch water several times, such as around a sink or bathtub. insects in South Asia make it.

References 
 Bob Flexner (1993). Understanding Wood Finishing: How to Select and Apply the Right Finish. Rodale Press: Emmaus, PA.

Other websites 
 The 17th century varnish of Lorenz Mizler 
Tung and Linseed Oils  by Steven D. Russel

Materials
Secretion is the process of releasing chemicals from a cell, or from a gland.

Eukaryotic cells have a highly evolved process of secretion.

Bibliography 

 The Molecular Biology of the Cell 4th edition - Alberts et al.
 The Physiology and Biochemistry of Prokaryotic 2nd edition – David White
 Article by Kiera moser

Physiology
An adhesive is a compound that sticks or bonds two items together. Adhesives may come from either natural or man-made material.  Some modern adhesives are extremely strong, and are becoming increasingly important in modern construction and industry. Examples of adhesives include adhesive tape, glue, and sticky-tac.  Some adhesives are for temporary use, like sticky-tac or the adhesive on sticky notes.  Others are for more permanent bonding of small items like gluing paper or building large pieces of furniture using construction adhesive.

History 
The first adhesives were natural gums and other plant resins.  Archaeologists have found 6000-year-old ceramic vessels that had broken and been repaired using plant resin. 

The earliest known use of adhesives was discovered in central Italy when two stone flakes partially covered with birch-bark tar. This is thought to be the oldest discovered human use of adhesives.
In Europe, glue was not used until the 1500–1700s. At this time, cabinet and furniture makers such as Thomas Chippendale and Duncan Phyfe started to use adhesives to hold their products together. In 1690, the first commercial glue plant was established in The Netherlands. This plant produced glues from animal hides. In 1750, the first British glue patent was issued for fish glue. In the 1800s, casein glues were invented and made in German and Swiss factories. In 1876, the first US patent was issued to the Ross brothers for the production of casein glue.

In 1910, a thermoset plastic known as Bakelite phenolic was made. In 1912, phenolic resin was applied to plywood as a coating varnish.

In 1920s–1940s, there was great advances in the development and production of new plastics and resins because of the First and Second World Wars.

Types
Types 

Adhesives are usually classified by the method of adhesion. These are then classified into reactive and non-reactive adhesives, which refers to whether the adhesive chemically reacts in order to harden. They can also be classified by whether it is made from natural, or synthetic materials.

By reactiveness

Non-reactive

Drying
There are two types of adhesives that harden by drying. They are solvent-based adhesives and polymer dispersion adhesives. They are also known as emulsion adhesives. Solvent-based adhesives are a mixture of ingredients (usually polymers) dissolved in a solvent. White glue, contact adhesives and rubber cements are drying adhesives. As the solvent evaporates, the adhesive hardens.

A polymer based adhesive is a milky white coloured mixture that is based on polyvinyl acetate (PVA). They are used in the woodworking and packaging industries. They are also used with fabrics and in engineered products such as loudspeakers.

Pressure sensitive
Pressure-sensitive adhesives (PSA) stick to materials when pressure is applied. The bond forms because the adhesive is soft enough to flow to the adherend. The bond is very strong because the adhesive is hard enough to resist flow.

PSAs are made for either permanent or removable applications. Examples of permanent applications include safety label for power equipment, foil tape for HVAC duct work.

Removable adhesives are made to form a temporary bond, and can be removed after months or years without leaving residue on the adherend. Removable adhesives are used in applications such as surface protection films, masking tapes, bookmark and note papers, barcode labels and price marking labels.

Contact

Contact adhesives are used in strong bonds with high shear-resistance like laminates, such as bonding Formica to a wooden counter, and in footwear. Natural rubber and polychloroprene (Neoprene) are commonly used as contact adhesives.
Contact adhesives must be applied to both surfaces. It must be allowed some time to dry. Once the surfaces are pushed together, the bond forms very quickly.

Hot

Hot adhesives, are thermoplastics applied in melted form which turns into a solid when it cools to form strong bonds between. Ethylene-vinyl acetate-based hot-melts are mainly used for crafts.

Reactive

Anaerobic 
Anaerobic adhesives hardens when in comes in contact with metal, in the absence of oxygen.

Multi-part 

Multi-component adhesives harden by mixing two or more chemical which react together.

There are several commercial combinations of multi-component adhesives in use in industry. Some of these combinations are:

 Polyester resin – polyurethane resin
 Polyols – polyurethane resin
 Acrylic polymers – polyurethane resins

Related pages
Adhesive tape
Glue
Other websites
DIYinfo.org's Glues, Adhesives, Sealants And Gap Fillers Wiki  - Heaps of practical information on adhesives
 Adhesive and Sealant Council 
 ASI Magazine
 Adhesives manufacturer

References 

Adhesives
A number of different things are called "gum":

 Gums, or gingiva, the soft tissue partly covering teeth

 Chewing gum, a type of confectionery
 Bubble gum
 Functional gum
 Gum base
 Gum industry

 Vegetable gums, natural gums:
 Guar gum
 Gum arabic
 Xanthan gum

 Postage stamp gum

 Gum Springs, Arkansas, a town

 Trees:
 Gum tree (Eucalyptus; Australia and cultivated in other warm areas)
 Black gum (Tupelo, Nyssa; eastern North America)
 Sweet-gum (Liquidambar; eastern North America and Asia)
 Log gum 

Astronomy:
 Gum (crater), on the Moon
 Gum Nebula, an emission nebula
 Colin Stanley Gum (1924-1960), Australian astronomer 

See also: GUM
Natural gums are polysaccharides of natural origin, that can change the viscosity of a material in solution, even at small concentrations.
 
 Agar (E406), obtained from seaweed
 Alginic acid (E400), from seaweed
 Beta-glucan, from oat or barley bran
 Carrageenan (E407), from seaweed
 Gum arabic, from Acacia
 Mastic gum, a chewing gum from ancient Greece obtained from the mastic tree
 Sodium alginate (E401), from seaweed
 Spruce gum, a chewing gum of American Indians obtained from spruce trees

Natural materials
Polymers
Mineralization may mean: 

 In palaeontology: the process where organic material is converted to inorganic substance.  Waterborne minerals replace organic material in the body of an organism that has died and was buried by sediments.  The minerals may be such as calcium carbonate (calcite), iron oxide (hematite or limonite) or silica (quartz). 

 In mining geology, the deposition of metals as ore bodies or "lodes" by various processes.  For example, the deposition of metals by hydrothermal vents.

 In soil science, the release of organic compounds during decomposition.

Geology
Ali ibn Abi Talib (‘Alī ibn Abī Tālib) () (Approximately March 17, 599- January 28, 661) was an early Islamic leader. He was the fourth Sunni caliph and the first Shia imam.

Since Ali stated that his body should remain a secret, his followers tied his body on a white camel, and went towards northern Afghanistan. Before being assassinated, Ali had reportedly given instructions to bury his body at the spot where the camel would die. At this location in Balkh, the white camel expired and Ali was buried secretly. In the 15th century, Abd al-Ghafur Lari is believed to discover Ali's tomb.

Other websites

Sunni biography 
 Biography from USC's MSA website
Shi'a biography 
 Brief Biography 
 Ali's Birth in the Kaaba 
 Website devoted to the Life of Imam Ali ibn Abi Talib
 Sayings of Imam Ali ibn Abi Talib
 Imam Ali Quotes on various topics
 Imam Ali ibn Abi Talib 
 Imam Ali ibn Abi Talib  The Commander of the Faithfull
 Imam Ali foundation
 Imam Ali ibn Abi Talib Nahjul Balagha
 Imam Ali ibn Abi Talib's status
 Imam Ali
 Last will

References 

599 births
661 deaths
Caliphs
Imams
Shia Islam
The Zakarid Armenia describes territories of Armenia given to the Zakarid-Mxargrzeli princes as a fief by Tamar, the queen of the Kingdom of Georgia. 

History of Armenia
The complex relationship between women and Islam is shown by both Islamic texts and the history and culture of the Muslim world. Islamic scholars maintain that the Qur'an, the holy book of Islam, affirms women's religious and moral equality.

However, sharia (Islamic law) shows the marked differences between women's and men's roles, rights, and obligations, and many Muslim-majority countries give women different rights than men with regard to marriage, divorce, civil rights, legal status, dress code, and education.

Islamic feminism is a type of feminism that focuses on women in Islam. Nawal El Saadawi is an Egyptian feminist who has written many books about women in Islam.
 

Islam
A chador (Persian چادر) is a piece of clothing. It is for Muslim women. In Iran, women wear  a chador in public. The Chador covers all the body except the face. However some religious women, cover their faces with their chador too.

A chador is a full-length semi-circle of fabric open down the front.  It is thrown over the head and held shut in front. A chador has no hand openings or closures but is held shut by the hands or by wrapping the ends around the waist.

Related page 
Hijab
Women and Islam

Islamic dress
A vortex mixer is small machine used in laboratories to mix small beakers of liquids.

What is inside? 
Inside, a vortex mixer has an electric motor which turns a pipe facing upwards. This pipe is attached to a small rubber bowl where one can put a beaker of liquid to be mixed up. The rubber bowl turns quickly and creates a vortex or a spiral flow inside any liquid which is placed on it and is therefore mixed up. Most vortex mixers have controls which let the user control how fast or slow they want the mixer to turn and can also set it to turn continuously for a certain length of time.

Where they are used 
Vortex mixers are used in bioscience laboratories to mix two different chemicals for a desired effect or to dilute an acid or an alkali by mixing them with water.
Other websites
 IKA – A vortex mixer manufacturer
 VELP – A vortex mixer manufacturer 
  In depth information on the VSM-3 Vortex Mixer
 Talboy – A vortex mixer manufacturer 
 In-depth article on vortex mixers 
 In-depth article on the structure of a vortex mixer

Laboratory equipment
A Niqab is a piece of clothing. It is for Muslim women. Women who wear niqab in public are called Niqabi. There are many Niqabis in Kuwait, Saudi Arabia, Bahrain, Qatar, Yemen, and Egypt. Niqabi usually covers all her body except the eyes and hands.

Niqab around the world

In France, Italy, Denmark, Austria, Switzerland, Latvia, Bulgaria, Sri Lanka, Morocco, Tunisia, Luxembourg, Belgium and the Netherlands wearing a niqab (and the burqa) in public is illegal. And in more countries, it is illegal to enter a government building, public building, public transport, schools, or to drive a vehicle with a niqab (or a burqa).

Related pages
 Hijab
 Burqa

Islamic dress
Hira is a cave. It is on the Arabian Peninsula. Prophet Mohammad lived in this cave for forty days. Muslims believed that God spoke to Mohammad in Hira through angel Gabriel.

Other websites 
Story about Hira

Muhammad
Hakīm Abul-Qāsim Firdawsī Tūsī (935-1020) () or Ferdowsi is a Persian poet. Ferdowsi was born in Tus. He wrote the Shāhnāma. Shahnama is the national epic of Iran.

935 births
1020 deaths
Persian poets
Hakim Abu Mansur Muhammad Ibn Ahmad Daqiqi Balkhi (935/942-976/980) (Persian: حكیم ابومنصور محمد بن احمد دقیقی بلخی) or Daqiqi was a Persian poet. He was a Zoroastrian. His slave killed him. He wrote the Goshtaspnama.

10th-century births
970s deaths
Persian poets
Edward VII (9 November 1841 – 6 May 1910) was the king of the United Kingdom from 1901 to 1910, which is called the Edwardian period. He was the first British monarch whose royal house was called the House of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha. (King Edward's son, George V, changed the name to Windsor in 1917 and this name is in use today.)

Edward was born Albert Edward and was the oldest son of Queen Victoria and her husband, Prince Albert. He was Prince of Wales and heir apparent for longer than any other person up until that time. His mother was queen for 63 years and Edward was 59 years old when he became king. In his younger years as Prince of Wales, he was known as a playboy and popularized many trends in fashion.  He married Alexandra of Denmark, but he had many mistresses.

Family and legacy
Family and legacy

Edward VII was the father of George V and grandfather of Edward VIII and George VI. He is also the great-grandfather of the late queen, Elizabeth II and great great grandfather to Charles III. There are a number of statues of Edward VII around the British Isles and Commonwealth realms.

Edward was given a grand state funeral with the largest gathering of royalty taken place anywhere in the 20th century. It included Wilhelm II, the Kaiser of the German Empire (who would later be at war with Britain) and Nicholas II, the Tsar of the Russian Empire, as well as many others. For the first time in royal history, Edward lay in state for the people to pay their last respects, a reflection of his immense popularity.
Edward was king for only nine years but made a lasting impression. He became increasingly popular with his people and was credited as a peacemaker for his work in maintaining world stability at a time when war seemed to be looming. He died at the age of 68 in 1910. Four years later, the peace he worked so hard to keep was broken with the start of World War I (1914–1918).

Other websites

1841 births
1910 deaths
Kings and Queens of the United Kingdom
Knights Grand Commander of the Order of the Indian Empire
Knights Companion of the Order of the Star of India
1900s in the United Kingdom
1910s in the United Kingdom
Adhesive tape is a tape that is coated with adhesive and used to stick objects together. 

Adhesive tape that will stick with application of pressure only (i.e. without activation by water, solvent or heat) is known as pressure sensitive tape. It can consist of a wide variety of tape backings and pressure sensitive adhesives.

Single-sided tapes allow joining of two overlapping or adjoining materials, while double-sided tape (adhesive on both sides) allows joining of two items back-to-back.

Other websites 

 Pressure Sensitive Tape Council
 The History of Pressure Sensitive Tape

Tools
Tape refers to a strip of long, thin and narrow matter, usually rolled up. It can also refer to any of these.
 Adhesive tape, including:
 Gaffer tape
 Duct tape
 Masking tape
 Electrical tape
 Videotape
 Cassette Tape, a magnetic data/audio storage device 
 Tape measure
 Tape dispenser
 Tape worm
 Tape (movie), a 2001 film
 Twill tape, a narrow, sturdy woven fabric used like string
 Red tape, a colloquialism for heavy or undesirable bureaucratic process
 Optical celluloid tape used in movie projectors (a possible precursor to the compact disc)
 Tape (pr. tah-peh), an alternative spelling of tapai, an Indonesian fermented food.

Related pages 
 Magnetic tape
Roman Polanski (born Rajmund Roman Thierry Polanski, 18 August 1933) is a French-Polish movie director, producer, writer and actor.  In 2003, he won the Academy Award for Best Director for his film, The Pianist.p148p186

Personal life 
Polanski was born in Paris, France but his family moved back to Poland in 1937.p313p250 His parents were agnostics. Because the family was Jewish, they were persecuted by the Nazis in Poland and forced to live in a ghetto.p2/4 Polanski's mother died at Auschwitz.p2 He later went to film school at Lodz  and graduated in 1959. Polanski won many awards for his short movies and went on to make full-length movies in the United Kingdom and the United States.

Polanski's first marriage was to actress Barbara Lass in 1959; they divorced in 1961.
While filming the movie Fearless Vampire Killers he met an actress named Sharon Tate.p58/9 Polanski married her in 1968.p75/6 In August 1969, Polanski was in London, and Tate was pregnant. Tate and some of their friends were murdered in Los Angeles, California, by people who followed Charles Manson.

Polanski dated Nastassja Kinski who later starred in his film Tess.
Polanski's third and current wife is actress Emmanuelle Seigner, who is the mother of his daughter and son.