Aarushhh/wikipedia-simple-splitted huggingface dataset:
In whist, the winners had to get most of the tricks (a trick is a round of four cards), that is, seven or more tricks. However, in bridge the players bid in sequence to decide what the "contract" shall be. The contract is decided by the last bid, and will be in one of the four suits, or in "no trumps", without a trump suit.

The scoring rules and the bidding process evolved through stages between 1890 and about 1930. Bids at the one level are offers to make at least seven tricks. Bids at the seven level are offers to make all thirteen tricks. The lowest bid one can make is "one club" and the highest bid is "seven no trumps".
The scoring system for bridge is very much more complicated than it is for whist. Fundamentally, it depends on whether or not declarer makes his contract or not. If he does not, the defending side collect penalty points. If he does make the contract his side wins points. How many points are won or lost depends on the scoring system (not discussed here). Harold S. Vanderbilt played a key role in designing the scoring system, and in 1927 the Whist Club of New York produced a code for contract bridge. They and the Portland Club of London became the authorities who guided the later minor changes to the rules.

The set-up for playing the cards is also different from whist. The side which wins the bidding sequence plays with only one partner ("declarer") controlling both hands. His or her partner is called "dummy", and that hand is played face up on the table so all players can see it.
Duplicate bridge 
Like much else in the game, the idea of duplicate play was invented for whist. At "whist drives" North/South pairs sat in the same positions throughout, East/West pairs moved up the series of tables and boards moved down. This simple movement was invented in the 19th century. The first game of duplicate whist was organised by "Cavendish" in London 1857, but it was not followed up. It was played in Chicago in 1880, and the first book about it was written in 1891 by John T. Mitchell. His simple method is known as the Mitchell movement.

Matchpoints 
Duplicate bridge for pairs differs in one important way from rubber bridge or team-of-four bridge.  That is: in duplicate bridge every hand is equal, and so every hand offers the same number of points. It is by far the most popular form of bridge today, but it is the form least like the original game.
At matchpoints, all hands offer the same number of points when the result is scored. Points available for each board are the same, no matter whether they are bid to a part-score or a slam. Making one more overtrick than everybody else on a board gives the same result (the top) as making a slam that nobody else bid.

This has all kinds of consequences. Beginners are still taught the original game, but most bridge is duplicate. Many players never discover the difference, and few understand how to play this version differently from older types of bridge.
Matchpoint scoring 
The main features of the tactics are:
 Matchpoints
 All hands offer the same number of points.
 Overtricks are important.
 Safety play is often neglected in the hunt for overtricks.
 Thin games and slams are avoided.
 Sacrifices are more frequent; e.g. going down 500 points on a doubled contract is a good result if the opponents can score 620 points for a game.
 Penalty doubles are more frequent. For example, "the magic 200" refers to the situation when a vulnerable pair's contract is doubled and goes one down — the score of 200 will outscore almost all part-score contracts played at other tables.
 Playing in higher-scoring notrump or major suits is important, as it may lead to an extra 10 or 20 points.
Due to the above, it is often unclear to the defence, and sometimes even to declarer, what their goals are. Thus mastering matchpoints play requires additional skills.

Example of a bidding sequence
In the example above, West was the dealer and first to bid. The bidding goes as shown with South becoming the declarer in a 4 spades contract, he being the first to bid spades. East-West become the defenders and West becomes the opening leader, North becomes the dummy and spades the trump suit.

Ten tricks are required by North–South, six tricks plus the 4-level bid.

Mechanical dealing 
Mostly, bridge is a social game played in clubs. A number of tables play the same set of hands, which allows for the scoring of individual pairs to be ranked. The deal is done by a computerised method. A pseudo-random algorithm sets the hands (the sets of cards held by each player). The computer is linked to a mechanical device which deals the cards and delivers them into the hands. These are put into the holding boards. The boards are then put on the tables.

Related pages 
 American Contract Bridge League
 Netherlands Bridge League
Sources 
Daniels, David 1980. The Golden Age of Contract Bridge. New York: Stein and Day. ISBN 978-0812825763. Includes all stages from the history of whist to contract bridge, up to about 1950.
The ACBL Official Encyclopedia of Bridge (various eds) has a section on matchpoint tactics by Marshall Miles.

References 

Contract bridge
Card games
No is an English word which has a negative meaning. It is the antonym (opposite) of the word Yes, which is a positive term.

No is used when someone is denying or turning away something. It can also be used in different figures of speech.

In both sentences and talking, the words "No" and the word "Not" can both be used, though the word "No" is mainly used when speaking to other people. In some cases, however, "Not" is not acceptable, and vice versa. These words are not to be confused with the similar sounding words know and knot.

Examples of proper usage of "No" and "Not":
Is this green? No, it is not.
There is no way round the back.
 This is not the way (but there is another way).
 I will not come.
 Oh, no!
 No, thank you.
 Not on my watch!

Examples of improper usage of "No" and "Not":
 That is no the way you do it.
 Oh not!
 I know how to tie a knot. (Disambiguation)
 I didn't no that!
 I can no go.

Basic English 850 words
Lev Davidovich Bronstein ( (; also transliterated Leo, Lev, Trotskii, Trotski, Trotskij and Trotzky; October 26 (O.S.) = November 7 (N.S.), 1879 in Kropyvnytskyi (nowadays Ukraine) - August 21, 1940 in Coyoacán, Mexico) was the public name of Leib or Lev Davidovich Bronstein. He was a Russian revolutionary and political theoretician. He was of Jewish-Ukrainian descent.  After leading the Red Army in the Russian Civil War, he disagreed with other Bolsheviks and had to leave Russia.

Trotsky was a socialist and a Marxist. In 1905 there was a 1905 Russian revolution in Russia. Trotsky helped organize a committee of workers in St Petersburg which was called the Soviet. When the leader of the Soviet was arrested, Trotsky became leader of the Soviet in his place.  Trotsky helped to expand on the idea of Permanent Revolution, which is a theory originally thought up by Karl Marx.
After the revolution Trotsky left Russia for his own safety. In 1917, he returned to Russia because of the Russian Revolution. He helped to bring about communism in Russia and defend it during the Russian Civil War. He was in charge of the army at this time.  When the leader of the Bolsheviks (the party who led the revolution) Vladimir Lenin died, Trotsky became involved in a power struggle with Joseph Stalin for the leadership of the party.  He lost, and Stalin came to power. He had to leave Russia because of Stalin, who was now his own enemy and wanted to harm Trotsky. In 1938 Trotsky founded the Fourth International. Stalin had one of his spies, Spaniard Ramón Mercarder, stab Trotsky to death in Mexico in 1940 who was ordered by Lavrentiy Beria .
People who believe in Trotsky's ideas are called Trotskyists and follow Trotskyism.  Trotskyism is seen as being a more democratic form of communism than others, such as Stalinism and Maoism. The main Trotskyist organization today is the Socialist Workers Party in the UK and the International Socialist Tendency worldwide. 

In the novel Animal Farm by George Orwell, Trotsky is represented by Snowball the pig and Stalin is represented by Napoleon who was also a pig. The book reflected real world events.

References

Other websites 
 Fourth International (post-reunification) 
 Story of Trotsky's Murder
 Trotsky's Grave

1879 births
1940 deaths
Government ministers
Jewish politicians
Jewish writers
Marxists
Murders by blade weapons
People murdered in North America
Russian communists
Russian historians
Russian Jews
Assassinated Russian people
Russian politicians
Russian Revolution
The Second International (1889–1916) was an organization created on July 14, 1889, by socialist and labour parties who wanted to work together for international socialism. It continued the work of the First International, which stopped being an organization in 1886. However, it did not include the still-powerful anarcho-syndicalist movement and trade unions.

Among the Second International's most famous actions were its 1889 declaration of May 1 as International Labor Day and its 1910 declaration of March 8 as International Women's Day.

The International's permanent executive and information body was the International Socialist Bureau (ISB). It was located in Brussels and formed after the International's Paris Congress of 1900. Emile Vandervelde and Camille Huysmans of the Belgian Labour Party were its chair and secretary. Vladimir Lenin was a member from 1905.
Dadabhai Nauroji attended its Paris commune in 1906.

International organizations
1889 establishments
Political organizations
1916 disestablishments
Devon is a county in southwest England. Sometimes called by its historical name Devonshire. Devon is the fourth largest county in England by area, and has the longest road network of any county in England.

History 
After the last ice age, Devon was one of the first places in England where people started to live. Archaeologists have found many old places in Devon with ancient buildings. For example, many ruins of old buildings have been found in an area called "Dartmoor", which is now a National Park.

Devon gets its name from the Dumnonii, a name that the invading Romans gave to the Celtic tribe in that area. The Romans invaded Devon about AD 50. The name Dumnonii means "a person who lives in a deep valley", and it comes from the hills and valleys of the area. The Roman army stayed in Devon for about 350 years. Their base was in the city of Exeter.
It was a long time before anyone else invaded Devon. Saxons came to Devon in the 7th century, and the King of Wessex may have attacked in 614. There was a conflict between Devon and Wessex for 200 years. Some historians think that Wessex won the war by about 715 but others think this did not happen until at least 936. Eventually Wessex took control, but the Kings of Devon still had some power.

A person living at the time called William of Malmesbury said that in Exeter both Britons and Saxons were equal in 927 but that King Athelstan of Wessex then chased the Britons from Exeter. From place names and church dedications it seems that the British did not go far and later came back into Exeter because an area in the city was called "Britayne" until recently.
A large number of Devon placenames include (or are) the word "combe" (e.g. Ilfracombe). This word comes from the Brythonic (Celtic) language and is like the Welsh word "cwm". Another typical Devon word is "tor" which is also Brythonic, and like the Welsh word "twr".
Both of these words are often found in neighbouring counties, but Devon has the greatest number. Overall Devon has a number of other placenames that are Brythonic and others that come from Old English, and a few that come from Norse. Devon's placenames are like those of western Somerset and eastern Cornwall which was also part of the old kingdom of "Dumnonia".

Starting in the 9th century, groups of Viking raiders tried to invade Devon. This continued until the Norman Conquest. The name of Lundy Island comes from the Viking language, which was called Norse. The Vikings are remembered for moving the cathedral from Crediton to Exeter.
Devon has been involved in most of the civil conflicts in England since 1066:
 During the Norman Conquest of England, Exeter was surrounded by William the Conqueror's army for 18 days.
 In 1140, the towns of Exeter and Plympton were both defended against King Stephen.
 There were small battles in Devon during the Wars of the Roses.
 The army of Perkin Warbeck surrounded and attacked Exeter in 1497.
 The Prayer Book Rebellion of 1549: rebels from Cornwall and Devon marched towards London.
 The towns of Exeter and Dartmouth were both besieged (surrounded by the enemy) during the English Civil War.
 When William of Orange invaded Britain in 1688 (the Glorious Revolution), he landed at Brixham.

There are many famous (well known) people from Devon, especially seamen. For example, Sir Francis Drake, Sir Richard Grenville and Sir Walter Raleigh all come from Devon. Many other famous people were also born in Devon: for example, the author Agatha Christie was born in the town of Torquay.
Flag 
Devon has its own flag. It is linked to St Petroc, who is a local saint with links to Devon and nearby counties. The flag was chosen after winning a competition on the BBC Devon website in 2003.

Economy 
Devon is less wealthy than many parts of England, for example the south east. This is because the traditional industries of Devon, for example fishing, mining and farming are declining. The European Union has given parts of Devon help (Objective 2). For example, grants of money have been given to help new industries grow. Tourism has become more important recently as a part of the economy of Devon.

An epidemic of Foot and Mouth disease in 2001 led to many farmers losing their cattle, so they lost a lot of money. Other industries also lost a lot of income because of this.
Politics 
The main city of Devon is Plymouth. Exeter is where the county council is based. The county of Devon is split up into districts. Each district is run by a district council. Some things are the job of the county council and others are the job of the district council. There are also smaller town and parish councils inside the districts.

Plymouth and Torbay are not run by the county council, but have their own special councils. These councils do the jobs of both a county and a district council. These type of areas are called unitary authorities.

Districts in Devon 

The numbers on the map are linked to the numbers below.

 Exeter
 East Devon
 Mid Devon
 North Devon
 Torridge
 West Devon
 South Hams
 Teignbridge
 Plymouth (Unitary)
 Torbay (Unitary)

Members of Parliament 
 Ben Bradshaw
 Angela Browning
 Geoffrey Cox
 Oliver Colvile
 Linda Gilroy
 Nick Harvey
 Adrian Sanders
 Alison Seabeck
 Sarah Wollaston
 Gary Streeter
 Hugo Swire
 Richard Younger-Ross

Cities towns and villages
This is a list of the main towns and cities of Devon:

Interesting places 
 Dartmoor
 Exmoor
 Jurassic Coast (a World Heritage Site)
 Lundy Island
 Buckfast Abbey
 Castles in Devon

Rivers 
 River Avon
 River Axe
 River Dart
 River Erme
 River Exe
 River Otter
 River Tamar (the border between Devon and Cornwall)
 River Tavy
 River Taw
 River Teign
 River Torridge

Other websites 

Note: The links below are not in simple English.
 Devon County Council
 BBC Devon

 
Ceremonial counties of England
The Latin script, also known as the Roman script, is a writing system used to write many modern-day languages. It is the most used writing system in the world today. It is the official script for nearly all the languages of Western Europe and of some Eastern European languages. It is also used by some non-European languages such as Turkish, Vietnamese, Malay, Indonesian, Somali, Swahili and Tagalog. It is an alternative writing system for languages such as Serbian and Bosnian.
The alphabet is a writing system which evolved from a western variety of the Greek alphabet. It was the Etruscans who first developed it after borrowing the Greek alphabet, and the Romans developed it further. The sounds of some letters changed, some letters were lost and gained and several writing styles ('hands') developed. Two such styles were combined into one script with upper and lower case letters ('capitals' and 'small letters'). Modern capital letters differ only slightly from their Roman counterparts. There are few regional variations.

Letters

Original Latin alphabet 
The Latin alphabet used by the Romans:
New alphabet 
The modern version of the alphabet is used for writing many languages. Indo-European languages, especially those of Western Europe, are mostly written with the Latin alphabet. These languages include the Germanic languages (which includes English, German, Swedish, and others) and the Romance languages (which includes French, Spanish, Italian, Portuguese and others). There are of course Indo-European languages that do not use the Latin alphabet, like Greek, Russian, and Persian, as well as non-Indo-European languages that do, like Turkish and Vietnamese.

Nearly all languages using the Roman alphabet include diacritics, which are symbols found above or below the letters. They are used for things such as tones and pronunciation. English is the only major European language that does not have any of these marks, at least not for native words. Words taken from other languages sometimes use diacritics to make clear the correct pronunciation.
The basic alphabet uses the following letters (extra letters in bold):

Other versions 

The Roman script has fewer letters than the sounds in some of the languages that use it. Some languages make up for the lack of letters by using diacritic marks, such as ă, â, á, à, ä, é, ë, í, î, ó, ö, ô, ẹ, ị, ọ, ụ, ã, ả, ẻ, ỉ, ỏ, ủ, ñ, ç, č, ď, ě, ľ, ł, ň, ř, ŕ, š, ș, ť, ț, ú, ů, ü, ý, ž, đ and other similar. In effect, this increases the number of letters in their alphabet. Languages which use some of these characters are French, Czech, Polish, Hungarian, Romanian, Spanish, Turkish, Tagalog, Vietnamese, Esperanto, Igbo and many other.
Changing the way a language is written to Latin letters is called romanization. Many people who do not speak the language read a romanized version to know roughly how the words will sound, even if that is not the normal way to write the language. Some languages, like Chinese and Japanese, use the Latin alphabet in their languages so that they can be typed on a computer more easily. In mainland China, pinyin is the official romanization for Mandarin Chinese, and it is used to type Chinese characters on the computer by typing them phonetically. Even though many Japanese computers have kana keyboards to type Japanese on the computer, Japanese can also be typed using the Latin alphabet. Software called IME (input method editor) converts the Latin letters, called romaji in Japanese, into Japanese kana and kanji.

References

Other websites 
 Roman Alphabet -Citizendium

Alphabet, Roman
An insectivore is an animal or insect that eats mostly insects for food. An anteater is an animal that eats ants. Insectivorous plants also eat insects. The Venus flytrap is one of them.

To eat insects for food is not very easy because insects are small. Large insect-eating animals must eat many of them. Anteaters eat hundreds of ants every day.

Some omnivores like humans and bears also eat insects for food. There was once a taxonomic group of mammals called Insectivora. Most of its animals are now called Eulipotyphla.

Related pages
 Herbivore - an animal that eats mostly plants
 Carnivore - an animal that mostly eats meat from other animals.
 Detritivore - an animal that eats garbage, dead animals or other food left from another animal.
 Omnivore - an animal that eats animal meat, plants, fruit, and insects.

Animals by eating behaviors
Copy means a thing that is made to look like another thing.

Copying, making a copy, the duplication of information
Photocopying, a process which makes paper copies of documents and other visual images
Fax, a telecommunications machine used to transfer copies of documents over the telephone network
Facsimile, a copy or reproduction that is as true to the original source as possible
Replica, a copy closely resembling the original concerning its shape and appearance
Copy (written), commonly used in newsrooms and publications to refer to a writer's written content

Basic English 850 words
Vapor (British English: vapour) is when small drops of liquid float in the air.  Sometimes this happens because the liquid has been heated.  Vapor is not the same as gas.  It is a mixture of liquid and gas.

water
A vehicle is a machine to move people and things. A vehicle is not alive. A horse can move people and things, but it is an animal, not a machine or a vehicle.

The word vehicle is borrowed from French and Latin. French véhicule, going back to Middle French, borrowed from Medieval Latin vehiculum "medium, agent of transmission," going back to Latin, "wheeled vehicle, means of transport," from vehere "to carry, convey.

Types of vehicles

Land vehicles 
Some vehicles move on land. Most land vehicles have wheels. Examples of land vehicles are bicycles, cars, motorcycles, and trains.

Land vehicles that are powered by an engine or motor are called motor vehicles.

Some land vehicles, like tanks and snowmobiles, have tracks. These tracks look and work like conveyor belts.

Water vehicles 
Some vehicles move on, or in, the water.  Examples are boats, ships, and submarines.

Air and space vehicles 
Vehicles that move in the sky are called aircraft.  Examples are aeroplanes and balloons.
Some vehicles, like the Space Shuttle, can even leave the Earth's orbit and go to outer space.

Power 
Vehicles can be propelled by various sources of energy.

 Human muscles.  Examples are bicycles and skateboards.
 Engines.  Examples are automobiles, ships, and aeroplanes.
 Electricity.  Examples are many passenger trains. 
 Animals.  Examples are carts and chariots.
 Wind.  Examples are sailboats and iceboats.
 Some vehicles have no propulsion power.  Examples are gliders and balloons.
Line dancing is a form of group dancing that is done to either country or hip-hop music. The term line dance is derived from the idea that the group of people participating in the dance are all facing the same direction when conducting the series of moves in the line dance. A line dance can go from 32 beats upwards of up to 92 beats per minutes, and can also be either a 4 or 2 wall dance. When the dance starts off everyone is facing the front wall, after all of the counts of the dance are complete (let's say we were doing a 32 count dance) then everyone would finish the dance facing either the back wall or the left or right wall. One example of a line dance is the "Men In Black" line dance. This dance is usually done to a hip-hop song, such as "Yeah 3X", by Chris Brown. Once the first 32 counts of the dance are completed everyone will finish the dance facing the left wall, and would have turned one quarter to their left counter clockwise
. Once the series of moves is completed 4 times the group will end up facing the front wall again.
The Three Kingdoms of Korea were Goguryeo, Baekje and Silla. They existed between the 1st century BC and 7th century CE. There were some smaller kingdoms like Gaya, Dongye, Okjeo, Buyeo, Usan, Tamna, etc.

Baekje helped spread Chinese characters, Chinese culture, Han Buddhism, and other technology to Japan.

The Three Kingdoms period ended in 668: Silla allied with the Tang Dynasty to conquer Baekje and then Goguryeo. Korea unified under Later Silla. The Tang occupied the northern parts of Korea. After this Korea split during the North and South States period.

Besides Chinese records, the books Samguk Sagi and Samguk Yusa also record the history of the era. "Samguk" (Hangul: 삼국, Hanja: 三國) means "Three Kingdoms".

Sources 

History of Korea
Eckernförde (, sometimes also Egernfjord, , sometimes also Eckernföör) is a German city in Schleswig-Holstein, Kreis Rendsburg-Eckernförde at the Baltic Sea near Kiel. The population is about 23,000.

All 24 German submarines are stationed in Eckernförde.

Eckernförde is a well-known touristic centre in Northern Germany.

History 
 In 1302 Eckernförde is first mentioned as a city.
 The Count Saint-Germain is supposed to be buried in Eckernförde near the St.-Nicolai-Church. His grave was destroyed by the great storm tide on 13 November 1872.

Twin towns 
 , Macclesfield, (since 1953)
 , Hässleholm, (since 1958)
 , Tanga, (since 1963)
 , Nakskov, (since 1969)
 , Brzeg, (since 1989)
 , , Bützow, (since 1990)

References

Other websites

 Official homepage of Eckernförde 
 Official tourist information 
 Local Newspaper (Eckernförder Zeitung)
Cities in Schleswig-Holstein
Geography of Schleswig-Holstein
Municipalities in Schleswig-Holstein
Port cities and towns of the Baltic Sea
Spa towns in Germany
Towns in Schleswig-Holstein
Franz Ferdinand Karl Ludwig Josef of Austria, Archduke Franz Ferdinand of Austria-Este (Franz Ferdinand Karl Ludwig Josef; ) (18 December 1863 – 28 June 1914) was an archduke (like a prince) of Austria and, from 1896 to his death, was the heir apparent and was supposed to be the next emperor of Austria-Hungary. He was killed in the city Sarajevo by Gavrilo Princip. That made Austria declare war against Serbia, which started the First World War.

On 28 June 1914, Franz  Ferdinand went to Sarajevo in Bosnia for a trip. He was traveling to the Town Hall at 10pm with his wife, Sophie, in the third car of a motorcade in a roofless limousine. Franz Ferdinand had jokingly mentioned that he wouldn’t be surprised if there was a few bombs waiting for him on his trip. On his way to the Town Hall the first man to try to assassinate the Archduke, Grabez, was standing waiting for Ferdinand to try and shoot him but he froze and let the car pass. He went home afterwards and hid his gun and bomb but was later arrested.
On the same route to the Town Hall a man, also from the Black Hand, called Cabrinovic threw a bomb at the car injuring lots of Ferdinand's staff but he failed to kill the Archduke himself so he  tried to swallow cyanide and jump into the river Miljacka but failed to die  and got arrested. The Archduke was shocked but headed to the Town Hall anyway and did his speech whilst the paper was covered in the blood of his assistant who was injured in the bomb. After his speech he decided to go to the hospital to visit the 20 people injured in the bomb. As the driver took a turn to head to the hospital Princip jumped out and shot Sophie in the abdomen who collapsed and died instantly then shot the Archduke in his neck and in his leg. He died on the way to the hospital. Ferdinand's last words were “Sophie! Sophie! Don’t die! For our children!
References

1863 births
1914 deaths
Archdukes and Archduchesses of Austria
Assassinated people
Habsburg Dynasty
Murders by firearm
World War I people
Black Hand or Crna Ruka, officially Ujedinjenje ili Smrt ("Unification or Death")  was a secret group of Serbian nationalists (Pan-Serbians). It was founded in 1911 in Serbia. 

Their aim was to create a country from other countries where Serbs lived, including Bosnia-Herzegovina which was a part of Austria-Hungary since 1908.

Killing of Franz Ferdinand
Austria-Hungary blamed Serbia for the assassination. Austria-Hungary then declared war on Serbia, and Russia joined the war on Serbia's side because the people of Serbia were Slavic, like Russia, and the Slavic countries had agreed to help each other if they were attacked. Since Russia is a large country it had to move soldiers closer to the war, but Germany feared that Russia's soldiers would also attack Germany. Russia did not like Germany because of things Germany had done in the past to become stronger. Germany declared war on Russia, and used a plan to attack Russia that had been created before the war, but it also involved attacking France and Belgium. France and Great Britain joined the war because Great Britain had agreed to help Belgium if it were ever attacked by someone else.

This quickly led to a full-scale war. Austria-Hungary declared war on Serbia. Both country's allies became involved in the war, and soon most of Europe became involved.
The Black Hand also killed Alexander I of Serbia and Draga Mašin.

References

20th century in Europe
1911 establishments in Europe
1910s establishments in Serbia
Organizations based in Serbia
Edmonton is the capital city of Alberta. In 2008, there were about 1,102,000 people in the Edmonton area.
Edmonton is just south of the middle of Alberta in the prairie part of the province. There are many farms close to Edmonton.

The city started as a trading post on the North Saskatchewan River. Edmonton turned into a city mostly over the last 100 years.

Edmonton has of one of the world's largest shopping malls. This mall is called the West Edmonton Mall. This mall has over 800 stores, a hotel, an indoor water park, an indoor theme park, an ice skating rink, movie theatres, places to eat and drink, and other things to see. Many, many people visit the West Edmonton Mall.
Edmonton also has more sun than all other cities in Canada. But other cities are warmer than Edmonton. Winter temperatures often are below -20 degrees Celsius. It is common for it be even colder (below -30 degrees Celsius) for a few days in January or February. However, the summer can be warmer than 25 or 30 degrees. The sun does not set until after 11 pm in June.

The city is also well known for its festivals. There are many popular events in both summer and winter, such as Heritage Days, the Folk Festival, and the Fringe.

Edmonton has many interesting places to visit. Places such as The Francis Winspear Centre for Music, the Valley Zoo, Fort Edmonton Park, the Muttart Conservatory,and Telus World of Science.

Edmonton is known as the city of champions, is home to the Edmonton Oilers of the National Hockey League, the Edmonton Eskimos of the Canadian Football League. The Edmonton Oilers have 5 Stanley Cup Championships, the Eskimos have 23 Western Division Championships, and 13 Grey Cup Championships.
Autarky is an economy that does no trade with the outside world. It is called  a self-sufficient economy or a closed economy too. It does not need any other countries or regions helping.

Autarky is rare in the modern world. An example of a currently run autarky is North Korea, but even it makes a small amount trade between some countries, like China and Japan.

Economics
is the Japanese art of growing small trees in pots. This is done by growing the tree in a small pot or tray and pruning (cutting) the branches and roots to keep the tree small over time. Bonsai trees are trained to grow into a shape that is pleasing to look at. The best bonsai trees appear to be old, and to have a shape that seems like a real tree except much smaller.

The word bonsai means "tree in tray" in the Japanese language. Bonsai is a very old art form in Japan. It is a Japanese form of the older Chinese art called penjing. Penjing is a Chinese art form that also uses trees growing in pots. Other nations also have arts like bonsai and penjing.

People like bonsai because it is nice to look at, and because it is fun to grow a bonsai tree. A bonsai tree can live for a very long time, longer than a person can live. In a family, a bonsai might be started by a grandparent, then given to a parent, then given to a child over many years.
A bonsai starts with a small tree. This tree can be grown from a seed, or can be found already growing in a yard or a park or the forest. It can also be bought from a plant store.

To make the bonsai, the small tree is taken out of the ground. Its roots are carefully cleaned of dirt. The roots may be trimmed (cut) a little to help them fit in a small pot. The branches may also be trimmed to make the tree smaller. Then it is put in a bonsai pot, which has low sides. Fresh soil (dirt) is put in the pot to cover the bonsai tree's roots. Then it is watered and put outdoors to live.

Good trees to make into bonsai have small leaves (pine tree needles are leaves too). If the leaves are too big, the bonsai will not look like a small tree. A good bonsai tree will have old-looking bark and old-looking roots too.
History 
The art of bonsai began in Japan over one thousand years ago. It was brought to Japan from China around the year 800 A.D. At first, bonsai were planted in large pots like the Chinese used. But the Japanese later put them in very low, almost flat pots. This change made the tree itself the most important thing in the art form, not the fancy pot or small houses or statues of people which other nations used with their small trees in pots.
Cultivation 
A tree that could be used for bonsai is not small in nature. If left to grow in the open soil, a bonsai tree would grow as big as any other tree. But in a pot, the tree will not grow very big. To help keep it small, the owner of the bonsai trims (cuts) its leaves and branches every year. Every two or three years, the bonsai owner lifts the bonsai out of its pot and trims the roots. Then the owner puts the bonsai back in its pot with some new soil.

A bonsai grower checks the soil of every bonsai pot once every day. If the soil is nearly dry, the grower waters it until it is wet from the top of the soil to the bottom of the pot. Every few weeks the grower adds a little fertilizer to each bonsai tree's soil. In the winter this happens less often.
A bonsai can live to be older than a large tree of the same species if it is grown with care. A bonsai needs good care, and a bonsai with poor care will not be healthy and might die. To keep a bonsai strong, it must grow outdoors like a real tree. It must never get too dry or stay too wet. It must never get too hot or too cold. If it gets a plant sickness like a fungus, it must be cured quickly. If it gets bugs like aphids the bugs must be cleaned off or killed quickly.

Shapes 

The art of bonsai a sense of beauty, patience, and good care are all needed. The plant, the shape of the plant, as well as the arrangement of soil and the kind of pot used are important.

Each bonsai has a shape, partly the shape and direction of the trunk and partly the shape of the whole tree with its branches and leaves. The most common shapes are known as "styles", including

Upright-style
The upright style has a straight trunk that points up. Its branches are big at the bottom and small at the top.
Informal-style
The informal style has curves in the trunk. Its branches are also larger at the bottom and smaller at the top.

Slanted-style
The  slanted-style bonsai trunk does not point straight up like the upright style.  The trunk comes out of the soil at an angle and points to the left or right.

Cascade-style
The cascade-style bonsai look like trees that grow out over water or on the sides of mountains. The tip of the tree is low, and may even fall below the base of the pot.

Broom-style
The broom style has a trunk that is straight and upright. Branches stick out in all directions from about 1/3 of the way up the trunk.

Forest-style
The  or "group planting" has several trees in one pot or on a flat slab of rock.
Other styles
There are many other known styles for Japanese bonsai. When bonsai are shown to the public, or when they appear in a catalog to be sold to people, the style that best matches the bonsai will often be put in the tree's description. This allows the person looking at the bonsai to understand the plan or goal of the person who made the bonsai.

Related pages
 Penjing
 Chinese scholar's rocks

 Suiseki

References

Other websites

  "Viewing Stones" at National Bonsai Foundation 
 All you need to know about Bonsai  History,styles,pictures gallery
Bonsai Plants in India i Check this website for bonsai tree in India.
Bonsai tree species in India, check this website for Indian tree species.

Trees
Japanese art
A chastity belt is a device locked around the wearer's genitals to prevent sexual intercourse. Chastity belts for women were introduced into Europe from Italy, and saw some limited degree of use during the Renaissance period.

They were not used until the 16th century, and then only rather rarely. They first became widely available as 19th-century anti-masturbation medical devices. Many of the belts on public display in museums have now been tested to determine their correct age, with the earliest found to originate in the early 1800s.

In modern times, belts for both men and women are used in BDSM.

References 

BDSM
Mount Arafat or Mount Arafah ( transliterated Jabal ‘Arafāt) is a granite hill east of Mecca in the plain of Arafat. Arafat is a plain about  southeast of Mecca. Mount Arafat reaches about  in height and is also known as the Mount of Mercy (Jabal ar-Rahmah). According to Islamic tradition, the hill is the place where the Islamic prophet Muhammad stood and delivered the Farewell Sermon to the Muslims who had accompanied him for the Hajj towards the end of his life.

On the 9th of the month of Dhu al-Hijjah pilgrims go to Arafat from Mina, for the most important part of the Hajj. The Khutbah of Hajj is narrated and Zuhr prayer and Asr prayer are prayed together. The pilgrims spend the whole day on the mountain to supplicate to Allah to forgive their sins and to pray for personal strength in the future.

Hajj 
Arafah rituals end at sunset and pilgrims then move to Muzdalifah for a shortened Maghrib Prayer and Isha prayer and for a short rest.
The level area surrounding the hill is called the Plain of Arafat. The term Mount Arafah is sometimes applied to this entire area. It is an important place in Islam because during the Hajj, pilgrims spend the afternoon there on the ninth day of Dhul Hijjah (ذو الحجة). Failure to be present in the plain of Arafat on the required day invalidates the pilgrimage.
 
Since late 2010, this place is served by Mecca Metro. On a normal Hajj, it would be around  to walk.

References

Hills of Asia
Mount Arafat
Mount Arafat
Ariel Sharon (February 26, 1928 – January 11, 2014) was an Israeli politician of Likud and later Kadima. Sharon was Prime Minister of Israel from 2001 to 2006.

Early life
Sharon was born on February 27, 1928 in Kfar Malal, British-Palestine. Sharon was in the Israel Army for many years. He fought in numerous battles, and in 1974 he left the army as General. After leaving the army he decided to go to politics.

Politics
In 1977, he became Minister of Agriculture. In 1981 he became the Minister of Defence. In 1983, he was sent away from the government as Minister of Defence after he was found to be guilty for not preventing a massacre in Lebanon where many hundreds of civilians were killed by other civilians.

In 2001, he was elected for Prime Minister after the war between Israel and Palestine started. In 2004, he surprised many people when he said that Israel will get out of the Gaza Strip, which is the place where many Palestinian people live.
Health
In December 2005, Sharon was taken into hospital. On January 4, 2006, Sharon was again taken to the hospital. He had a big stroke (bleeding in the brain).

Rumours spread immediately of his death, though these were denied by his physicians. It was soon reported and later confirmed that Sharon was in a coma. Ehud Olmert, another member of Sharon's newly formed Kadima party, was acting Prime Minister until elections were held in Israel, after which Olmert became Prime Minister of Israel.

Death
Sharon died on 11 January 2014. He died from kidney failure and stroke complications at the hospital in Ramat Gan. He had been in a coma at the time. He was aged 85.
His state funeral was held on 13 January. He was buried in line with Jewish burial customs. It was held as soon after death as possible. The day before the funeral, Sharon's body and coffin were placed in the Knesset building for people to see. His funeral began with an official ceremony held in the Knesset chamber. Politicians from Israel and other countries attended. His funeral was then held at his family's farm in the Negev desert. Sharon was buried there beside his wife, Lily.

Leaders attended his funeral service included U.S. Vice President Joe Biden, former British Prime Minister Tony Blair, former Dutch Prime Minister Wim Kok, Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov, Czech Prime Minister Jiří Rusnok and German Foreign Minister Frank-Walter Steinmeier.

References

Other websites
Other websites 

 Ariel Sharon's Biography – Detailed account of his military and political career 
 Ariel Sharon
 Ariel Sharon: Return to the Temple Mount 
 Ariel Sharon: an Israeli Caligula 
 The Sabra and Shatila Massacres (16–18 September 1982)
 Timeline of key events in Sharon's life
 Ariel Sharon Profile, ynet news lexicon
 Biography of Ariel Sharon at cnn.com 
 Prominent People – Sharon, Ariel "Arik" 
 Phonecall  – An authentic recording of Ariel Sharon talking to a soldier positioned at one of the Suez Channel bunkers at the beginning of the Yom Kippur War.

1928 births
2014 deaths
Deaths from renal failure
Deaths from stroke
Members of the Knesset
Government ministers of Israel
Hebrew University of Jerusalem alumni
Israeli political leaders
Israeli generals
Israeli opposition leaders
Jewish Israeli politicians
Jewish military people
Kadima politicians
Likud politicians
Prime Ministers of Israel
Tel Aviv University alumni
People indicted for war crimes
Jameson is a famous brand of Irish whiskey.  It is amber in color and has quite a  strong smell. It is an alcoholic beverage.

In Ireland, people refer to it as Jemmie.

Whisky
Syria is a country in the Middle East, the west part of Asia. It borders (from south to north) on Lebanon, Israel, Jordan, Iraq, and Turkey. Its western part faces the Mediterranean Sea. Its eastern and northern parts are mountainous.

The current president and head of state is Bashar al-Assad. Syria's national capital is Damascus. The biggest city is Aleppo. The Syrian civil war began in 2011.

The population of Syria is 74% Sunni, 12% Alawi, 10% Christian.

History 
Syria has a very long history. It was a land of Phoenicians. Later it became part of the Achaemenid Empire, Roman Empire, and then the Eastern Roman Empire. In those days people spoke the Syriac language. The city Antioch was great and one of the important cities in Christendom. The Umayyad Caliphate took control of Syria in the 7th century. In this Arab Empire people began to speak the Arabic language. Today most Syrian people believe in Islam but there are still Christians too.
When World War I started, the Ottoman Empire ruled Syria and many other places. When it ended, France controlled Lebanon and Syria. Britain had Iraq, Jordan and Palestine. They drew a border between Iraq and Syria in 1920. France controlled Syria until 1946 when Syria became its own country.

Syria was part of the United Arab Republic with Egypt in 1958-1961. Syria had some wars with Israel and some territories like the Golan Plateau were occupied by Israel.

In 2012 with the Arab Spring a bloody civil war began against President Bashar al-Assad.

Kurdish people control a small part of the northern region called Rojava.

It is also known as Western Kurdistan.

Geography 
Syria is between latitudes 32° and 38° N, and longitudes 35° and 43° E. It is mostly arid plateau. The area bordering the Mediterranean is fairly green. The Euphrates, Syria's most important river, crosses the country in the east.

The climate in Syria is dry and hot. Winters are mild.
Politics and government 
Syria is a republic. The old Constitution of Syria was started on 13 March 1971. It made Syria as a secular socialist state. Islam was the majority religion. A new constitution has been in place since 2012.

Branches of government
The executive branch is the president, two vice presidents, the prime minister, and the Council of Ministers. The constitution says the president must be a Muslim.  It does not make Islam the state religion. According to the 2012 constitution, the president is elected by the Syrian people in a direct election.

The People's Council is the legislative branch.

State control
Nearly all of Syria’s radio and television outlets are state owned. The Ba'ath Party controls nearly all newspapers.

Human rights
Syria's human rights are among the worst in the world, according to human rights organizations such as Human Rights Watch.  The authorities arrest democracy and human rights activists, censor websites, detain bloggers, and have travel bans.
Governorates
Syria has fourteen Governorates, or muhafazat.  The governorates are divided into sixty districts.  The governorates are:

 Al Hasakah
 Rojava
 Al Ladhiqiyah
 Al Qunaytirah
 Ar Raqqah
 As Suwayda
 Dara
 Dayr az Zawr
 Dimashq
 Halab
 Hama
 Homs
 Idlib
 Rif Dimashq
 Tartus

Military 

The President of Syria is commander in chief of the Syrian armed forces.  There are about 400,000 troops. Ethnic Kurds have their own army called YPG. The Males must go in the military when they are age 18.

Economy 
Syria is a middle-income country.  The economy is based on agriculture, oil, industry, and tourism.

Transport 
Syria has three international airports (Damascus, Aleppo and Lattakia).  They are hubs for Syrian Air. Foreign airlines also fly to them. Most Syrian cargo is carried by Chemins de Fer Syriens, the Syrian railway company.

Demographics 

Most people live in the Euphrates valley and along the coastal plain, a fertile strip between the coastal mountains and the desert.
Education is free from ages 6 to 12.  All children this age must attend school.

Sports 
The most popular sports in Syria are football, basketball, swimming, and tennis.  Damascus was home to the fifth and seventh Pan Arab Games. Many popular football teams are based in Damascus, Aleppo, Homs, and Latakia.

Related pages
List of rivers of Syria
Syria at the Olympics
Syria national football team

References

 
Members of the Organisation of Islamic Cooperation
Current dictatorships
Psychology is the study of the mind. It studies thoughts, feelings, and behaviors in humans and animals. Psychology aims to explain how the mind works. It also looks at how our actions relate to how we think.

A lot of the research in psychology is done on humans. However, animals are also used in research. Examples of this are classical conditioning and operant conditioning.  Psychology is a vast subject area. It covers many topics. It is divided into branches. Psychology has a lot in common with other fields of research. Ideas in psychology overlap with ideas in the sciences of anatomy, biology, neuroscience and physiology.
Branches 
Psychology has been split up into smaller parts called branches. These are subjects in psychology that try to answer a particular group of questions about how people think. The branches of psychology that are often studied are:
 Abnormal psychology, the study of differences in the mind of people who are healthy and people who have a mental illness.
 Clinical psychology, which finds the best way to help people to recover from mental illness.
 Cognitive psychology, the study of how people think, use language, remember and forget, and solve problems.
 Cross-cultural psychology, the study of how culture influences human behavior.
 Developmental psychology, the study of how people develop and change from childhood to adulthood. This includes what used to be called "child psychology".
 Educational or school psychology, the study of how people learn.
 Evolutionary psychology, the study of how evolution shaped how people think. It often focus on how brain injury affects behavior.
Gestalt psychology, a theory of mind formed in Berlin.
 Neuropsychology, the study of how human behavior relates to the brain and nervous system.
 Motivation, which studies the root causes of actions
 Perceptual psychology, the study of how the mind sees the world.
 Personality psychology, the study of personality (the characteristics that describe a person's thoughts, feelings, and behaviors).
 Political psychology, which studies the behavior of politicians and explains politics from a psychological standpoint.
 Social psychology, the study how groups of people work together and how society works.