Aarushhh/wikipedia-simple-splitted huggingface dataset:
Ashanti's third album, Concrete Rose (2004), debuted at number seven on the Billboard 200 chart. It sold 254,000 copies the first week. The album was certified platinum in a month of its release. The singles "Only U" was a top ten hit in the US, while "Don't Let Them" did not do so well. The single became the worst charting song in Ashanti's career. Her first greatest hits album Collectables by Ashanti (2005) reached number 59 on the Billboard 200 chart. It was a top ten hit on the Hot R&B Albums chart. The only single to be released from that album was "Still on It". It reached number 15 on the Hot Bubbling Under Hot 100 Singles chart. Ashanti's second greatest hits album, Can't Stop, was released in 2006. It only charted in Japan at number 259. Ashanti took a short break from recording music.
Her fourth album, The Declaration, was released in 2008. It reached number six on the Billboard 200 chart. It sold 86,000 copies the first week. The singles "The Way That I Love You" reached the top 40 on the Hot 100. The single "Good Good" reached number 30 on the Hot R&B/Hip-Hop Songs chart. In 2009, The Vault was released. The album contained 12 songs recorded by Ashanti that were not released. It reached number 110 on the Japan Albums chart. Ashanti's fifth album Braveheart was set to be released on August 28, 2012. The lead single, "The Woman You Love" reached number 59 on the Hot R&B/Hip-Hop Songs chart in December 2011. Ashanti has starred in several movies. These include The Muppets' Wizard of Oz (2005) and John Tucker Must Die (2006). As of 2008, she has sold more than 27 million records worldwide.

Discography
 Ashanti (2002)
 Chapter II (2003)
 Concrete Rose (2004)
 The Declaration (2008)
 BraveHeart (2014)
Movies 
Films
 The Muppets' Wizard of Oz (2005)
 Coach Carter (2005)
 John Tucker Must Die (2006)
 Resident Evil Extinction (2007)
 Coach Carter 2

Television
 Sabrina, the Teenage Witch (2002)
 Buffy the Vampire Slayer (TV Series) (2003)
 WrestleMania XIX (Opening: America the Beautiful) (2003)
 The Proud Family (voice) (2003)
 Pepsi Smash (Commercial) (2003)
 Punk'd (2004)
 Oxygen: Custom Concert (2004)
 Las Vegas (TV series) (2005)
 2007 World Series (Opening: 'God Bless America') (2007)
 NFL Thanksgiving Classic CBS (Opening: 'National Anthem') (2007)
 BET Awards Nomination Special "I Wanna Thank My Mama" (host) (2008)
 Extreme Makeover: Home Edition (2010)

Theater
 The Wiz (2009)

References

Books

Other websites
1980 births
Actors from New York (state)
Grammy Award winners
Living people
Singers from New York (state)
African American actors
African-American singers
American composers
American contemporary R&B singers
American dance musicians
American dancers
American movie actors
American hip hop musicians
American hip hop singers
Philanthropists from New York (state)
American pop singers
American record producers
American singer-songwriters
American soul singers
American television actors
Models from New York (state)
Musicians from New York (state)
People from New York City
Sopranos
Beerwah () is a town in the Budgam District of Jammu and Kashmir, India.

Towns in Jammu and Kashmir
Budgam () is part of the Budgam District of Jammu and Kashmir, India.  As of 2011, Budgam had a population of 15,338. It is the district headquarter of Budgam.

References

Other websites

Towns in Jammu and Kashmir
Khansahib () is part of the Budgam District of Jammu and Kashmir, India.

Towns in Jammu and Kashmir
Banihal () is part of the Doda District of Jammu and Kashmir, India.

Towns in Jammu and Kashmir
Doda () is part of the Doda District of Jammu and Kashmir, India.

Towns in Jammu and Kashmir
Ranbir Singh Pora () is in the Jammu District region of Jammu and Kashmir, India.

Towns in Jammu and Kashmir
Samba () is a town in and headquarters of the Samba District of Jammu and Kashmir, India.

Towns in Jammu and Kashmir
Hajira () is part of the Poonch District of Azad Jammu and Kashmir, Pakistan.

Tehsils of Poonch District
Rawalakot () is part of the Poonch District of Azad Jammu and Kashmir, Pakistan.

Tehsils of Poonch District
Taluka Haveli is part of the Pune District of Maharashtra, India.

References 

Settlements in Maharashtra
Mandi () is a major city in the Indian state of Himachal Pradesh. It is the capital of the Mandi District. It was formerly called Mandav Nagar, and is also known as Sahor. It is located  north of state capital, Shimla. It is in the north-west Himalayas. The average altitude is about 1,044 metres (3,425 ft),

References

Other websites

 
 Official site of the Municipal Council of Mandi

Gallery

Cities in India
Himachal Pradesh
Reasi () is a town in and headquarters of the Reasi District of Jammu and Kashmir, India.

Towns in Jammu and Kashmir
Surankote () is part of the Poonch District of Jammu and Kashmir, India.

Tehsils of Jammu and Kashmir
Matanuska-Susitna Valley (known locally as the Mat-Su or The Valley) is an area in Southcentral Alaska. It is south of the Alaska Range about  from Anchorage, Alaska. It includes the valleys of the Matanuska River, the Knik River, and the Susitna River.  The Matanuska Valley has become a suburban community for many people who work in  Anchorage. It is now one of the most crowded areas in Alaska and includes the towns of Palmer, Wasilla,  Big Lake, Houston, Willow and Talkeetna.

There are three mountain ranges in the area. They are the Alaska Range, the Talkeetna Mountains and the Chugach Mountains. There are both working and old gold mines in the mountains.  Like many parts of Alaska, the Matanuska-Susitna Valley was carved by glaciers  which left many lakes.  Both the Matanuska and Susitna Rivers have lots of salmon.
The local government is called the Matanuska-Susitna Borough. Most of the United States is divided into counties, while Alaska is divided into boroughs and census areas.  A few hundred Alaska Natives were joined by small numbers of Alaska sourdoughs between 1900 and 1930 when hundreds of American settlers were moved there by the United States Federal Government in the early 1930s. 

The three rivers in the area have large amounts of glacial silt that is good for farming. The valley is one of the few areas in Alaska which supports large scale agriculture.

Other websites
Alaska Census data 
Matanuska-Susitna Borough website

Geography of Alaska
Valleys of the United States
Kathua () is part of the Kathua District of Jammu and Kashmir, India.

Cities in Jammu and Kashmir
Billawar () is part of the Kathua District of Jammu and Kashmir, India.

Towns in Jammu and Kashmir
Basohli () is part of the Kathua District of Jammu and Kashmir, India.

Towns in Jammu and Kashmir
Hiranagar () is part of the Kathua District of Jammu and Kashmir, India.

Towns in Jammu and Kashmir
Karnah () is an administrative tehsil of the Kupwara district in Jammu and Kashmir, India. It has 58 villages and is  away from the main town of Kupwara.

Demographics
Karnah tehsil has a total population of 60,129 as per the Census 2011, of which 34,471 are males while 25,658 are females, giving a sex ration of 744 females per 1,000 males. In 2011 there were total 11,422 families residing in Karnah Tehsil. Paharis form a majority population in the tehsil. As per Census 2011 out of total population, 25.8% live in urban areas while 74.2% live in rural areas. The average literacy rate in urban areas is 68.4% while that in the rural areas is 58.9%. Also the sex ratio of urban areas in the tehsil is 587 while that of rural areas is 807.

References

Tehsils of Jammu and Kashmir
The Chugach Mountains in southcentral Alaska are the farthest north of the mountain ranges that make up the Pacific Coast Ranges of western North America. The range is about  long.  Its highest point is Mount Marcus Baker, at , but most of its summits are not very high. Because of the wet weather on the coast, these mountains get a lot of snow.

There are several parks in and around the mountains, like Chugach State Park the Chugach National Forest, and the Kenai National Wildlife Refuge. They are popular destinations for outdoor activities. The World Extreme Skiing Championship is held yearly in the Chugach near Valdez.

Three highways run through the Chugach Mountains. There is also a tunnel from Portage that lets cars and trains go under the mountains to Whittier.

The name "Chugach" is from the Eskimo tribal name Chugachmiut recorded by the Russians and written by them "Chugatz" and "Tchougatskoi"; in 1898 U.S. Army Captain W. R. Abercrombie spelled the name "Chugatch" and applied it to the mountains.
Mountains
Some of the taller mountains in this range are:
 Mount Marcus Baker: 
 Mount Thor: 
 Mount Steller: 
 Mount Michelson: 
 Mount Palmer: 
 Flattop Mountain: 
 Eagle Peak: 
 Polar Bear Peak:

References

Mountain ranges of Alaska
The Wrangell Mountains are a high mountain range of eastern Alaska in the United States.  Much of the range is in the Wrangell-Saint Elias National Park and Preserve.  The Wrangell Mountains were made by volcanoes. The second and third tallest volcanoes in the United States, Mount Blackburn and Mount Sanford are there.  The range takes its name from Mount Wrangell, which is one of the largest shield volcanoes in the world. It is also the only mountain in the range that is an active volcano.  

The Wrangell Mountains are just to the northwest of the Saint Elias Mountains and northeast of the Chugach Mountains. There are so many mountains there that they block the warm moist air over the Pacific Ocean. Because of this places north of the Wrangell Mountains are some of the coldest areas of North America during the winter.

Major peaks

The Wrangell Mountains include 12 of the 40+ Alaskan peaks over
Mount Blackburn, , and East Summit, 
Mount Sanford], , and South Peak, 
Mount Wrangell, , and West Summit, 
Atna Peaks, 
Regal Mountain, 
Mount Jarvis, , and North Peak, 
Parka Peak, 
Mount Zanetti, 

Another prominent mountain is Mount Drum, , which can be seen from a very long way away.

Name
The Wrangell Mountains are named after an explorer who was also president of  the Russian-American Company, Admiral Ferdinand von Wrangel. American folk singer John Denver wrote a song, "Wrangell Mountain Song", in reference to the range.

References

Sources

Other websites

Wrangell-St. Elias National Park & Preserve
Wrangell Mountains Center

Mountain ranges of Alaska
Q fever is a disease caused by Coxiella burnetii, bacteria that affect humans and other animals. It is not common but can be found in cattle, sheep, goats, and other household animals, including cats and dogs. People can get infected if they inhale endospores or touch the milk, urine, feces, vaginal mucus, or semen of infected animals. The disease is rarely carried by ticks. A human can be infected by a single bacterium.

References

Other websites 
 Q fever at the CDC

Diseases spread by insects
Diseases caused by bacteria
Animal diseases
Alprazolam, probably better known by its trade name Xanax, is a short-acting drug. The drug is used to treat people with anxiety disorders and panic attacks. Alprazolam is the most commonly misused benzodiazepine (the drug's class) in the United States; but the majority of prescribed users do not develop a substance-use disorder. Alprazolam is a prescription drug in the United States.

Sources

Psychoactive drugs
Organonitrogen compounds
Organochlorides
The Toronto Stock Exchange (TSX) is the largest stock exchange in Canada, the third largest in North America and the eighth largest in the world by market capitalisation.

References 

Stock exchanges
Unwritten is an album by Natasha Bedingfield. This record was released in the United Kingdom in September 2004 and in the United States on August 2, 2005. It had five singles. One of these was the title track. This album was released in North America again during 2006, with new album artworks and a slightly different track listing.

Natasha Bedingfield albums
2004 albums
Debut albums
pop albums
R&B albums
Soul albums
N.B. is the second studio album from Natasha Bedingfield. It was released in United Kingdom on 30 April 2007 to mixed reviews by critics. The album was released in Canada and the United States during January 2008 as Pocketful of Sunshine. The US version's title single became a top 5 hit. Another track, "Love Like This", became a top twenty hit. The reviews from United States critics for this record were mixed.

Natasha Bedingfield albums
2007 albums
A Polish American is a citizen of the United States with ancestors from Poland. There have been Polish people living in North America since the earlier 1600s. Many live in the city of Chicago, which has more Polish people than any city in the world other than Warsaw, Poland.

Most Polish immigrants are Catholic or practice Judaism.

References

Ethnic groups in the United States
Hallucinogens are chemical substances which temporarily change the way people see the world. Hallucinogens cause hallucinations. People no longer perceive reality as it is, but they see a reality that is distorted by their emotions. A person who is under the influence of a hallucionogen is said to be having a trip.

Hallucinogens have probably been used in the context of a cultic or religious function as long as there were humans.

There are different kinds of hallucinogens:
 Psychedelic drugs: these are the "classic hallucinogens"
 Dissociatives: They make people feel as if they were no longerpart of their surroundings.
 Deliriants produce a state of delirium, or confusion.

Most hallucinogens are highly addictive. This means that the user will want to take the drug over and over again. It also means that there will be some effect of getting used to the drug. In the long run, more and more of the drug will need to be taken, to get the same effect.
People that are under the unintended influence of a hallucinogen may need immediate help, as in a medical emergency.

Psychoactive drugs
Paul Frappier (May 8, 1977February 11, 2011) was a Canadian entertainer, musician, and rapper better known by his stage name, Bad News Brown. He was of Haitian descent. Bad News Brown was found  murdered in an alley near the Lachine Canal in Montreal on February 11, 2011. The feature movie BumRush, featuring Brown in a leading role, premiered posthumously on April 1, 2011.

Frappier's stage name comes from the name of his childhood favourite WWF wrestler, Allen Coage (nicknamed Bad News Brown).

Discography

Albums
Bad News Brown released 1 studio album before his death:

Singles

Mixtapes

References

Other websites
Bad News Brown's Official website

1972 births
2011 deaths
Canadian rappers
Musicians from Montreal
Haitian entertainers
Canadian murder victims
People with dyslexia
James Ambrose Johnson Jr. (1 February 1948 - 6 August 2004) also known as Rick James, was an American singer, songwriter, recording artist and producer. He was very popular during the late 1970s and 1980s, scoring four number one hits on the US R&B charts. He was born in Buffalo, New York.

Career
In 1978 James released his first single "You and I". He produced Eddie Murphy's 1985 single "Party All the Time". In 1990 he sued MC Hammer.

Personal life
In 1991 James was arrested with his girlfriend for kidnapping a woman. He made her have sex with his girlfriend. In 1994 he was sentenced to five years and four months in prison. He was released in 1996.

References

1948 births
2004 deaths
African American musicians
American sex offenders
Singers from Buffalo, New York
Musicians from Buffalo, New York
Writers from Buffalo, New York
Christopher George Latore Wallace (May 21, 1972 – March 9, 1997), better known by his stage names, The Notorious B.I.G., Biggie Smalls, or simply Biggie, was an American rapper, who grew up in Brooklyn, a borough of New York City. Wallace is considered by many music enthusiasts to be one of the greatest rappers of all time.  Wallace became known for his distinctive laid-back lyrical delivery, offsetting the lyrics' often grim content. His music was often semi-autobiographical, telling of hardship and criminality, but also of debauchery and celebration. Both his death and the death of his friend/rival Tupac Shakur, who died in September 1996, are still unsolved. He was murdered by drive-by shooting in Los Angeles, California on March 9, 1997 at age 24.
Early life
Christopher George Latore Wallace was born and raised in Brooklyn, New York. He was the only child of Jamaican parents Voletta Wallace and Selwyn George Latore. He excelled academically and received multiple awards in school for English.

He began selling drugs at the age of 12. As a teenager, he began rhyming to entertain people on street corners and in neighborhood groups.

He nicknamed himself "Biggie Smalls" after a gangster character in the 1975 crime comedy movie Let's Do It Again. It also because of his height and weight. He had a crook in his eye.

Musical career
In 1991, he released a demo tape called Microphone Murderer. Sean Combs, a rapper and producer, heard Biggie's early songs. After Combs was fired from Uptown Records in 1993, he decided to sign Biggie to his record label, Bad Boy Records. In April 1993, his solo track, "Party and Bullshit", appeared on the soundtrack to the 1993 comedy movie Who's the Man?.
His first album Ready to Die was released on September 13, 1994. It debuted at number 13 on the Billboard 200 chart and was certified platinum. The album featured 3 singles "Juicy", "Big Poppa", and "One More Chance". That same year, he was named "Best New Artist," "Best Live Performer" and "Lyricist of the Year by the Source. He won a Billboard Music Award for Rap Artist of the Year in 1995.

He rapped on Michael Jackson's 1995 single "This Time Around".

A few weeks after Wallace’s death, his second album, Life After Death, was released on March 25, 1997. It quickly rose to number one on the US album charts. The album featured 3 singles: "Hypnotize", "Mo Money Mo Problems", and "Sky’s the Limit." Wallace became the first artist to have two number-one hits after death (“Hypnotize” and “Mo Money Mo Problems”). Life After Death was nominated for 3 Grammy Awards in 1998. 

His posthumous albums, Born Again (1999) and Duets (2005), became number one hits.
Personal life
He had two children: C. J. (born 1996) and T'yanna (born 1993). He was married to R&B singer Faith Evans from 1994 until 1997.

Killing
On March 7, 1997, Wallace attended the Soul Train Music Awards where he presented an award to singer Toni Braxton. On March 8, he attended the after party for the Soul Train Music Awards at Petersen Automotive Museum. It was hosted by Qwest Records and Vibe magazine. 

On March 9, Wallace left the party to return to his hotel after the Los Angeles Fire Department closed the party early because of overcrowding. 

Wallace was driving a GMC Suburban. A man in a 1994-96 Chevy Impala SS stopped on side of Wallace's SUV and fired shots at the Suburban. Four bullets hit Wallace's chest. His murder is still unsolved.

Discography
Studio albums
The Notorious B.I.G. released one studio album in his lifetime and three after his death:

Singles

(*) albums and songs were released posthumously (after death).
Media 
 Filmography 
 The Show (1995) as himself
 Rhyme & Reason (1997 documentary) as himself
 Biggie & Tupac (2002 documentary) archive footage
 Tupac Resurrection (2004 documentary) archive footage
 Notorious B.I.G. Bigger Than Life (2007 documentary) archive footage
 Notorious (2009) archive footage
 All Eyez on Me (2017) archive footage
 Quincy (2018 documentary) archive footage
 Biggie: The Life of Notorious B.I.G. (2017 documentary) archive footage
 Biggie: I Got a Story to Tell (2021 documentary) archive footage

 Television appearances 
 New York Undercover (1995) as himself
 Martin (1995) as himself
 Who Shot Biggie & Tupac? (2017) archive footage
 Unsolved'' (2018), played by Wavy Jones

Awards and nominations

References

Other websites
 Notorious B.I.G at atlanticrecords.com
1972 births
1997 deaths
20th-century American rappers
Rappers from New York (state)
Gangsta rappers
Criminals from New York City
American drug dealers
Murdered musicians
Murders by firearm in California
Musicians from Brooklyn
People murdered in California
Singers from New York City
Unsolved murders in the United States
The Central Hockey League (CHL) was a mid-level professional hockey league in the United States. It is owned by Global Entertainment Corporation. It was started in 1992.

History
The first CHL season was in 1992-1993. It started with six teams, including the Oklahoma City Blazers, the Tulsa Oilers, the Wichita Thunder, the Memphis RiverKings, the Dallas Freeze and the Fort Worth Fire.

In 1996-97, the Huntsville Channel Cats, along with the planned 1996–97 Southern Hockey League (SHL) expansion teams Columbus Cottonmouths, Macon Whoopee, and Nashville Nighthawks, joined the Central Hockey League after the SHL ended.

The CHL came together with the Western Professional Hockey League (WPHL) in 2001.
The CHL commissioner is now Duane Lewis, who succeeded Brad Treliving on an temporary basis after Treliving took a position with the NHL's Phoenix Coyotes following the 2006-2007 season. Treliving co-founded the WPHL in 1996, and after the 2001 merger, served with the CHL for seven years. Lewis was named the permanent commissioner in June 2008.

On June 1, 2010 the league announced that it would come together with the International Hockey League.

Current teams

The CHL is divided into two Conferences.  Teams compete every year for the Ray Miron President's Cup.
League champions 
1993 - Tulsa Oilers
1994 - Wichita Thunder
1995 - Wichita Thunder
1996 - Oklahoma City Blazers
1997 - Fort Worth Fire
1998 - Columbus Cottonmouths
1999 - Huntsville Channel Cats
2000 - Indianapolis Ice
2001 - Oklahoma City Blazers
2002 - Memphis RiverKings
2003 - Memphis RiverKings
2004 - Laredo Bucks
2005 - Colorado Eagles
2006 - Laredo Bucks
2007 - Colorado Eagles
2008 - Arizona Sundogs
2009 - Texas Brahmas
2010 - Rapid City Rush

References

Other websites
Central Hockey League website

Central Hockey League
1992 establishments in the United States
The Missouri Mavericks is an American minor-league ice hockey team in the Central Hockey League (CHL). They play their home games at the Independence Events Center in Independence, Missouri, which is near Kansas City, Missouri.

History
In April 2009, the CHL announced that Independence would get a new team to start play that fall. In June, the team said that it would be called the Mavericks.

References

Central Hockey League
2009 establishments in the United States
21st-century establishments in Missouri
Yip Man (October 1, 1893  December 2, 1972), also known as Ip Man, was the first teacher to teach martial arts Wing Chun openly. He taught Hong Kong students, who spread Wing Chun around the world. Later, Ip Man was the teacher of Bruce Lee, Chu Shong-tin (who taught then-Australian Jim Fung) and others.

After Ip Man died, the teacher Duncan Leung taught Wing Chun in Hong Kong from 1945 to 1969.
Nowadays, Wing Chun is taught around the world. Many children do Wing Chun.

References

Chinese martial artists
1893 births
1972 deaths
The festival of San Fermín is held each year in the city of Pamplona (Navarre, Spain). Other names for the festival are Sanfermines or Sanferminak. It starts at noon on 6 July with the setting off of a rocket. It ends at midnight on 14 July with the singing of the Pobre de Mí. A bullfight is also part of the celebrations. The festival honors Saint Fermin, the co-patron of Navarre. San Fermín has become the most famous Spanish festival. More than 1,000,000 people watch this festival.

The Running of the Bulls is held the 6th - 14th of July every year. By midnight on July 6th Pamplona is already swarming with locals and tourists all waiting for the fireworks display that marks the start of the fiesta.
The day begins with the "encierro" or running of the bulls, when only the brave and foolish dash ahead of the bulls that are let loose to run through the narrow streets to the bullring where they will be fought later in the day. The runners are usually clad in the typical white trousers and shirt, with a red scarf tied at their neck, and a red beret on their head.

Before and after the daily bullfights, held each evening at 6 pm, bands of music, "txistularis", regional dancing and processions with big giant heads roam the streets. The Sanfermines festival of the running of the bulls in Pamplona is not the only one celebrated in Navarre, although it is the most well-known.

Other websites
 Unofficial website on San Fermin
 Unofficial website on encierro 

Festivals in Spain
Pamplona
A Bellini is a long drink cocktail that originated in Venice. It is a mixture of sparkling wine (traditionally Prosecco) and peach purée often served at celebrations. It is one of Italy's most popular cocktails.

History
The Bellini was invented sometime between 1934 and 1948 by Giuseppe Cipriani, founder of Harry's Bar in Venice, Italy.

It got its name because the colour reminded Cipriani of the pink colour of the toga of a saint in a painting by 15th-century Venetian artist Giovanni Bellini.

References

Dishes named after people
Cocktails
Transduction is a science term. It can mean:

Transduction (physiology)
Transduction (genetics)
Transduction (engineering)
Friedensreich Hundertwasser (born 15 December 1928, died 20 February 2000) was an Austrian artist. He often called himself Friedensreich Regentag Dunkelbunt Hundertwasser (Land-of-Peace Rainy-Day Dark-Colourful Hundred-Water) . Hundertwasser became known for designing buildings, but he also created stamps, painted, designed posters, and other works. He even designed a new flag for New Zealand, based on a local fern frond, called the Koru.

Biography 
Hundertwasser was born in Vienna as Friedrich Stowasser. His mother, Elsa, was Jewish, so the Second World War was a difficult time for them. They pretended to be Catholic during the war, and to escape notice, Friedrich even joined the Hitler Youth.
After the war ended, he changed his name from Friedrich Stowasser to Friedensreich Hundertwasser. Part of the meaning of Friedensreich is peaceful realm (country). He studied briefly at the Academy of Fine Arts in Vienna, but when his money ran out, he started to travel a lot. He began to develop his own style, and in 1952, he exhibited his paintings for the first time.  

Hundertwasser married twice - in 1957 and 1962 - but both marriages ended in divorce. He had one daughter, Heidi Trimmel, who was born in 1982. 

In 1975, Hundertwasser left Europe and went to live in a small town called Kawakawa in New Zealand, where he could live mostly self-sufficiently. The artist bought several properties, joined them together to give himself enough access to nature, built solar panels and a water purification plant, and grew his own food. He lived there until he died of a heart attack in 2000.
He was buried at home in New Zealand. On top of his grave, a tree was planted. Hundertwasser said in 1989, A dead person is entitled to reincarnation in the form of... a tree that grows on top of him and through him.

Political views 
As a result of his experience of being persecuted by the Nazi regime, Hundertwasser developed an anti-totalitarian position early on. His early fears of the square marching battalions associated with dictatorships may have led him to oppose any "geometrization" of people and their architecture. In a letter in 1954 Hundertwasser described the square as "geometric rectangles compressed columns on the march".
Artistic styles and themes 
Hundertwasser had a lively imagination; his art was unruly and chaotic. In his work, he used spirals, organic forms, wavy lines, bright colours, and a strong individualism. He wanted humans to live in harmony with nature, where there are no straight lines. Once, he called straight lines "something cowardly drawn with a ruler, without thought or feeling."

Concept 
Hundertwasser believe that a person has three 'skins. First, her 'epidermis', her skin. Second, her clothes. And finally, her house or home. Later on in the 1970s, he added two more skins: social environment (family, friendships, nation) and the planet (environment, the ecology, nature).

Painting 
You can see examples of Hundertwasser's paintings here . Colour is a large part of Hundertwasser's art. He didn't select colours for any special significance; instead he used bright, fierce, burning colours, and combined colours to form competing patterns.
Architecture 
While he began as a painter, later in life the third skin - the home, or architecture - greatly interested Hundertwasser. He hated the way most buildings had straight lines and angles. He felt that buildings should fit and represent those who lived inside them. His building designs use natural forms, and often fit around nature rather than trying to bend nature to fit them. In the Hundertwasserhaus, an apartment building in Vienna, Austria, the floors aren't flat and even: they undulate.

Hundertwasser used nature in his buildings, which often have roof gardens. Grass roofs also have ecological, health and insusaltion advantages. A grass roof produces oxygen and makes life possible. It absorbs dust and dirt and converts the earth. Body and soul of man is at ease, both, who looks at it as well as who lives beneath it. (Hundertwasser 1991)
In the late 1970s, Hundertwasser was asked by City of Vienna to build a housing project - housing for poorer citizens who could not afford it otherwise. Inside, there were wavy, undulating floors ("an uneven floor is a divine melody to the feet"), a roof covered with earth and grass, and large trees growing from inside the rooms, with limbs extending from windows. Hundertwasser took no payment for the design of the house, declaring that it was worth it, to prevent something ugly from going up in its place. Within the house there are 52 apartments, four offices, 16 private terraces and three communal terraces, and a total of 250 trees and bushes. The Hundertwasser House is one of Vienna's most visited buildings and has become part of Austria's cultural heritage.
In Kawakawa, New Zealand, where Hundertwasser lived between 1975 and 2000, he designed the public toilets. Coach-loads of tourists visit every day to see these toilets, which are designed according to the artist's strict beliefs. All of the plants and vegetation which were displaced by the toilet were replanted on the roof, and it was built from recycled bricks from an old bank, and the residents' used glass bottles.

Gallery

References

Other websites 
 Peter Schamoni: Hundertwasser Regentag (Hundertwasser's Rainy Day, 1972). An award-winning German documentary about the artist rebuilding an old wooden ship called Regentag (Rainy Day).
 Hundertwasser Museum , Vienna 
 Hundertwasser's stamps 
 Bad Blumau - hot spring resort designed by Hundertwasser 

1928 births
2000 deaths
Austrian artists
Edgar Degas (, ; born Hilaire-Germain-Edgar De Gas, ; 19 July 183427 September 1917) was a French artist. He is famous for his paintings and sculptures: he was one of those who started Impressionism, although he rejected the term, and preferred to be called a realist.p31

A superb draughtsman, he is identified with the subject of the dance, and over half of his works depict dancers. These display his mastery in the depiction of movement, as do his racecourse subjects and female nudes. His portraits are notable for their psychological complexity and the way they show human isolation.p11
His life
He was born in Paris, France. He began to paint early in his life. Because his father wanted it, he went to university to become a lawyer in 1853. Edgar did not like this, and he went to study at the École des Beaux-Arts, an important art-school in Paris in 1855. In 1856 he traveled to Naples in Italy, he stayed there for 3 years. He studied famous painters like Michelangelo and Raphael and learnt by copying their work.

In 1859 he came back to Paris. He started his first important painting The Bellelli Family, and also started on a few paintings on historical myths, like Alexander and Bucephalus and The Daughter of Jephthah. In 1861 he visited Normandy and made his first drawings of horses which were an important subject for his paintings.
After the start of the Franco-Prussian War in 1870, Degas worked for the National Guard. He did not have time to paint.p29 After the war he went to stay with his brother Rene in New Orleans, Louisiana. In 1873 he went back to Paris and in 1874 his father died. He then found out his brother had large business debts. Edgar had to sell the house and a collection of art he had inherited. He now had to depend on his paintings for his income. He created a lot of great paintings in next 10 years.p33 With the money he earned, he bought paintings by painters he liked a lot. Examples are Manet, Paul Cézanne, Pissarro, Gauguin, Van Gogh and others.

In 1874 Edgar Degas and a group of other painters started to organise their own art exhibition. Their exhibitions were called "Impressionist Exhibitions". At the end of the 1880s, he started to take photographs of his friends.p26 Other photographs, of dancers and nudes, were used as an example for some of his later paintings.p34
As the years passed, he became isolated. They think that he made sculptures up until 1910. He probably stopped working in 1912. He never married, and he was nearly blind at the end of his life. He died in Paris in 1917.p41

Gallery

Related pages 
 List of French painters

References

1834 births
1917 deaths
Artists from Paris
Burials at Montmartre Cemetery, Paris
French painters
French Roman Catholics
French sculptors
Luigi Russolo (30 April 1883 – 4 February 1947)  was a painter and musician from Italy. He was part of the Futurism movement and built his own musical instruments. His instruments were destroyed in World War II in Paris, because the Germans bombed the city, others have simply disappeared.

Sources

1883 births
1947 deaths
Italian painters
Italian musicians
Bacterial conjugation is the transfer of genetic material between bacterial cells by direct cell-to-cell contact or by a bridge-like connection between two cells.

Conjugation is a mechanism of horizontal gene transfer, as are transformation and transduction, though these two other mechanisms do not involve cell-to-cell contact.

Bacterial conjugation was discovered by Nobel Prize winners Joshua Lederberg and Edward Tatum. They showed that the bacterium Escherichia coli entered a sexual phase during which it could share genetic information.

Bacterial conjugation is often incorrectly regarded as the equivalent of sexual reproduction, since it involves the exchange of genetic material. During conjugation the donor cell provides a conjugative or mobilizable genetic element that is most often a plasmid or transposon. Most conjugative plasmids have systems ensuring that the recipient cell does not already contain a similar element.
The genetic information transferred is often beneficial to the recipient. Benefits may include antibiotic resistance, xenobiotic tolerance or the ability to use new metabolites. Such beneficial plasmids may be considered bacterial endosymbionts. Other elements, however, may be viewed as bacterial parasites and conjugation as a mechanism evolved by them to allow for their spread.

Mechanism 

The basic conjugative plasmid is the F-plasmid, or F-factor. The F-plasmid is an episome (a plasmid that can integrate itself into the bacterial chromosome) with a length of about 100,000 base pairs.

There can only be one copy of the F-plasmid in a given bacterium, either free or integrated, and bacteria that possess a copy are called F-positive or F-plus (denoted F+). Cells that lack F plasmids are called F-negative or F-minus (F-) and can function as recipient cells.

Inter-kingdom transfer
The nitrogen fixing Rhizobia are an interesting case of inter-kingdom conjugation.
For example, the tumor-inducing (Ti) plasmid of Agrobacterium and the root-tumor inducing (Ri) plasmid of A. rhizogenes contain genes that are capable of transferring to plant cells. These genes turn plant cells into factories producing chemicals used by the bacteria for nitrogen and energy. Infected cells form crown galls or root tumours, respectively. The Ti and Ri plasmids are thus endosymbionts of the bacteria, which are in turn endosymbionts (or parasites) of the infected plant.

Genetic engineering 
Conjugation is a convenient means for transferring genetic material to a variety of targets. In laboratories successful transfers have been reported from bacteria to yeast, plants, mammalian cells, and isolated mammalian mitochondria.
Conjugation has advantages over other forms of genetic transfer. In plant engineering, Agrobacterium-like conjugation complements other standard vehicles such as tobacco mosaic virus (TMV). While TMV is capable of infecting many plant families these are primarily herbaceous dicots. Agrobacterium-like conjugation is also primarily used for dicots, but monocot recipients are not uncommon.

References 

Bacteria
Horizontal gene transfer
A plasmid is a DNA molecule that is separate from the chromosomal DNA and that can replicate (copy itself) independently.

The term plasmid was first introduced by the American molecular biologist Joshua Lederberg in 1952.

Plasmids are double stranded and, in many cases, circular. Plasmids usually occur naturally in bacteria, but are sometimes found in eukaryotic organisms (e.g., the 2-micrometre-ring in Saccharomyces cerevisiae).

Plasmid size varies from 1 to over 1,000 kilobase pairs (kbp). The number of identical plasmids within a single cell can range from one to thousands. Plasmids are often associated with conjugation, a mechanism of horizontal gene transfer.
Plasmids are transferable genetic elements, or "replicons", capable of independent self copying in a suitable host. Plasmids can be found in all three major domains, Archaea, Bacteria and Eukarya. Similar to viruses, plasmids are not considered a form of "life" as it is currently defined. Unlike viruses, plasmids are "naked" DNA and do not encode genes necessary to encase the genetic material for transfer to a new host.

Plasmid host-to-host transfer requires direct, mechanical transfer by conjugation or changes in host gene expression allowing the intentional uptake of the genetic element by transformation.

Microbial transformation with plasmid DNA is neither parasitic nor symbiotic in nature, since each implies the presence of an independent species living in a commensal or detrimental state with the host organism. Rather, plasmids provide a mechanism for horizontal gene transfer within a population of microbes and may provide a selective advantage under a given environmental state.
Plasmids may carry genes that provide resistance to naturally occurring antibiotics in a competitive environmental niche, or alternatively the proteins produced may act as toxins under similar circumstances. Plasmids also can provide bacteria with an ability to fix elemental nitrogen or to degrade difficult organic compounds. This may provide an advantage under conditions of nutrient deprivation.

The construction of first recombinant DNA emerged from linking of a gene encoding antibiotic resistance with a native plasmid.

References 

Cell biology
Bacteria
DNA
Horizontal gene transfer (HGT) (or Lateral gene transfer) is how an organism gets genetic material from another organism without being the offspring of that organism. 

By contrast, vertical transfer occurs when an organism gets genetic material from its ancestor, e.g., its parent or a species from which it has evolved.

Most thinking in genetics has focused on vertical transfer, but horizontal gene transfer is also important. Amongst single-celled organisms it may be the dominant form of genetic transfer. Artificial horizontal gene transfer may be used as a type of genetic engineering.

Mechanism 
There are several mechanisms for horizontal gene transfer:
Transformation, the genetic alteration of a cell resulting from the introduction, uptake and expression of foreign genetic material (DNA or RNA). This process is relatively common in bacteria, but less so in eukaryotes. Transformation is often used in laboratories to insert novel genes into bacteria for experiments or for industrial or medical applications. 
 Transduction, the process in which bacterial DNA is moved from one bacterium to another by a bacterial virus (a bacteriophage, or 'phage').
 Bacterial conjugation, a process in which a bacterial cell transfers genetic material to another cell by cell-to-cell contact.
A gene transfer agent or 'GTA' is a virus-like element which contains random pieces of the host chromosome. They are found in most members of the alphaproteobacteria order Rhodobacterales. They are encoded by the host genome. GTAs transfer DNA so frequently that they may have an important role in evolution. A 2010 report found that genes for antibiotic resistance could be transferred by engineering GTAs in the laboratory.
 Integrons, a bacterial "kit" for transferring gene cassettes.
History
Horizontal gene transfer was first described in Japan in a 1959 publication that demonstrated the transfer of antibiotic resistance between different species of bacteria. 

In the mid-1980s, Syvanen suggested that lateral gene transfer not only had biological significance, but was involved in shaping evolutionary history from the beginning of life on Earth. 

"Increasingly, studies of genes and genomes are indicating that considerable horizontal transfer has occurred between prokaryotes". The phenomenon appears to have had some significance for unicellular eukaryotes as well. As Bapteste et al. observe, "additional evidence suggests that gene transfer might also be an important evolutionary mechanism in protist evolution".
There is some evidence that even higher plants and animals have been affected. Richardson and Palmer (2007) state: "Horizontal gene transfer (HGT) has played a major role in bacterial evolution and is fairly common in certain unicellular eukaryotes. However, the prevalence and importance of HGT in the evolution of multicellular eukaryotes remains unclear".

References 

Microbiology
Transduction how a virus moves DNA from one bacterium to another. 

Joshua Lederberg and his graduate student Norton Zinder showed in 1952 that bacteriophages could transfer genetic information between bacteria in Salmonella. This explained how bacteria of different species could gain resistance to the same antibiotic very quickly.  

Transduction also refers to the process whereby foreign DNA is introduced into another cell via a viral vector. This is a common tool used by molecular biologists to introduce a foreign gene into a host cell's genome.

When bacteriophages infect a bacterial cell, they usually reproduce by using the replicational, transcriptional, and translation machinery of the host bacterial cell to make many complete viral particles, including the viral DNA or RNA and the protein coat. Errors in this process can result in the virus carrying over DNA from one bacterium to another.

References 

Horizontal gene transfer
Prokaryotes
Ferdinand Marie, Vicomte () de Lesseps, GCSI (19 November 1805 – 7 December 1894) was the French developer of the Suez Canal, which joined the Mediterranean and Red Seas in 1869.  He also tried to build a Panama Canal during the 1880s, but malaria and yellow fever was so bad that he gave up and the Panama Canal Company went bankrupt.  A different canal was later built by the United States and completed in 1914.

Early life
Ferdinand de Lesseps was born at Versailles, Yvelines, in 1805. His first years were spent in Italy, where his father was a diplomat.

Career

Diplomatic
In 1828 de Lesseps was sent as an assistant vice-consul to Tunis, where his father was consul-general. He aided the escape of Youssouff, pursued by the soldiers of the Bey, of whom he was one of the officers, for violation of the seraglio law.
In 1832 de Lesseps was appointed vice-consul at Alexandria, and in 1833 he became consul in Cairo, and soon afterwards given the management of the consulate general at Alexandria, until 1837. Near the end of 1837 he returned to France, and on 21 December married Agathe Delamalle (Garches, Hauts-de-Seine, 15 October 1819 – Paris, 13 July 1853), daughter of the prosecuting attorney at the court of Angers. They had five sons.

In 1839 he was appointed consul at Rotterdam, and in the following year transferred to Málaga, the ancestral home of his mother's family. In 1842 he was sent to Barcelona, and soon afterwards promoted to the grade of consul general. From 1848 to 1849 he was minister of France at Madrid.
In 1849 the government of the French Republic sent him to Rome to negotiate the return of Pope Pius IX to the Vatican. He tried to negotiate an agreement whereby Pope Pius could return peacefully to the Vatican but also ensuring the continued independence of Rome. But during negotiations, the elections in France caused a change in the foreign policy of the government.

He was created on 30 August 1851 the 334th Commander and then the 200th Grand Cross of the Order of the Tower and Sword.

De Lesseps then retired from the diplomatic service, and never again occupied any public office. In 1853 he lost his wife and his son Ferdinand Victor at a few days' interval. In 1854, the accession to the viceroyalty of Egypt of Said Pasha gave de Lesseps a new impulse to act upon the creation of a Suez Canal.

Suez Canal

Said Pasha invited de Lesseps to pay him a visit, and on 7 November 1854 he landed at Alexandria; on the 30th of the same month Said Pasha signed the concession authorizing him to build the Suez Canal.
Death

De Lesseps died at Château de La Chesnaye in Guilly, Vatan, Indre, on 7 December 1894. He was buried in the Père Lachaise cemetery in Paris.

After his death
His name was used in a speech by Egyptian President Gamal Nasser as the codeword to order the raiding of the Suez Canal Company's offices on 26 July 1956, the first step to its nationalization. In the course of the raid and seizure of the canal by Nasser, the statue of de Lesseps at the entrance of the Suez Canal was removed from its pedestal, to symbolize the end of European ownership of the waterway. The statue now stands in a small garden of the Port Fouad shipyard.

References
References

Smith, G Barnett The Life and Enterprises of Ferdinand de Lesseps (London, 1893)
de Lesseps, Ferdinand, Souvenirs de quarante ans (trans. by CB Pitman).
McCullough, David, The Path Between the Seas: The Creation of the Panama Canal 1870-1914 Simon & Schuster, 1977.
 Mellander, Gustavo A. (1971) The United States in Panamanian Politics: The Intriguing Formative Years. Danville, Ill.: Interstate Publishers. OCLC 138568.
 Mellander, Gustavo A.; Nelly Maldonado Mellander (1999). Charles Edward Magoon: The Panama Years. Río Piedras, Puerto Rico: Editorial Plaza Mayor. . OCLC 42970390.
Parker, Matthew. Panama Fever: The Epic Story of One of the Greatest Human Achievements of All Time - the Building of the Panama Canal. New York: Doubleday, 
 Simon, Maron J. The Panama Affair Charles Scribner's Sons, 1971.

Other websites
Other websites

Ferdinand de Lesseps (1887). Recollections of forty years. Volume 1. Volume 2. From Internet Archive.
André Gill (1867). "Ferdinand de Lesseps", caricature painting of Ferdinand de Lesseps.
The De Lesseps Family :  This page focuses on Viscount de Lesseps' family.
The A.B. Nichols archival collection  of documents and materials related to the Panama Canal includes a number of references to the French project, including photographs of de Lesseps and his house in Panama.
Associació de Veïns i Comerciants de la Plaça Lesseps, Gràcia, Barcelona, Catalonia

1805 births
1894 deaths
People from Versailles
Burials at Père Lachaise Cemetery
In molecular biology, transformation is the genetic alteration of a cell by the direct uptake and expression of DNA from its surroundings.

Transformation occurs naturally in some species of bacteria, and can also be done artificially. Bacteria that are capable of being transformed, whether naturally or artificially, are called competent.

Transformation is one of three processes by which outside genetic material may be brought into bacterial cells. The other two are conjugation (transfer of genetic material between two bacterial cells in direct contact), and transduction (injection of foreign DNA by a bacteriophage into the host).

Transformation may also used to describe the insertion of new genetic material into nonbacterial cells, such as animal and plant cells. Introduction of foreign DNA into eukaryote cells is usually called "transfection".