Aarushhh/wikipedia-simple-splitted huggingface dataset:
Handrails may be continuous (sometimes called over-the-post) or post-to-post (or more accurately ""newel-to-newel""). For continuous handrails on long balconies, there may be multiple newels and tandem caps to cover the newels. At corners, there are quarter-turn caps. For post-to-post systems, the newels project above the handrails.

Another, more classical, form of handrailing which is still in use is the Tangent method. A variant of the Cylindric method of layout, it allows for continuous climbing and twisting rails and easings. It was originally defined from principles set down by architect Peter Nicholson in the 18th century.
Other terminology 
 balcony: For stairs with an open concept upper floor or landing, the upper floor is functionally a balcony.
 flight: A flight is an uninterrupted series of steps.
 floating stairs: A flight of stairs is said to be "floating" if there is nothing underneath. The risers are typically missing as well to emphasize the open effect. There may be only one stringer or the stringers otherwise minimized. Where building codes allow, there may not even be handrails.
 landing or platform: A landing is, structurally, an intermediate floor between flights of stairs. It is typically used to allow stairs to change directions, or to allow the user a rest. As landings consume floor space and are structurally floors, they can be quite expensive to build. However, changing the direction of the stairs allows stairs to fit where they would not otherwise, or provides privacy to the upper level as visitors downstairs cannot simply look up the stairs to the upper level due to the change in direction.
runner: Carpeting that runs down the middle of the stairs. Runners may be directly stapled or nailed to the stairs, or may be secured by specialized bar that holds the carpet in place where the tread meets the riser.
 spandrel: If there is not another flight of stairs immediately underneath, the triangular space underneath the stairs is called a "spandrel". It is frequently used as a closet.
 stairwell: This is the space in the building where the stairs are constructed. This may need special structural design so that the floors around the stairwell do not require structural walls so that the stairs themselves are open to the floors.
 staircase: This term is often reserved for the stairs themselves: the steps, railings and landings; though often it is used interchangeably with "stairs" and "stairway".
 stairway: This term is often reserved for the entire stairwell and staircase in combination; though often it is used interchangeably with "stairs" and "staircase".
Measurements 
Stair measurements:
 The rise height of each step is measured from the top of one tread to the next. It is not the physical height of the riser; the latter excludes the thickness of the tread.
 The tread depth or length is measured from the edge of the nosing to the vertical riser. It is sometimes called the going.
 The total run of the stairs is the horizontal distance from the first riser to the last riser. It is often not simply the sum of the individual tread lengths due to the nosing overlapping between treads.
 The total rise of the stairs is the height between floors (or landings) that the flight of stairs is spanning.
 The slope of the stairs is the total rise divided by the total run (not the individual riser and treads due to the nosing). It is sometimes called the rake or pitch of the stairs. The pitch line is the imaginary line along the tip of the nosing of the treads.
 Headroom is the height above the nosing of a tread to the ceiling above it.
Walkline: For curved stairs, the inner radius of the curve may result in very narrow treads. The "walkline" is the imaginary line some distance away from the inner edge on which people are expected to walk. Building code will specify the distance. Building codes will then specify the minimum tread size at the walkline.
 To avoid confusion, the number of steps in a set of stairs is always the number of risers, not the number of treads.
Examples of notable stairways 
 The longest stairway is listed by Guinness Book of Records as the service stairway for the Niesenbahn funicular railway near Spiez, Switzerland, with 11,674 steps and a height of 1669 m (5476 ft). The stairs are strictly employee-only.
 The Haiku Stairs, on the island of Oahu, Hawaii, are approximately 4,000 steps which climb nearly 1/2 of a mile. Originally used to access longwire radio antennas which were strung high above the Haiku Valley, between Honolulu and Kaneohe, they are currently closed to hikers.
 The Penrose stairs, devised by Lionel and Roger Penrose, are a famous impossible object. The image distorts perspective in such a manner that the stairs appear to be never-ending, a physical impossibility. The image was adopted by M. C. Escher in his iconic lithograph Ascending and Descending.

Related pages

 Fire escape

Architectural elements
Minas Gerais () is one of the 26 states of Brazil. It has the second highest number of people. It has the fourth largest area. The capital is the city of Belo Horizonte, near the center of the state. The name means "General mines". Minas Gerais was formed mainly by colonists searching for gold, gemstones and diamonds.

Location
Minas Gerais is in the west of the southeastern part of Brazil. That area also has the states of São Paulo, Rio de Janeiro and Espírito Santo. Minas Gerais shares borders with Bahia and Goiás (north), Mato Grosso do Sul (far west), the states of São Paulo and Rio de Janeiro (south) and the state of Espírito Santo (east). It also shares a short border with the Brazilian Federal District.
Cities
Even though it is not the largest state in Brazil, Minas Gerais is the state with the most cities. Of the more than 5,500 municipalities in Brazil, Minas has more than 850 of them. The most important ones are the capital Belo Horizonte, Contagem, Betim, Ribeirão das Neves, Juiz de Fora, Montes Claros, Uberlândia and Ouro Preto.

Notable people 

 José Paulino Gomes, supercentenarian

References

Other websites
Ceará is one of the 26 states of Brazil. It is in the northeastern part of the country, on the Atlantic coast. Ceará has many beaches, which brings a lot of tourism.

Geography 
Ceará has an area of 148,016 km². It shares borders on the east by the states of Rio Grande do Norte and Paraíba, on the south by Pernambuco state, and on the west by Piauí. Its northern border is the Atlantic Ocean. Its capital is Fortaleza.

References

Other websites 
 Official Government Site
 Tourism guide Ceará
 Fortaleza Tourism guide and maps
Espírito Santo is one of the states of southeastern Brazil. It is often referred to as "ES". The capital of ES is Vitória and its largest city is Vila Velha. Those who are born in the state are known as "Capixabas", but the more correct word is "Espiritossantenses". The name means "holy spirit" after the Holy Ghost of Christianity.

Location
This Brazilian state is in the southeastern subdivision of Brazil, which also contains the states of São Paulo, Minas Gerais and Rio de Janeiro. It is bordered by the Atlantic Ocean (east), the state of Bahia (north), the state of Minas Gerais (north and west), and the state of Rio de Janeiro (south). Espírito Santo's other main cities are Cachoeiro de Itapemirim, Colatina, Linhares, São Mateus and Aracruz.

Geography
At , it is about the size of Estonia. The state has many different types of habitats, for example coastal planes, lakes, mountain forest and mangroves.
The islands of Trindade and Martim Vaz,  east of Vitória in the Southern Atlantic Ocean, are also a part of Espirito Santo state.

Notable people 

 José Paulino Gomes, supercentenarian

References
Goiás is a state of Brazil. It is in the central part of the country. It shares borders with Tocantins, Bahia, Minas Gerais, the Federal District, Mato Grosso do Sul and Mato Grosso. The capital and largest city in the state is Goiânia. With an area of 341,289 km², Goiás is about the size of the Republic of the Congo; smaller than Germany and larger than Finland.

There are 246 municipalities in Goiás. The top 15 cities in order by number of people (est. 01/07/2005) are:

 Goiânia (1,201,006)
 Aparecida de Goiânia (435,234)
 Anápolis (313,412)
 Luziânia (180,227)
 Águas Lindas de Goiás (159,294)
 Rio Verde (133,231)
 Valparaíso de Goiás (119,493)
 Trindade (95,300)
 Planaltina de Goiás (94,717)
 Novo Gama (93,081)
 Formosa (90,247)
 Itumbiara (85,724)
 Jataí (76,100)
 Senador Canedo (71,399)
 Catalão (70,574)

References
Maranhão is one of the states of Brazil. It is in the northeastern region of the country. To the north is the coast of the Atlantic Ocean. Maranhão shares borders with Piauí, Tocantins and Pará. In the 19th century, the state used plantation slaves to produce cotton for Europe.

Major cities in the state besides the state capital São Luís are Imperatriz, Timon, and Caxias. The Alcantara spaceport is in the north of the state, not far from São Luís.

References
Mato Grosso is one of the states of Brazil. It is in the western part of the country. Mato Grosso shares borders with the states of Rondônia, Amazonas, Pará, Tocantins, Goiás and Mato Grosso do Sul. It also borders the country Bolivia to the southwest. The name, Mato Grosso, means "thick jungle". 

Mato Grosso is the state in Brazil in which the most deforestation of Brazil's part of the Amazon Rainforest has happened. In 1977, the state was split into two halves. This created the new state Mato Grosso do Sul. The Bororo native people live in the Mato Grosso area.

Cities 
There are few cities. The most important ones are:
 Alta Floresta
 Barra do Garças
 Cáceres
 Cuiabá, the capital
 Rondonópolis
 Sinop
 Várzea Grande

References
Hassium is a very radioactive and unstable chemical element. It has the symbol Hs and it has the atomic number 108. It is a superheavy transuranium element.

Hassium is a radioactive element that does not exist in nature. It has to be made in a lab.

History 
Hassium was first made in 1984. and eka-osmium. It was made at the Gesellschaft für Schwerionenforschung (GSI) in Darmstadt, Germany. The element was named from the Latin name for the German state of Hessen. Hessen is the state that the Gesellschaft für Schwerionenforschung is in. Before it was named Hassium, scientists could not decide what the name should be and there was an element naming controversy. The temporary IUPAC systematic element name was unniloctium meaning "one-zero-eight-ium" referring to its atomic number. The symbol with the name was Uno. In 1994 a committee of IUPAC recommended that element 108 be named hahnium. The name hassium was adopted internationally in 1997.
Chemistry 
Isotope 270 of Hassium was found in December 2006. An international team of scientists led by the Technical University of Munich discovered it. It is a doubly magic isotope and it has a long half-life of 22 seconds. Scientists had thought that heavy and stable isotopes should exist. Some theories said Hassium-270 may be part of an island of stability. Hassium can oxidise like osmium, the element above it in the periodic table, into hassium tetroxide. Chemists found that is less volatile than osmium tetroxide.

References

Other websites 

 WebElements.com - Hassium
 Apsidium - Hs 

Transition metals
Synthetic elements
Roraima is one of the states of Brazil. It is in the northern part of the country. It shares borders with the states of Pará and Amazonas, as well as the countries Venezuela and Guyana. Roraima is both the northernmost and least populated state of Brazil.

Geography 
The climate is tropical with an average temperature of 26 °C. Most of the state is in the Amazon rainforest. A small part of the state is a small strip of savanna to the east. The state has many mineral deposits - especially gold, diamonds, cassiterite, bauxite and copper. These create constant fights with the native people. The Yanomami are the most well-known of the native people, but they are greatly out-numbered by the Macuxi.

The Monte Roraima National Park is near one of the highest mountains of Brazil, the 9220 ft (2727 m) high table-top Mount Roraima.
History 
In 1943, the federal government separated the area from the state Amazonas. The territory was first named Rio Branco after the main river. In 1962, it was renamed "Roraima." In 1988, it became a state. The name of the state was taken from Monte Roraima, whose name comes from the Pemon words roroi (cyan) and ma (large).

References

Other websites 
 State government website

 
1988 establishments in Brazil
Santa Catarina is a state in Southern Brazil. It has with one of the highest standards of living in the country.  Its capital is Florianópolis, which partly lies on the Santa Catarina Island.

Santa Catarina shares borders with the states of Rio Grande do Sul to the south and Paraná to the north. It is bordered on the east by the Atlantic Ocean, and to the west it borders the province of Misiones, Argentina.

Santa Catarina is the most European state of Brazil. Most of the people that live there are descendants of Portuguese, German and Italian immigrants.

Its largest city is Joinville.
History 
European colonies began with the Spanish settlement of Santa Catarina island in 1542.  The Portuguese took control in 1675. The captaincy of Santa Catarina was created in 1738.  Large numbers of European immigrants, especially from Germany, began arriving in the early 19th century.  Immigrants from Italy, Poland, Russia, Ukraine, Japan and other parts of Europe later came. This led to many small, family held farms in the state.

In late March 2004, the state was hit by the first ever hurricane recorded in the South Atlantic. Because there is no naming system for such an event in Brazil, Brazilian meteorologists called it Catarina, after the state.

Ethnic groups 
 92% white
 German (35%);
 Italian (30%);
 Portuguese (22%);
 5% others (Polish, Russian, Norwegian, etc.)
 8% other

European settlement 
Santa Catarina is one of the Brazilian states that shows the most signs of recent European colonization. Most of the population are descendants of European settlers.
Portuguese 
The Portuguese started arriving in the 1750s. The came mainly from the Azores islands, and colonized the coast. In the late 18th century, half of Santa Catarina's population was Portuguese-born. These Portuguese created many important towns of the State, such as Florianópolis, the capital.

Germans 

Germans started arriving in 1828. They were peasants that came to Brazil to get their own lands. They did this since Germany had many people and many people had no lands to work. German immigration was very low, until the 1850s, when many Germans started arriving in Southern Brazil. To create more German colonization in Southern Brazil, the Brazilian government created many German colonies. Many of these German colonies became big towns, such as Blumenau and Joinville,  the largest city in Santa Catarina.
Germans had kept to themselves in these communities for decades. They did not have much contact with other people of Brazil. For generations they were able to speak German and keep their German traditions in Brazil. This changed in the 1930s, when Brazil declared war against Germany in 1942. The German immigrants learned Portuguese and followed a Brazilian way of life.

Nowadays, the German influence in the State of Santa Catarina is still very strong. Many towns still have many parts of the German culture. For example, Pomerode is a small town where 90% of the people are German-Brazilian. Most of the people speak German fluently. Another example is the Oktoberfest of Blumenau and many other towns in the region. The architecture and food also show German influence.
Italians 
Italian settlers started arriving in Santa Catarina in 1875. They came in large numbers until the 1910s. They were peasants from Northern Italy. They created Italian colonies close to the coast. In the beginning, the Italian settlement had failed. This was because many Italians died of tropical diseases or left the colonies to find better conditions. However, in southern Santa Catarina, they found cooler weather and better lands, and the colonies did very well. Many Italians worked in the coal industry.

Main cities 

 Balneário Camboriú
 Blumenau
 Brusque
 Chapecó
 Criciúma
 Florianópolis
 Itajaí
 Itapema
 Jaraguá do Sul
 Joaçaba
 Joinville
 Lages
 São José

References

 
1540s establishments in South America
16th-century establishments in Brazil
1542 establishments
A trail is a pedestrian path or road mainly used for walking, but often also for cycling, cross-country skiing or other activities.  Some trails are off-limits to everyone other than hikers, and few trails allow motorized vehicles.

Nomenclature 
In the United States, the word footpath is also used to mean a trail; however in Australian English, New Zealand English, Indian English, and Irish English this word means "sidewalk" (American English) or "pavement" (British English).

In Australia, the word track can be used interchangeably with trail, and can refer to anything from a dirt road to a pedestrian walkway (generally also unpaved). The term "trail" gained popularity during World War II, when many servicemen from the United States were stationed in Australia, which probably influenced its being adopted by elements of the Australian media at the time (see Kokoda Track). In New Zealand, the word track is used almost exclusively except in reference to cross-country skiing, where trail is used.
Trail types and use

Walking trails 

Trail use has become very popular for a wide variety of users. Some trails are meant as nature trails, and are used by people learning about the natural world. Many trails are day trails, what means that they are generally used by people out for a short hike, less than a day. Some trails are backpacking trails, or long-distance trails, and are used by both day hikers and by backpackers. Some of the trails are over a thousand miles (1,500 km) long and may be hiked in sections by backpackers, or completed in one trip by dedicated hikers. Some trails are specifically used by other outdoor enthusiasts to gain access to another feature, such as good climbing sites. Many runners also favor running on trails rather than pavement, as giving a more vigorous work-out and better developing agility skills, as well as providing a more pleasant exercise environment. See trail running.

Stairway Trails
Stairway Trails 

Stairway is another way to ascend higher slopes. Stairway trails are usually for walking only. The stairs are constructed using cuts in dirt, rocks or concrete. Popular stairway trails include Stairway Trails in Bernal Heights East - San Francisco, Stairs at many hill top Hindu temple (Tirumala, Palani) used during Pilgrimage & Machu Picchu.

Bicycle trails 

Recent decades have seen an explosion of interest in cycling, both street-type and off-road type. A common term for these facilities is simply "bike trail". These trails may be built to a different set of standards than foot trails, requiring more stable, harder surfaces, less strenuous grades, longer sight visibility, and less sharp changes in direction. On the other hand, the cross-slope of a bike trail may be significantly greater than a foot trail, and the actual treadway may be narrower in some cases.

Equestrian trails
Equestrian trails 

Horseback riding has continued to be a popular activity for many trail users. Again, horse trails are built to different standards than other trails.  Sight distance is an important issue with horse trails, as is overhead and side clearance.  While trail surface types are a relatively unimportant issue with hikers, they may be an important issue with horses.

Cross-country skiing 

In cross-country skiing, a trail (also called a 'track' or 'piste') refers to the parallel grooves cut into the snow, one for each ski.

Motorized trails 

Motorized trail use also remains very popular with some people. Such terms as ORV, four-wheeling, all-terrain vehicle, and others actually have highly specific meanings.

Related pages
Inca trail to Machu Picchu one of the oldest

Other websites
Other websites 

Slackpacker.com - designed to provide convenient access to websites with hiking and backpacking trail maps, descriptions, journals, trip reports, and photographs.
Wiki dedicated to trail guides and community  Hiking, Biking, Riding and Driving trails
WikiWalki - Member submitted hiking trails with maps
 IMBA.com - Trailbuilding Resources Information on building and managing shared use and bike specific trails.
The Pardoner's Prologue and Tale is a story that is a part of The Canterbury Tales by English writer, Geoffrey Chaucer.

About the Pardoner 
The Pardoner went on a journey to the town of Canterbury from Rouncivalle with his friend the Summoner.

Appearance 
The Pardoner had hair as yellow as wax which fell on his head smoothly wisp by wisp.  He has piercing black eyes and his face was as smooth as he had just shaved. He had a thin and feeble voice yet he was hardly an old spiritual man.
Failures 
Although the Pardoner was a priest he lived a life that was far from the word of Jesus Christ. He often broke many of the seven deadly sins including greed, gluttony, and pride.  He earned a living through preaching and selling fake relics to his supporters.  He lies to people and promises them salvation and prosperity for a price.  He has even taken money from a poor widow with starving children in order buy himself more luxuries.
The tale describes him getting money from the crowd as he cared more about money than a holy life.

The Tale Begins 
The host asks the Pardoner to tell a happy story after the sad tale that the Franklin told.  The other people object to this and hope that he will tell a tale that is rich in morals.
The tale 
He starts his tale by talking about three young men who, like him, do sinful things like drink alcohol and sleep with young women.  The Pardoner goes on to talk about the sins of the men in detail especially gambling, drunkenness, and gluttony. These three young men are rioters from the town of Flanders. 

One night the three drunken men were at a tavern when they saw a corpse being carried to a grave.  They ask who had died and find out it is one of their friends who has been killed by a murderous thief named "Death". The three men plan to avenge their friend's death and kill Death themselves.
On their way to find Death they see an old man that says Death will not take him even in his old age and suffering.  The man says that he had left Death under an oak tree and that he was sure to still be there.  They run to the tree and instead of seeing Death, they see lots of gold under the tree.  They want to bring the gold back under the cover of night so that nobody will think they have stolen it. They sat down and sent the youngest to fetch 3 pies and 3 bottles of wine.
The remaining two come up with a plan to kill the third when he comes back so that the money could be split between only the two of them. At the same time the third man has the same thoughts as the other two and wants to have all of the money for himself. So he went and bought poison and poured it between the two bottles making sure he kept an un-poisoned bottle for himself. When he got back the other two men jumped out and killed the third man. But in celebration they decide to drink the wine unknowing that the poison was still in the wine, the choked to death due to the poison.

So in the end the moral to this story is that, the gold was the Death that the old man said was beneath the tree and due to their greed and gluttony they all died with nothing.

Moral 
The love of money is the root of all evil, but also the divide between right and wrong.
Irony  
The irony in this story has to do with the person telling it. The pardoner himself is a greedy man, but he goes on saying that greed is the root of all evil.

Other websites
A drawing of the Pardoner

The Canterbury Tales
Final Fantasy XII is a fantasy role-playing video game for the Playstation 2. It was released in 2006 by Square Enix.

Characters
Final Fantasy XII has six characters you can play as: Vaan, an orphan who wants to be a sky pirate; Ashe, a princess; Basch, who is charged with killing the King; Balthier, a sky pirate who has an airship called the Strahl; Fran, Balthier's friend and Penelo, who has been Vaan's "friend" since they were little children.
Story
Final Fantasy XII takes place in Dalmasca. Princess Ashe of Dalmasca and Prince Rasler of Nabradia had been married for a short time when the Archadian Empire invaded Dalmasca.  A war started thereafter, and Archadia took over Dalmasca in no time, for the small country of Dalmasca stood no chance against the massive Archadian Empire.  While the war was going on, Prince Rasler died, leaving Princess Ashe alone.  The king of Dalmasca, Ashe's father, decided to surrender  to Archadia, clinging to dreams of peace. However, Archadia's ruler wanted him dead as soon as the treaty was signed. Knights from Dalmasca tried to rescue him, but one of the captain of the knights, Basch, was replaced by his twin brother, who then killed king Raminas of Dalmasca, and the main character's older brother Reks.  Basch's twin brother is a "Judge" who works for Archadia. The real Basch is accused of high treason and is supposedly killed. Princess Ashe went into hiding afterwards, and was deemed dead.
Two years later, Vaan, Reks' little brother, sneaks into the royal palace. When he was sneaking in, there was a banquet going on to celebrate the election of a new Consul, Vayne. Vaan meets the sky pirates Balthier and Fran in the palace as they were trying to steal the same thing he himself had taken. When Resistance forces broke into the palace, Vaan and his new friends had to hide in the waterways beneath the palace.  While they were in the sewers, they met the leader of the Resistance, named Amalia. 

This led to Vaan, Balthier and Fran getting put into the Nalbina Dungeons. What became of Amalia is yet unknown.
In the dungeons, Vaan, Balthier and Fran, find Basch. The Captain deemed a traitor by the people. They free Basch from the cage he is being held in and they go away from the Nalbina Dungeons to the Barheim Passage far below.  There in the Barheim Passage, they fight creatures that can imitate treasure chests called Mimics, and they battle a Mimic Queen.  After, the wall collapses, and Balthier, Vaan, Fran and Basch go back into the city of Rabanastre, which is the capital of Dalmasca.  There, they learn that Vaan's friend Penelo was kidnapped by a head-hunter who was looking for Balthier.  The kidnapper is named Ba'Gamnan, and he has taken Penelo to Bhujerba, a city in the sky.  Balthier lets Vaan use his airship, which is like an airplane except different in shape, and they fly to Bhujerba to rescue Penelo
When they get to Bhujerba, they go to the Lhusu Mines.  The Lhusu Mines have a lot of magicite, but also have a lot of dangerous monsters.  They go inside with a person who calls himself Lamont, and when they get to the end they see Ba'Gamnan.  He chases them but does not reach them and they manage to get away safely.

Other websites 

 Final Fantasy XII official website for Japan
 Final Fantasy XII official website for North America
 Final Fantasy XII official website for Europe 
 Final Fantasy XII US - fansite
 Shatter Heart - Fansite 

Final Fantasy games
2006 video games
PlayStation 2 games
Final Fantasy IX is a fantasy role-playing video game for the Playstation. It was released in 2000 by Square Enix.

Final Fantasy games
2000 video games
PlayStation games
Final Fantasy is a fantasy role-playing video game. It was made by Squaresoft, now called Square Enix.  It was released in 1987.

Final Fantasy 01
1987 video games
Nintendo Entertainment System games
Final Fantasy II is a fantasy role-playing video game. It was made by Squaresoft, now called Square Enix. Instead of getting stronger by getting points by killing monsters and using these to gain levels, for each attack you make there is a chance a stat (strength, health, agility...) will be increased.

References 

Final Fantasy games
1988 video games
Nintendo Entertainment System games
Final Fantasy III is a fantasy role-playing video game. It was made by Squaresoft, now called Square Enix. Final Fantasy III is notably the first Final Fantasy game to make use of the job feature. For each battle you win you get points, you can spend these points on job classes, each job class has different commands in its menu during battle.

References

Final Fantasy games
1990 video games
Nintendo Entertainment System games
Final Fantasy IV is a fantasy role-playing video game. It was made in 1991 by Squaresoft, now called Square Enix. It was first played on the Super Famicom in Japan, and Super Nintendo in the United States. It was called Final Fantasy II when it was on the Super Nintendo. You can also play it on the Sony PlayStation, Wonderswan Color, Game Boy Advance, and Nintendo DS (with 3D graphics). 

The most important person in the game is Cecil. He is a Dark Knight for the Kingdom of Baron. You help Cecil beat Golbez, an evil person who steals strong crystals from the world. Many different people help Cecil out during the game.

Final Fantasy IV helped make later Final Fantasy games. This was the first game to use an Active Time Battle, where players and enemies take turns to fight instead of having all players fight at the same time. The player makes the character do actions in real time. This way of playing was also used in later Final Fantasy games.
Importance
Final Fantasy IV did quite a lot to impact role-playing video games. It introduced battles fought using Square-Enix's ATB system and had great graphics for the time.

References 

1991 video games
Cancelled Nintendo Entertainment System games
Final Fantasy games
Super Nintendo Entertainment System games
Final Fantasy V is a medieval fantasy role-playing video game. It is developed and published by Square (now Square Enix). It was first made in 1992 as a part of the Final Fantasy series. The game first appeared only in Japan on Nintendo's Super Famicom. It has been remade with little differences to Sony's PlayStation and Nintendo's Game Boy Advance.

The original video animation produced in 1994 called Final Fantasy: Legend of the Crystals is a sequel to the game. It was released on the PlayStation Network on April 6, 2011 in Japan. The game was released for iPhone and iPad on March 28th, 2013.
A version of the game was created for the Nintendo Game Boy Advance in 2006. It has many weapons, items, armors and 22 jobs. Some jobs are secret and can only be unlocked in the GBA version.
The game begins when a wanderer named Bartz investigates a fallen meteor. He meets several characters. One tells him about the danger the four Crystals that control the world's elements. These Crystals act like a seal on Exdeath. Exdeath is an evil magician. Bartz and his friends have to keep the Crystals from being used by Exdeath.

Final Fantasy V has been praised for its character customization. This is possible because of the large Job System. The first Super Famicom version sold more than two million copies. The PlayStation version has earned "Greatest Hits" status. It has sold more than 350,000 copies.

References

Final Fantasy games
1992 video games
1998 video games
1999 video games
2006 video games
Final Fantasy VI (also known as Final Fantasy III for the US-SNES version)  is a fantasy role-playing video game. It was made by Squaresoft, now called Square Enix. In this game, the story is about a half human, half Esper named Terra who must stop an evil empire led by Emperor Gestahl.

The game allows you to control 14 playable characters, the most of any part of the Final Fantasy Main Series.

When Final Fantasy VI was released it was highly praised by critics. Meanwhile, it is seen as one of the landmark games in the role - play genre; IGN even ranked it as number one RPG of all time.

It was available for Super Nintendo and Playstation and sold 3.48 million times as stand-alone game worldwide, in addition to 750,000 copies of the Japanese Final Fantasy Collection.

References 

Final Fantasy games
1994 video games
1999 video games
2007 video games
Super Nintendo Entertainment System games
Final Fantasy VIII is a fantasy role-playing video game. It was released for the PlayStation in 1999 and Windows computers in 2000. It was made by Square (now Square Enix). It is the eight title of the Final Fantasy series. It removed magic point-based spell-casting. It was the first title to consistently use realistically proportioned characters. The game became available on PlayStation Network as a PSone Classics title in 2009.

References 

Final Fantasy games
1998 video games
PlayStation games
Final Fantasy X is a fantasy role-playing video game made by Square Enix. It is the 10th game in the Final Fantasy video game series. The game was released in 2001, and is the first Final Fantasy game that was made for the Sony PlayStation 2 video game console.

Other websites 

Official Final Fantasy X website 
Final Fantasy X articles at Wikia

Final Fantasy games
2001 video games
PlayStation 2 games
Final Fantasy X-2 is a fantasy role-playing video game released for the PlayStation 2 in 2003. It was made by Square Enix. It is a direct sequel to the game Final Fantasy X, the first direct sequel in the Final Fantasy series. 

Final Fantasy 10.5
Final Fantasy 10.5
PlayStation 2 games
Final Fantasy XI is an online fantasy role-playing video game. It was made by Square Enix.

Final Fantasy 11
Final Fantasy 11
Massively multiplayer online role-playing games
For use of the ditch as obstacles for horses, see ditch (obstacle)

A ditch is created to channel water and can be described as a small or moderate depression. A ditch can be used for drainage, to drain water from low-lying areas, alongside roadways or fields, or to channel water from a more distant source for plant irrigation. A trench can be defined as a long narrow ditch.

Ditches are commonly seen around farmland, especially in areas that have required drainage, such as The Fens in the UK and the pro-water management The Netherlands.

Roadside ditches can provide a hazard to motorists, especially in poor weather conditions.

Fortification
Fortification 

In military engineering and fortification, a distinction is made between a ditch and a trench. A ditch is a barrier, designed to slow down or break up an attacking force, while a trench is a cover, intended to provide protection to the defenders. In Medieval fortification, a ditch was often constructed in front of a defensive wall. When filled with water, such a defensive ditch is called a moat. Today ditches are of no importance as an obstacle for persons, but are still often used as anti-vehicle obstacles.

Landforms
War
This gallery of flags of Brazilian states shows the flags of the 26 Brazilian States and the federal district.

States of Brazil
Brazil

pt:Anexo:Lista de bandeiras do Brasil#Estaduais
is a Japanese manga and anime series created by CLAMP.

Plot 
The story is mostly about the life of Hideki Motosuwa who did not make it into a university, and so is called a 'ronin', a repeat student. Hideki tries to get into a university by moving from his farm and studying at Seki, a cram school in Tokyo. He is not used to women, but likes to imagine that he is. He wants to have a girlfriend and a 'Persocom'. A Persocom is a kind of robot that looks like a person, but can be used like a computer, phone, and a "partner" in some cases. 

One evening when Hideki is walking home from the grocery store, he finds a unique Persocom on a curb. It is a beautiful young girl with long blonde hair, wrapped in white cloth, lying against a pile of trash bags. He takes the Persocom home. Hideki looks all over the Persocom's body for a switch to turn her on, and finds it between her legs. He turns her on and asks her questions, but all she can say is "chi", so Hideki names her Chi .
Anime 
The anime has 26 episodes and was broadcast across East Asia and Southeast Asia by the anime television network, Animax. Episodes 9, 18, and an extra 27th OVA episode are used as "recap" episodes, looking back on the events that happened previously. The episodes were given different numbers for the DVD release because the original recap episodes were not included as part of the main anime, instead being published together on the final DVD and re-numbered as 8.5, 16.5 and 24.5 making the series only 24 episodes.

There is a 6-minute special episode: "Sumomo and Kotoko on a Quest", or "Chibits", which is about Sumomo and Kotoko.
The series was supervised by Morio Asaka, and Hisashi Abe was the character designer and the animation director. The ending to the anime series is different from the manga. One thing that is different is that there is no allusion to Hideki never having Chi because of where her switch is, and the new part of Freya taking over Chi's body and asking her mother Chitose to shut them down, saying the Chobits series is a failure, and the activation of the program after all, although the effect on Persocons is not the same as in the manga.

References 

Manga
Anime
Brossard is a city near Montreal in the Canadian province of Quebec.  Brossard is also near the Saint Lawrence River.  About 70,000 people live in the city of Brossard.  Paul Leduc is the mayor of Brossard since 2009. Brossard was created on February 14, 1958.

Brossard has a lot of people from different places. For example, there are lots of Chinese people who live in Brossard, more so than in any other city in Quebec.

Cities and towns in Quebec
Master of Puppets is the third album by Metallica. Metallica is an American heavy metal band. The album was released by Elektra Records on March 3, 1986. The album has 8 songs, which many feel made a permanent impact on heavy metal music. Several of its songs are still played on the radio. It is one of the best selling heavy metal albums ever made. Many people think it is also one of the best heavy metal albums ever made.

Before the album came out, Metallica went on tour with Ozzy Osbourne for five months. It is the band's last album with bassist Cliff Burton. This is because Burton died in a bus accident on September 27, 1986 while touring in Sweden for the album. After he died, the band canceled the concerts they were going to play. They went back to the United States to find a new bassist.

Track listing
Track listing

Credits 
 Don Brautigam - Illustrations
 Cliff Burton - Bass, Vocals (background), Lead Bass on "Orion"
 Rob Ellis - Photography
 Ross Halfin - Photography
 Kirk Hammett - Lead Guitar
 James Hetfield - Guitars, Arranger, Vocals
 George Marino - Remastering
 Metallica - Producer, Cover Art Concept
 Flemming Rasmussen - Producer, Engineer
 Lars Ulrich - Arranger, Drums
 Michael Wagener - Mixing

References

Metallica albums
1986 albums
Heavy metal albums
Elektra Records albums
Anton Bruckner (born Ansfelden, Austria, 4 September 1824; died Vienna, 11 October 1896) was an Austrian composer. He is especially famous for his nine symphonies. They are all very long and are written in a late Romantic style for a large orchestra. He was also an organist and teacher.

Life 

Bruckner’s father was an organist and schoolmaster in a small village in Austria. By the age of four Bruckner was showing musical talent. He played hymn tunes on a tiny violin and then found the chords to go with them on the family spinet. When he was ten he sometimes played the village organ for services. After his father’s death in 1837 he became a choirboy at the monastery school of St Florian where, in 1848, he became the organist of the abbey church. He started composing at this time and wrote a Requiem in d minor. He liked the music of Schubert and Mendelssohn and they influenced the way he composed.
Although he was happy at St Florian his friends told him he ought to look for a better job. They made him apply for the job of organist at the cathedral of Linz which he got easily. Meanwhile, he was trying to learn more about harmony and took a course with a famous teacher Simon Sechter. He then took a course in orchestration with the teacher Otto Kitzler. He became very interested in the music of Romantic composers like Liszt, Berlioz and especially Wagner. In 1864 he wrote a Mass in d minor for chorus and orchestra which clearly showed Wagner’s influence. In 1866 he finished the first of his nine symphonies. He also wrote some very beautiful motets which are among the best music of the 19th century written for the Roman Catholic church.

In 1866 he spent three months in a sanatorium after a nervous collapse. During his later years he often suffered from depression.
His music was very modern for its time and some people, including the famous music critic Eduard Hanslick, did not like it. Hanslick said that Bruckner composed like Wagner, but although Bruckner had learned from Wagner he did not simply copy him. Bruckner’s music shows his own strong personality. Hanslick, who preferred the symphonies of Brahms, did Bruckner a lot of harm by writing bad reviews of his music. He was Dean of the Music Department at the university in Vienna and did not want Bruckner to be appointed lecturer at the university. However, Bruckner did get that job in 1875. He became more and more famous, especially after the great conductor Arthur Nikisch conducted the first performance of his Symphony no 7 in the Leipzig Gewandhaus in 1884. He was given many honours. At the time of his death he had not yet finished his Symphony no 9. He was buried in St Florian.

Personality
Personality 

Bruckner always remained a simple person who dressed and behaved like someone from a small village. He never felt very self-confident and was always asking other people whether he was good enough for his job. He never married or had a proper relationship with anyone although he fell in love with several young women.

Music and achievement
Bruckner’s symphonies show a wonderful ability to develop ideas slowly over a long period of time. Some of the slow movements last about 30 minutes. His music builds up in stages to big climaxes in a similar way to organ music. His scherzos (third movements) are tuneful dance movements which often sound like country dances. His music shows great harmonic and polyphonic skills. Bruckner often made revisions (changes) to his music. This often makes a problem for conductors today as they have to decide which version to use. Many musicians think that often Bruckner’s first versions were the best. The revisions were often cuts to make a symphony shorter so that orchestras would be more likely to play it, but the cuts spoil the flow of the music. Nowadays we recognize Bruckner as one of the greatest writers of symphonies as well as a great composer of choral music.

1824 births
1896 deaths
Austrian composers
Austrian organists
People from Upper Austria
Romantic composers
In music a rondo is a piece of music which has one main theme, which is heard several times, and other musical ideas in between each time.  If we give the main theme a label "A" and the other musical ideas "B", "C", "D" etc. then the form of a rondo can be described as ABACADA.  The sections in between the main "A" section are called "episodes".  Rondos can vary in length, e.g. a rondo might be ABACADAEAFA.  Each episode is normally in a different key from the main key.

The word "rondo" is sometimes given the French spelling: rondeau.

Composers from the Baroque period onwards often write movements which are in rondo form.  In the Classical music period the last movement of a symphony or sonata is very often a rondo.  Rondos are normally fast and lively.  They are a good way of finishing a long piece of music with something that is happy.

The word "rondo" is related to the word "ritornello" meaning: something that keeps returning.
Rondo form is sometimes combined with sonata form to make something which is called "sonata rondo form".  In sonata rondo form the second tune is treated like the second subject in sonata form where it comes back in the main key the second time.

Musical forms
A military engineer uses his skills in construction to build many different structures for warfare. These different structures can be made for either offense or defense. Other jobs include building and taking apart minefields and bridges. In some cases an engineer may have to destroy something that he has built before.  This may be to stop the enemy soldiers following them across the river for example. In many armies the military engineers are also called pioneers or sappers.

Today a military engineer that operates during battle is called a combat engineer.

Perhaps the first people who had a special force of military engineering specialists were the Roman army.  Roman military engineering was very good in its time.  They were able to build a double-wall of fortifications that was thirty miles (50 km) long in total (both walls together) to besiege a city in Gaul, in just six weeks.

The design, construction, and destroying of the works shown would be the task of a military engineer.
Related pages
 Fortification

Engineering disciplines
War
In music, a melisma is the technique of singing one syllable to a lot of notes.  They are often called vocal runs or simply runs.  Music which uses melismas can be called melismatic.

In Western music melismas are often used in operas or any other music which is written for the singer to show off the voice.  Melismatic music is the opposite of music where each syllable has its own note.  In the "Alleluia Chorus" from Handel's Messiah each syllable of the word "Alleluya" has its own note.  But in other parts of the Messiah there are often melismas, e.g. in "Thus saith the Lord" the word "shake" ("and I will shake the heavens and the earth") is set to a run of 25 fast notes.  This example can also be described as "word painting".  Handel uses the melisma to make it sound like someone shaking something.

Melismas are used a lot in music from many different cultures.

Musical performance techniques
A spinet is a small kind of harpsichord. In Renaissance and Baroque times, and even later, people often had a spinet in their homes. The advantage of a spinet was that it was cheaper than a harpsichord and it also took up less room.

Sometimes the word used to be spelt differently, e.g. "spinnet" or "spinnit".

The spinet is different from a harpsichord because of the angle of the strings which run at an angle to the right. The whole instrument is a bit like a triangle in shape. The strings are arranged in pairs and the jacks (the quills which pluck the strings) are also in pairs in the wider gaps, plucking the string next to them.

Harpsichords may have several sounds (in the same way that an organ has several stops making different sounds). This is not possible on a spinet, which has one sound only. It is always an 8-foot sound (the notes sound at the normal pitch, never an octave higher). Spinets were useful for accompanying.

Other websites
Other websites

Keyboard instruments
Early musical instruments
Plucked string instruments
United Artists is a Hollywood movie company. The original company was created in 1919 by actors by D. W. Griffith, Charlie Chaplin, Mary Pickford, and Douglas Fairbanks. This group did not want to depend on commercial studios.

Ownership

In 1967, United Artists was bought by Transamerica Corporation. In 1981, Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer and United Artists merged to form MGM/UA Entertainment Co.. In 1985, Turner Broadcasting System announced it would buy MGM/UA. Then in 1986, MGM split from Turner (while keeping MGM's library of pre-May 1986 films, television and cartoons to make way for Turner Entertainment Co.) and renamed to MGM/UA Communications Co.. In 1990, MGM/UA was bought out by Pathé and renamed to MGM-Pathé Communications. In 1992, MGM-Pathé was bought by Crédit Lyonnais and reverted to Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer. In 1997, MGM was sold to Tracinda Corporation. In 2005, MGM/UA formed the new company MGM Holdings.