Aarushhh/wikipedia-simple-splitted huggingface dataset:
Other websites 

 Out Of My Life by Paul von Hindenburg at archive.org
 Date of retirement

1847 births
1934 deaths
Cancer deaths in Germany
German generals
German military personnel of World War I
People from former German territories
People from Poznań
Presidents of Nazi Germany
Presidents of the Weimar Republic
Sharon Rachel Osbourne ( Levy; born 9 October 1952) is a British-American music manager, television personality, and talent show judge. Osbourne first became famous on The Osbournes which was a reality show that showed Osbourne and her family in their daily lives.  

Sharon was born at Westminster Hospital in London, She is youngest child of Don Arden and Hope Shaw, She have a one brother David.  

She has also been a judge on the talent shows The X Factor and America's Got Talent. Her autobiography, Extreme, which Osbourne wrote about her life, was very successful and has sold 2 million copies.

She has recovered from colorectal cancer. She is married to the rock singer Ozzy Osbourne and she has three children with him named Kelly Osbourne, Jack Osbourne and Aimee Osbourne.

References

Other websites
Sharon Osbourne  at itv.com/xfactor
Sharon Osbourne Website
Sharon Osbourne biography at mtv.com
The Osbournes at mtv.com

British autobiographers
Television personalities from London
1952 births
Living people
Full moon, the phase of the moon
Full Moon (band), a late '70s/early '80s hard rock band
Full Moon (album), a 2002 album by Brandy Norwood which also includes a song of the same name:
Full Moon (song)
FullMoon, the 4th Sonata Arctica demo under the name Tricky Means.
Full Moon (manga), (also known as Full Moon o Sagashite), a manga and anime series by Arina Tanemura
A Full Moon Consort, a band from St. Louis
Full Moon, Dirty Hearts, an album by INXS
Full Moon and Empty Arms, a popular song from 1945
Full Moon Features, a movie company best known for the Puppet Master series
Full Moon Fever
Full Moon High, a 1981 horror comedy film
Full Moon (Kris Kristofferson album)
Full Moon (Charlie Daniels album)
Fullmoon Maple
Full Moon (novel), a 1947 novel about Blandings Castle by P. G. Wodehouse
Full Moon Party, a party in Thailand
Full Moon (play), a play by Reynolds Price
Full Moon Productions, a black/death metal record label
Full Moon Records, an American record label
"Full Moon (short story)", a 1948 story by Georgette Heyer
Mekhong Full Moon Party, a 2002 movie from Thailand
Paschal Full Moon
Until the Full Moon, a manga featuring a half-werewolf/half-vampire
Summertime means a time in Summer, one of the temperate seasons, and it could also mean:  

In music:
 "Summertime" (song), a popular song by George Gershwin from the 1935 opera Porgy and Bess
 "Summertime" (Beyoncé song)
 "Summertime" (DJ Jazzy Jeff and the Fresh Prince song)
 "Summertime" (Kenny Chesney song)
 "Summertime", a song by Diana Ross from her 1987 album Red Hot Rhythm & Blues
 "Summertime", a 1998 single by SKAMP
 "Summer Time", a song by The Pretty Things from the 2000 reissue of their 1970 album Parachute
 "Summertime", a song by Bon Jovi from their 2007 album Lost Highway
 Summertime EP, an EP by The Subways
 Summertime (Joe Locke & Geoffrey Keezer Quartet album)
 Summertime (Herb Alpert & the Tijuana Brass album), a 1971 album by Herb Alpert & the Tijuana Brass
In movie, television, and theatre:
 Summertime (movie), a 1955 movie starring Katharine Hepburn
 L'Heure D'été (movie) (English: Summertime), a 2007 French movie starring Juliette Binoche
 Summertime (TV), a 1997 Irish television movie short
 Summertime (cartoon), a 1934 cartoon by Ub Iwerks, featured on an episode of Pee-wee's Playhouse
 Summertime, a play by Ugo Betti

In timekeeping:
 Summer Time, advancing the clock one hour during summer, in American English known as daylight saving time
Listen could mean:
Listen Media Player
A listen server, a type of game server
Project LISTEN, developing speech recognition reading tutorial software

In music

Albums
 Listen (album) - by A Flock of Seagulls, 1983
 Listen (Jordan Rudess album) - by Jordan Rudess, 1993
 Listen  - by Michelle Tumes, 1998
 Listen: The Very Best Of - by Herbs, 2002
 Listen (TQ album) - by Terrance Quaites, 2004
 Listen (C21 album) - by C21, 2004
 Listen... - by Monkey Gone Mad, 2005

Songs
 Listen (song) - by Beyoncé, 2006 
 Listen!!! - by Talib Kweli, 2006
Denton True "Cy" Young (March 29, 1867 – November 4, 1955) was an American baseball player. He was a pitcher for five different professional baseball teams from 1890 to 1911. He set many pitching records during his 22-year career in Major League Baseball (MLB), some of which have stood for 100 years. When Young retired from baseball, he had won a total of 511 games in his career, the most in MLB history and 94 more wins than Walter Johnson, who is second on the list.

In 1956, the MLB created the Cy Young Award. The award is given each year to the pitcher who is voted the most effective in each of the two leagues. Young was voted into the Baseball Hall of Fame in 1939. During his professional career, Young won 30 or more games in a season five times, with ten other seasons of 20+ wins. He also pitched three no-hitters, including the first perfect game of baseball's "modern era."
In addition to wins, Young holds the MLB records for most career innings pitched (7,355), most career games started (815), and most complete games (749). He also retired with 316 losses, the most in MLB history (the only other pitcher with more than 300 career losses was Pud Galvin). Young also had 76 career shutouts, the fourth most in history.

In 1999, 88 years after his final Major League appearance and 44 years after his death, editors at The Sporting News ranked Cy Young 14th on their list of "Baseball's 100 Greatest Players". That same year, baseball fans named Young to the Major League Baseball All-Century Team.

Early life
Young was born in Gilmore, Ohio, a farming community in eastern Ohio. Young went by the name "Dent Young" in his early years.
He was raised on a farm and was sometimes called "Farmer Young" and "Farmboy Young". Young stopped going to school after he finished 6th grade.

Professional career
Young began his professional career in 1889 with the Canton, Ohio team of the Tri-State League, a professional minor league. The catcher who warmed up Young gave him the nickname "Cyclone" because of the speed of his fastball. Reporters then shortened the name to "Cy". "Cy" became the nickname which he used the rest of his life.

In 1890, Young signed for $500 with the Cleveland Spiders, which had moved up from the American Association to the National League the previous year.

Two years later, the National League moved the pitcher's mound from  away from the home plate (where it had been since 1881) to . In the book The Neyer/James Guide to Pitchers, sports journalist Rob Neyer wrote that the reason for the move was that pitchers like Cy Young, Amos Rusie, and Jouett Meekin threw too fast at the shorter distance.
On September 18, 1897, Young pitched the first no-hitter of his career in a game against the Cincinnati Reds.  Although Young did not walk a batter, the Spiders committed four errors while on defense.

Before the 1899 season, Frank Robison, the owner of the Spiders, bought the St. Louis Browns, thus owning two clubs at the same time. Just weeks before the start of the season, most of the better Spiders players were transferred to St. Louis, including three future Hall of Famers: Young, Jesse Burkett and Bobby Wallace.  Despite the changes in the team members, St. Louis finished fifth in both 1899 and 1900. The Spiders lost 134 games, the most in MLB history, before folding.

In 1901, Young left St. Louis and joined the American League's Boston Americans for a $3,500 contract.  Young stayed with the Boston team until 1909.
Young was traded back to Cleveland before the 1909 season, this time to the Cleveland Naps of the American League.  He split 1911, his final year, between the Naps and the Boston Rustlers.

On September 22, 1911, Young shut out the Pittsburgh Pirates and their pitcher Babe Adams 1-0, for his last career win. However, two weeks later, Young's 906th and final game ended badly: the last eight batters of Young's career combined to hit a triple, four singles and three doubles.

Young's legacy

Young retired after the 1911 season with 511 career wins.  His win total set the record for most career wins by a pitcher.  At the time, Pud Galvin had the second most career wins with 364.  Walter Johnson, then in his fourth season, finished his career with 417 wins and is now second on the list.  However, Johnson broke Young's career record for strikeouts.
Cy Young's career is seen as a bridge from baseball's earliest days to its modern era. When Young's career began, pitchers delivered the baseball underhand and fouls were not counted as strikes. The pitcher's mound was not moved back to its present position of 60 feet, six inches until Young's fourth season. He did not wear a glove until his sixth.

Particularly after his fastball slowed, Young's success relied upon his great control.  Young said:
"Some may have thought it was essential to know how to curve a ball before anything else.  Experience, to my mind, teaches to the contrary.  Any young player who has good control will become a successful curve pitcher long before the pitcher who is endeavoring to master both curves and control at the same time.  The curve is merely an accessory to control."
By habit, Young restricted his practice throws in spring training.  "I figured the old arm had just so many throws in it," said Young, "and there wasn't any use wasting them."  Young once described his approach before a game:
"I never warmed up ten, fifteen minutes before a game like most pitchers do. I'd loosen up, three, four minutes.  Five at the outside. And I never went to the bullpen. Oh, I'd relieve all right, plenty of times, but I went right from the bench to the box, and I'd take a few warm-up pitches and be ready. Then I had good control. I aimed to make the batter hit the ball, and I threw as few pitches as possible. That's why I was able to work every other day."

Young also said that his offseason farming chores, including wood chopping, kept his pitching arm in good shape until he was 44. Even at the time of his retirement, his arm was healthy, but Young had gained weight and was unable to field his position anymore.  In three of his last four years, he was the oldest player in the league.
The first Cy Young Award was voted on in 1956, and was given to Brooklyn's Don Newcombe.  Originally, it was a single award covering the whole of baseball.  The honor was divided into two Cy Young Awards in 1967, one for each league.

Young was saluted in the poem "Lineup for Yesterday" by Ogden Nash:
Y is for Young, 
The magnificent Cy; 
People batted against him, 
But I never knew why.

References

Other websites

 cmgworldwide.com  official homepage
 BaseballEvolution.com Profile Page at Baseball Evolution

1867 births
1955 deaths
Boston Red Sox players
St. Louis Cardinals players
19th-century American baseball players
National Baseball Hall of Fame members
Sportspeople from Ohio
Atlanta Braves players
Boston Red Sox managers
Cleveland Indians players
The Arabic alphabet is an abjad that is used to write several languages of the Middle East such as Arabic, Persian, Pashto and Urdu. The script is the third most widely used script in the world, after the Latin and Chinese scripts.

Overview 
The script is written from right to left. When it is used to write the Arabic language, the script has 29 different characters, including  (). Usually only consonants are written in an abjad. Vowels are omitted most of the time. The Arabic script is a cursive script. This means that letters of a word are joined together, both in handwriting and in print. Each letter can have up to four different forms. Which of the forms is used depends on the letters before and after it. There is no different form for uppercase letters and lowercase letters.
There are two basic modern variants of the Arabic script. One is called Naskh, it is the one commonly used for printing. The most common script in everyday life is called Kufic, after the city Kufa, in Iraq, where it was developed. There are several variants of both scripts.

Numbers 
The alphabet can also be used to write numbers, which was common in the Middle Ages. They are less used today and usually replaced by Latin-alphabet (Arabic) numbers. 

When the alphabet is used to write numbers,  is 0,  () is 1,  () is 2,  () is 3 and so on.  That is sometimes used to produce chronograms in which specific letters, interpreted as numerals, stand for a particular date when they are rearranged.
Sort order 
For dictionaries, it is necessary to put the letters into a predetermined sequence, which is usually called sort order, or alphabetical order. The Arabic script has two sort orders: The one, abjid, derives from the position of the letters in the Phoenician alphabet. The other, hijā, sorts letters by similarity of shape.

History 
As Islam spread throughout the Middle East, North Africa, and Asia, Arabic spread along with it. Islam requires its followers to learn Arabic because it states that Gabriel (Jibril) spoke the words of Allah to Muhammad in Arabic. The language is used for Muslim rituals such as prayer and the reciting of Quranic verses. As Arabic spread, the Quran's script also spread. It replaced the Pahlavi writing system as Islam conquered Persia.

Another alphabet, the Uighur alphabet, was based on the shapes of Arabic letters. However, the Uighur alphabet always has vowel letters, unlike in Arabic.
After  the Dissolution of the Soviet Union, none of the Central Asian nations returned to using the Arabic alphabet. They either kept using the Cyrillic, like Kazakhstan and Kyrgyzstan, or adopted a new Latin alphabet, like Azerbaijan. Only Tajikistan is considering switching back to using the Arabic alphabet. Tajik was once a dialect of Persian.

In Southeast Asia, Malaysia, Indonesia, Singapore, and Brunei have adopted for Malay the Latin alphabet, which is called Rumi in Malay. The British and Dutch colonialists introduced the Latin alphabet. The Arabic alphabet (Jawi in Malay) is still used in Malaysia but much less than Rumi. Brunei is the only Southeast Asian country in which both the Latin and Arabic alphabets are co-official.

Related pages
History of the alphabet

References

Alphabets
Alphabet
The Brandenburg Gate () is a structure in Berlin, Germany. It is the only remaining gate through which people used to enter Berlin. It was built between 1788 and 1791. It is located between the Platz des 18. März and the Pariser Platz. Nearby to the north is the Reichstag building. During the Cold War, the Reichstag was in West Berlin, and the Brandenburger Tor in East Berlin.

The Brandenburg Gate has twelve columns, six on the entrance side and six on the exit. The columns form five roadways, citizens originally were allowed to use only the outer two. This is rather like Admiralty Arch in London, the central roadway is reserved so that royal and important traffic is not delayed. On top of the gate is the Quadriga. This is Viktoria, the goddess of victory driving a Quadriga, a type of horse-drawn chariot.
After 1806, when Prussia was defeated at the Battle of Jena-Auerstedt, Napoleon stole the Quadriga and took it to Paris. When Napoleon was beaten in 1814 Prussian General Ernst von Pfuel occupied Pais and took the Quadriga back to Berlin, the olive wreath was changed to an Iron Cross. The Goddess Viktoria became Nike, goddess of victory.

When the Nazis came to power, they used the Gate as their symbol. The Gate was damaged but not destroyed during World War II. The governments of East Berlin and West Berlin restored it but it was closed when the Berlin Wall was built in 1961. The gate was in the middle of the death strip.

In 1963, U.S. President John F. Kennedy visited the Brandenburg Gate. The Soviets hung large banners across it to prevent him from looking into the East. In the 1980s West Berlin mayor Richard von Weizsäcker said: 

In 1987, U.S. President Ronald Reagan gave his famous speech "Tear down this wall!" outside of the gate.

Von Weizsäcker was the President of Germany at the reunification.
The Gate then symbolized the freedom to unite the City of Berlin. On the 22nd of December 1989, the Brandenburg Gate re-opened when Helmut Kohl, the West German Chancellor, walked through to be greeted by Hans Modrow, the East German Prime Minister.

On December 21, 2000, the Brandenburg Gate was privately refurbished at a cost of US$3 million.

Photo gallery

References

Other websites 

 Brandenburg Gate Website
 Street map of the Brandenburg Gate's location – GlobalGuide
 Brandenburg Gate described in its historic context 
 Panorama Brandenburg Gate - Panoramic view from the Pariser Platz
 Webcam: Live-View of the Street "Unter den Linden" with Brandenburg Gate in Berlin, Germany
 Germany, Berlin, Brandenburger Tor Virtual tour with map and compass effect by Tolomeus
 Panorama Brandenburg Gate 1945 - Panoramic view into the past, 60 years after WWII

Buildings and structures in Berlin
Monuments and memorials in Germany
Landmarks in Germany
Berlin Wall
Gates
18th-century buildings and structures
The languages of the Caucasus are languages spoken by more than ten million people in the Caucasus region of Eastern Europe and Western Asia, between the Black Sea and the Caspian Sea.

Some of those language families have no known members outside the Caucasus area. The term Caucasian languages can mean only these families or all languages historically spoken in that area.

Other websites 

 Comparative Notes on Hurro-Urartian, Northern Caucasian and Indo-European by V. V. Ivanov
 An overview of languages of the Caucasus
Lake Urmia () is a salt lake in northwest of Iran. It is in the provinces of East Azarbaijan and West Azarbaijan, and is southwest of the close shaped Caspian Sea. It was the largest lake inside Iran, and the second biggest salt lake of the world. It was the largest lake in the Middle East.

The location of Lake Urmia is at . It has a surface area of about 5,200 km² (2,000 mile²). At its biggest extent, it is about 140 km (87 miles) long, and 55 km (34 miles) wide. Its deepest point is approximately 16 m (52 ft) deep. It receives water from thirteen rivers coming from the near mountains, and it has no output.
Lake Urmia lies between West Azarbaijan and East Azarbaijan provinces. Tabriz is the biggest city to its east, and Urmia is the biggest city to its west. The shortest way between these cities is to go round the lake. In 1970s a project was started to create a bridge across the lake. This project was canceled when Islamic Revolution happened in 1979. However, the project was started again in 2000s; it is planned to be finished by the end of 2007.

The lake has a very salty water. The concentration of salt is different in each season of the year; it may be 26-28% in the late Autumn.

Lake Urmia is getting smaller and smaller each year. This is because the rivers which bring water to it have become smaller.
History 
This lake was historically named Chaychast (Persian: چیچست). Later, it was named Urmia by the Assyrian people. The word Urmia consists of two parts: ur means city and mia means water. Urmia was the name given to the city of Urmia, which is near this lake. The lake was then named Lake Urmia, after the name given to the city. In the early years of the 20th century, it was named Rezaiyeh Lake after the name of Reza Pahlavi, the king of Iran. After the Islamic Revolution, its name was changed back to Urmia Lake.

Life near Lake Urmia 
Different creatures live inside or near this lake, including some species of shrimps, amphibians and birds like flamingos and pelicans.

Urmia Lake has shallow borders with lots of mud. Different creatures live inside the mud, including frogs, snails and worms. The mud is said to have good effects in treatment of some diseases of the joints.

Islands 
Lake Urmia has 102 islands. Their names are as follows :
Aram, Arash, Ardeshir, Arezu, Ashk, Ashk-Sar, Ashku, Atash, Azar, Azin, Bahram, Bard, Bardak, Bardin, Bastvar, Bon, Bon-Ashk, Borz, Borzin, Borzu, Chak-Tappeh, Cheshmeh-Kenar, Dey, Espir, Espirak, Espiro, Garivak, Giv, Golgun, Gordeh, Gorz, Iran-Nezhad, Jodarreh, Jovin, Jowzar, Kabudan, Kafchehnok, Kakayi-e Bala, Kakayi-ye Miyaneh, Kakayi-e Pain, Kalsang, Kam, Kaman, Kameh, Kariveh, Karkas, Kaveh, Kazem-Dashi, Kenarak, Khersak, Kuchek-Tappeh, Magh, Mahdis, Mahvar, Markid, Mehr, Mehran, Mehrdad, Meshkin, Meydan, Miyaneh, Nadid, Nahan, Nahid, Nahoft, Nakhoda, Navi, Naviyan, Omid, Panah, Penhan, Pishva, Sahran, Samani, Sangan, Sangu, Sarijeh, Sepid, Shabdiz, Shahi (Eslami), Shahin, Shamshiran, Shur-Tappeh, Shush-Tappeh, Siyavash, Siyah-Sang, Siyah-Tappeh, Sorkh, Sorush, Tak, Takht, Takhtan, Tanjeh, Tanjak, Tashbal, Tir, Tus, Zagh, Zar-Kaman, Zarkanak, Zar-Tappeh, Zirabeh.

Footnotes 
 For the Persian writing of these names please follow this link to Persian Wikipedia.

Related pages
 Caspian Sea

References
References

Other websites 
 Profile at UNESCO Biosphere Reserve Directory 

West Azerbaijan Province
Lakes of Asia
Biosphere reserves
Giuseppe Piazzi (July 7, 1746 – July 22, 1826) was an Italian astronomer who was famous for discovering the asteroid, now dwarf planet Ceres.

Italian astronomers

1746 births
1826 deaths
The state worship of Vesta was much more elaborate. Her sanctuary was traditionally a circular building, in imitation of the early Italian round hut and symbolic of the public hearth. The Temple of Vesta in the Roman Forum was of great antiquity and underwent many restorations and rebuildings in both republican and imperial times. There burned the perpetual fire of the public hearth attended by the Vestal Virgins. This fire was officially extinguished and renewed annually on March 1 (originally the Roman new year), and its extinction at any other time, either accidentally or not, was regarded as a portent of disaster to Rome.(2)

The asteroid 4 Vesta is named for her.

Other websites 

Roman gods and goddesses
Virgin goddesses

References(sorry...on my cell, someone else will have to tidy up....
For (1) & (2) Britannica.com
Heinrich Wilhelm Matthäus Olbers (October 11, 1758–March 2, 1840) was a German astronomer, physician and physicist.

References 
 
 

1758 births
1840 deaths
German astronomers
German physicists
Gnathostomata is the group of vertebrates with jaws.

The group was meant to include all jawed fish, but in modern fashion it also includes all the tetrapods as well, since they evolved from jawed fish. It is the sister group of the Agnatha, the jawless vertebrates.

The Gnathostomata first appeared in the Ordovician period and became diverse in the Devonian period, the 'Age of Fishes'. Land vertebrates appeared in the Carboniferous period.

Subgroups 
Chondrichthyes cartilaginous fish
Acanthodii† 'spiny sharks'
Placoderms† armoured fish
Osteichthyes bony fish
Actinopterygii ray-finned fish
Sarcopterygii lobe-finned fish and land vertebrates (tetrapods)

Vertebrates
The Niger River  is the main river of western Africa. It is over 4180 km (2500 miles) long. 

The river has a crescent shape and it goes through Guinea, Mali, Niger, on the border with Benin and then through Nigeria. Finally, it reaches the sea at a large delta, called the Niger Delta. This part of the Atlantic Ocean is called the Gulf of Guinea. The Niger is the third-longest river in Africa. Only the Nile and the Congo are longer. Its main tributary is the Benue River.

Etymology 
No-one knows the origin of the name Niger. Many people think that it comes from the Latin word for "black", niger, but there is no evidence for this, and Portuguese explorers would probably have used their own word (negro) on their maps. Also, the Niger is not a blackwater river (see Rio Negro). Some people think that 'black' may mean the color of the people in this area, but this did not happen with any other river in Africa.
Therefore, most people think the name is from the original people of the area in the middle of the river where early European maps used the name "Quorra". One possibility is the Tuareg phrase gher n gheren "river of rivers", shortened to ngher or "niger", from the middle of the river near Timbuktu.

The Tabula Peutingeriana says "Flumen Girin" (River Girin) and "Hoc flumen quidam Grin vocant, alii Nilum appellant dicint enim sub terra Etyopium in Nilum ire Lacum.", which means "This river which some are naming Grin is called Nile by others and is thought to flow under the ground of Ethiopia (i.e. modern Africa) into the Nile Lake."
Nigeria and Niger take their names from the river. The people who live beside the river have many names for it, such as Jeliba or Joliba ("great river" in Manding), Isa Ber ("big river" in Songhay), Oya, (a Yoruba River Niger goddess), and Kworra or Quorra. The last name was the name that Europeans used for the lower part of the river before they knew that the upper and lower parts were connected.

Geography 
The Niger River is quite a clear river. It has only 10% as much sediment as the Nile because the Niger's source is in very old rocks that have little silt. Like the Nile, the Niger River has a flood every year; this starts in September, becomes strongest in November, and finishes by May.

An unusual feature of the river is the Niger Inland Delta. This forms where the river suddenly becomes less steep. This makes a region of connected streams, marshes, and lakes over an amount of land the same size as Belgium. The yearly floods make the delta very good for fishing and farming.
Ancient Romans thought that the river near Timbuktu was part of the Nile River and Ibn Battuta had the same opinion. Early 17th-century European explorers thought that it flowed west and joined the Sénégal River. Many local people probably knew the real route, but Europeans only knew it in the late 19th century, when it was mentioned in the book Travels in the Interior of Africa by the Scottish explorer Mungo Park. This unusual route happened because the Niger River is two ancient rivers which are joined together. The upper Niger, from the source, past Timbuktu, to the bend in the river, used to empty into a lake, but the lake has now gone. However, the lower Niger started in hills near the lake and flowed south into the Gulf of Guinea. The Sahara Desert dried up in 4000-1000 BC, and the two rivers changed their routes and they joined (some people disagree, but most people think this is true).
The northern part of the river, which is called the Niger bend, is important because it is the Sahara Desert's closest big river. Therefore, trade across the west of the Sahara came here, and it became the center of the Sahelian kingdoms of Mali and Gao.

References

Further reading

Other websites

Pictures 
 Pictures of the Niger River  in Mali
 Information and a map of the Niger's watershed 
 Map of the Niger River basin at Water Resources eAtlas 
 Niger Currents: Exploring life and technology along the Niger River

International law and the River Niger 
 Bibliography on Water Resources and International Law  See Niger River. Peace Palace Libray
 Fabio Spadi, "The ICJ Judgment in the Benin-Niger Border Dispute: the interplay of titles and ‘effectivités’ under the uti possidetis juris principle", Leiden Journal of International Law (2005) 4, pp. 777–794.

Rivers of Africa
Geography of Niger
Geography of Benin
Rivers of Nigeria
Geography of Guinea
Geography of Mali
The flag of Mali has three equal vertical stripes.  Starting from the flagpole, the colours are green, gold, and red, which are the pan-African colours.

The flag became official on March 1, 1961.  The original flag became official on April 4, 1959, when Mali joined the Mali Federation.  This flag was the same, but the golden stripe had a human "stick figure", called a kanaga, in black, with its arms pointing to the sky.  The figure was removed because of an Islamic belief against making pictures of humans.  (Mali is about 90% Muslim.)

Mali
National symbols of Mali
On 20 October, 1973, the coat of arms of the Republic of Mali was made. The motto of the Republic of Mali is "Un Peuple, Un But, Une Foi" (One People, One Goal, One Faith).

The coat of arms of the Republic of Mali is a circle. There is a light blue background:
 in the middle, the Mosque of Djenné, in gold
 above the mosque, a flying vulture, in gold
 below, the rising sun, in gold
 in front of the sun, two bows bent by their arrow, in white
 in the surround, the writings "République du Mali" above and "Un Peuple, Un But, Une Foi" below, in black capital letters.
Mali
National symbols of Mali
"Pour l'Afrique et pour toi" (French: For Africa and for you, Mali) is the national song of Mali. Seydou Badian Kouyate wrote the words and Banzoumana Sissoko wrote the music. It became Mali's national song in 1962 and it is a normal song of love of the country. It is about how the people of Mali would sacrifice their lives for their nation and for freedom. A common theme in the song is wanting to unite Africa. The chorus is written below:

Lyrics

References

1962 works
National symbols of Mali
African anthems
This is a list of heads of state of Mali since the country gained independence from France in 1960 to the present day.

A total of six people have served as head of state of Mali (not counting one Acting President). Additionally, one person, Amadou Toumani Touré, has served on two non-consecutive occasions.

The interim president is Assimi Goïta.

List

References

Mali
heads of state
This is a list of prime ministers of Mali since the country gained independence from France in 1960 to the present day.

List of officeholders

Related pages
Heads of state of Mali

References

PM
Mali
French Sudan (Fr.: Soudan) was a colony in French West Africa in actual Mali.

Existence 
It existed at two separate times. The first time was from 1890 to 1899, and the second was from 1920 to 1960. In 1960 it became the independent nation of Mali.

Beginning 
It was created as a French territory on September 9, 1880 and its name was "Upper Senegal".

Name 
The name changed to the "French Sudan Territory" on August 18, 1890, and its capital was Kayes. On October 10, 1899, French Sudan was broken into pieces: 11 southern provinces became part of French Guinea, Côte d'Ivoire and Dahomey. However, two provinces were returned in 1900.

History 
In 1902 the parts of the colony which were not organised into military districts became Senegambia and Niger, then the name changed to Upper Senegal and Niger in 1904. Finally, the old name of French Sudan returned in a reorganisation in 1920.

In 1933, Upper Volta stopped existing (It began again in 1947.) and French Sudan gained some of its provinces.
Independence 
After the October 4, 1958 French vote about the constitution, the "République Soudanaise" joined the French Community, again with the name French Sudan, and it gained complete domestic control on 25 November, 1958.

On April 4, 1959, French Sudan was joined with Senegal to form the Mali Federation. This became fully independent but still inside the French Community on June 20, 1960. This union finished on August 20, 1960, when Senegal left. On 22 September, French Sudan changed its name to the Republic of Mali and left the French Community.

History of Mali
French colonial empire
Former colonies in Africa
Cunnilingus is when a man or another woman has oral sex with a woman. He (or she) licks her sex organs with his (or her) lips and tongue. The word comes from a Latin word for the vulva (cunnus) and from the Latin word for tongue (lingua).

The clitoris is the main part of the woman's sex organs that brings the most feeling. Often, a woman reaches an orgasm during cunnilingus.

In the past, some thought cunnilingus to be taboo (bad). People in some countries still think of it as taboo. However, many people in western and other cultures have oral sex.

References 

Sexual acts
The Agnatha is a superclass of fish. It is paraphyletic. This means it is a convenient catch-all term, which does not follow the rules of cladistics. 

For example, most extinct agnathans belong to the stem group (ancestral group) of gnathostomes. But according to the rules, one sister group should not contain ancestors of another sister group. 

The living Agnatha (lampreys and hagfish) are known as cyclostomes. Recent molecular data from rRNA, and from mtDNA, show that these living agnathans  are monophyletic. There are about 100 species. Hagfish are vertebrates but do not have vertebrae. It is believed that they lost their vertebrae during their lifestyle adaptations.

The lifestyle of the lamprey (an ectoparasite on other fish) and hagfish (a scavenger) means that they are not typical of the fossil groups, which were free-swimming and often armoured.
Classification 
 Agnatha: the jawless fish. Cambrian to present day.
 †Pteraspids: the head-shields
 Anaspids: gills opened as holes. Silurian to end-Devonian.
 †Cephalaspids: early jawless fish
 Cyclostomes: Lampreys and Hagfish
 †Osteostraci: bony-armoured jawless fish.

Characteristics

Anatomy 
Agnathans do not have jaws, and have a cartilaginous skeleton. There is a notochord in both larvae and adults. They do not have  paired fins. They have seven or more paired gill pouches.

Agnatha have no identifiable stomach and are cold-blooded. The heart is simple, with two chambers.

Physiology 
There is a light-sensitive pineal eye. Fertilization and development of young are both outside the body, and there is no parental care.

Fossil agnathans 
The oldest fossil agnathans are found in Cambrian deposits.
Many Ordovician, Silurian, and Devonian agnathans were armoured with heavy bony-spiky plates. The first armoured agnathans were the Ostracoderms ("shell-skinned"). By the upper Silurian the agnathans had reached the high point of their evolution. They declined in the Devonian and never recovered.

References
Henry Cavendish FRS (10 October 1731-24 February 1810) was a British scientist. He is famous for discovering hydrogen. Cavendish measured the Earth's mass, density and gravitational constant with the Cavendish experiment.  He studied at Peterhouse, which is part of the University of Cambridge, but he left without graduating.

He built a laboratory in his father's house in London, where he worked for nearly fifty years, but he only published about 20 scientific papers. Even so, he is regarded as one of the greatest scientists of his time.
Cavendish claimed that the force between the two electrical objects gets smaller as they get further apart. If the distance between them doubled, the force would be one quarter what it was before.  This was the basis of the inverse-square law. He explained the concept of electric potential, which he called "the degree of electrification". He developed the thought of all points on a good conductor's surface have the same potential energy beside a common reference point. Having no way to measure electric current, he used his body as a machine which measures strength of electric current. All Cavendish's explorations in his notebook was found and confirmed by James Clerk Maxwell.

Cavendish’s electrical papers from the Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society of London have been reprinted, together with most of his electrical manuscripts, in The Scientific Papers of the Honourable Henry Cavendish, F.R.S. (1921).

References 

1731 births
1810 deaths

English physicists
English chemists
In music, ornaments are notes which are added to the main notes of a piece of music in order to make it more interesting.  There are several types of ornaments, including trills and slides.  Music of the Renaissance and Baroque periods have lots of ornaments.  The composer usually shows what ornaments are needed by little signs written above the notes.  In some pieces, especially in slow movements, the composers often did not show the ornaments that are needed: they expected the performers to put them in themselves.  Understanding the correct way of ornamenting music used to be a very important part of the art of singing or playing a musical instrument.
The correct way of ornamenting music varied a lot from one country to another and from one century to another.  Ideas about how music should be performed kept changing.  It is important for musicians today, who want to play music from these older periods, to know as much as possible about historical musical styles.  Sometimes we have to make guesses about what a composer might have wanted.  Fortunately several composers and music theorists wrote books about how to play ornaments.  This enables us to understand the different performing styles.  Sometimes composers wrote a preface (introduction) in their music to explain to the performer how to play the ornaments they had written.

There are different kinds of ornaments.  A “grace note” is a note written in smaller print, to show that its note value (how long it lasts) does not count as part of the total time value of the measure.
In Spain, these ornaments were called "diferenzias".  They were used as  early as the 16th century, when the first books with music for the guitar were produced.  In French music they were called "agréments".

Ornaments were still written in music from the Classical music period although they are gradually used less and less as composers started to write precisely all the notes that were to be played.  By the Romantic period they were hardly being used except for “tr” meaning “trill”.

Types of Baroque/Classical ornaments

Trill
A trill is a quick alternation between the main note and the note above it.  It was also known as a shake.  Usually, if the music was written before 1800 the trill is played by starting a note above the written note. If the music was written after 1800 then the trill is usually played by starting on the note written and going up to the note above.  This was not, of course, a firm rule: changes in performance style happened gradually.
Sometimes the trill ends with a turn (the note above, the main note, the note below, the main note).

The trill is shown in musical notation by either a  or a ~~, with the ~ representing the length of the trill, above the staff.

Mordent
The mordent is like a very short trill, usually just the main note, the note above, and the main note again.  If the middle note is the note below, this is called an “inverted mordent” or “lower mordent”. 

The upper mordent is indicated by a short squiggle (which may also indicate a trill); the lower mordent is the same with a short vertical line through it:

As with the trill, the exact speed with which the mordent is played will depend on the speed of the piece, but at a moderate speed the above might be played like this:

Turn 
A short figure consisting of the note above the one indicated, the note itself, the note below the one indicated, and the note itself again. It is marked by a mirrored S-shape lying on its side above the staff.
The lower added note may or may not be chromatically raised (turn into a sharp)

An inverted turn (the note below the one indicated, the note itself, the note above it, and the note itself again) is usually indicated by putting a short vertical line through the normal turn sign, though sometimes the sign itself is turned upside down.

Appoggiatura 

An Appoggiatura literally means a “leaning note”.  The word comes from the Italian word appoggiare, "to lean upon".  It is a note which wants to fall down to the next one which is part of the harmony.   Composers often wrote an appoggiatura in small print.  This usually means it must be played by taking half the time value of the next note (for example: an appoggiatura in front of a quaver (eighth note) turns both notes into two semiquavers (sixteenth notes).  During the 18th century composers stopped writing them in small print and just wrote them as normal notes.
Acciaccatura 
An acciaccatura is a note which is played as fast as possible.  It means a “crushed note” (in Italian acciaccare means "to crush").  It is normally written in small print but with a slash through it to show that it is not an appoggiatura.  Most performers play acciaccaturas exactly on the beat, but sometimes it is better to play it just before the beat so that the main note is exactly on time on the beat.

 Musical notation
Musical performance techniques
The endocrine system includes those organs of the body which produce hormones.
It helps to regulate metabolism, growth and development, tissue function, and plays a part also in mood.
The field of medicine that deals with disorders of endocrine glands is endocrinology.

In physiology, the endocrine system is a system of glands, each of which secretes a type of hormone directly into the bloodstream to regulate the body.

The endocrine system is in contrast to the exocrine system, which secretes its chemicals using ducts. The endocrine system is an information signal system like the nervous system, yet its effects and mechanism are different.

The endocrine system's effects are slow to start, and long-lasting in their response. The nervous system sends information quickly, and responses are generally short lived. Hormones are complex chemicals released from endocrine tissue into the bloodstream where they travel to target tissues and trigger a response.
Features of endocrine glands are, in general, they have no ducts, they have a good blood supply, and usually they have vacuoles or granules inside their cells, storing their hormones.

Endocrine glands and the hormones they secrete

Central nervous system
Hypothalamus produces
 Thyrotropin-releasing hormone (TRH) Parvocellular neurosecretory neurons
 Gonadotropin-releasing hormone (GnRH)  Neuroendocine cells of the Preoptic area
 Growth hormone-releasing hormone (GHRH)  Neuroendocrine neurons of the Arcuate nucleus
 Corticotropin-releasing hormone (CRH)  Parvocellular neurosecretory neurons
 Vasopressin Parvocellular neurosecretory neurons
 Somatostatin (SS; also GHIH, growth hormone-inhibiting hormone) Neuroendocrince cells of the Periventricular nucleus
 Prolactin inhibiting hormone or PIH or Dopamine (DA) Dopamine neurons of the arcuate nucleus
 Prolactin releasing hormone
 Pineal body produces
 Melatonin (mainly)  Pinealocytes
 Pituitary gland (hypophysis) produces
 Anterior pituitary lobe (adenohypophysis)
 Growth hormone (GH) Somatotropes
 Prolactin (PRL) Lactotropes 
 Adrenocorticotropic hormone (ACTH, corticotropin) Corticotropes
 Lipotropin Corticotropes
 Thyroid-stimulating hormone (TSH, thyrotropin) Thyrotropes
Follicle-stimulating hormone (FSH) Gonadotropes  
 Luteinizing hormone (LH)  Gonadotropes
 Posterior pituitary lobe (neurohypophysis)
 Oxytocin Magnocellular neurosecretory cells
 Vasopressin (AVP; also ADH, antidiuretic hormone) Magnocellular neurosecretory cells
 Intermediate pituitary lobe (pars intermedia)
 Melanocyte-stimulating hormone (MSH) Melanotroph
Thyroid 
 Thyroid produces 
 Triiodothyronine (T3), the potent form of thyroid hormone Thyroid epithelial cell
 Thyroxine (T4), also known as tetraiodothyronine: it is a  less active form of thyroid hormone (mainly) Thyroid epithelial cells
 Calcitonin  Parafollicular cells

Parathyroid 
Parathyroid hormone PTH triggers an increase in blood calcium levels.

Muscles 
 Striated muscle produces
 Thrombopoietin  Myocytes

Alimentary system 

 Stomach produces
 Gastrin (mainly)  G cells
 Ghrelin  P/D1 cells
 Neuropeptide Y (NPY)
 Secretin S cells
 Somatostatin  D cells
 Histamine  ECL cells
 Endothelin X cells
 Duodenum produces
 Cholecystokinin  I cells
 Liver produces
 Insulin-like growth factor (IGF) (mainly)  Hepatocytes
 Angiotensinogen  Hepatocytes
 Thrombopoietin Hepatocytes
 Pancreas produces
 Insulin (mainly)  β Islet cells
 Glucagon (also mainly)  α Islet cells
 Somatostatin  δ Islet cells
 Pancreatic polypeptide  PP cells
Kidney 
 Kidney produces
 Renin (Primarily) Juxtaglomerular cells
 Erythropoietin (EPO)  Extraglomerular mesangial cells
 Calcitriol (the active form of vitamin D3)
 Thrombopoietin

Adrenal glands 
 Adrenal glands
 Adrenal cortex produces
 Glucocorticoids (chiefly cortisol) Zona fasciculata and Zona reticularis cells
 Mineralocorticoids (chiefly aldosterone) Zona glomerulosa cells
 Androgens (including DHEA and testosterone) Zona fasciculata and Zona reticularis cells
 Adrenal medulla produces
 Adrenaline (epinephrine) (Primarily) Chromaffin cells
 Noradrenaline (norepinephrine)  Chromaffin cells
 Dopamine  Chromaffin cells
 Enkephalin  Chromaffin cells

Reproductive system

Male 
 Testes
 Androgens (chiefly testosterone) Leydig cells
 Oestradiol Sertoli cells
 Inhibin Sertoli cells
Female 
Oestrous cycle
 Ovarian follicle/Corpus luteum
 Progesterone Granulosa cells, Theca cells
 Androstenedione  Theca cells
 Oestrogens (mainly oestradiol) Granulosa cells
 Inhibin Granulosa cells
 Placenta (when a woman is pregnant)
 Progesterone (Primarily)
 Oestrogens (mainly oestriol) (Also primarily)
 Human chorionic gonadotropin (HCG)  Syncytiotrophoblast
 Human placental lactogen (HPL)  Syncytiotrophoblast
 Inhibin Fetal trophoblasts
 Uterus (when a woman is pregnant)
 Prolactin (PRL) Decidual cells
 Relaxin  Decidual cells

Calcium regulation 
 Parathyroid produces
 Parathyroid hormone (PTH) Parathyroid chief cell
 Skin produces
 Vitamin D3 (calciferol)

Miscellaneous 

 Heart produces
 Atrial-natriuretic peptide (ANP) Cardiac myocytes
 Brain natriuretic peptide (BNP)  Cardiac myocytes
 Adenosine  Cardiac myocytes
 Adipose tissue
 Leptin (Primarily) Adipocytes
 Oestrogens (mainly oestrone)  Adipocytes
 Bone marrow produces
 Thrombopoietin

Related pages 
 Hormones
 Nervous system

References
References

Other websites 
 Journals Designed for Clinical Endocrinologists
 Islet cell antibody 
 Binding of antibody to pancreas 
 Kidshealth.org

 
Hormones
Glands
More information about the animals can be found at sponge
A Sponge is a tool that is used for cleaning and washing. The sponge is made of a special material, with many holes. By rubbing the sponge against dirty surfaces, the dirt can be removed.

Today, there are also artificial sponges.

Natural sponges for cleaning
Most natural sponges used for cleaning today come from the Mediterranean and the Caribbean. Today Izmir and Tripolis are the main markets where natural sponges are sold.

Other qualities of natural sponges

Antibiotic compounds
Sponges have medicinal potential. This is because of antimicrobial compounds in either the sponge itself or their microbial symbionts.

Dolphin use sponges
Bottlenose dolphins have been seen using live sponges. This was in Shark Bay. Shark bay is in Western Australia. The behaviour has only been observed in the bay. Most likely adult dolphins teach it to their children. The only other marine mammals that use tools are Sea otters.

References 

Cleaning tools
Tyne and Wear is a metropolitan county in North East England.

It was created in 1974, and consists of the five metropolitan boroughs:
 On the north bank of the River Tyne
 Newcastle
 North Tyneside
 On the south bank of the River Tyne
 Gateshead
 South Tyneside
 Spanning the River Wear
 Sunderland

Like all metropolitan counties, the county council was abolished in 1986, and its functions given either to the individual boroughs or shared by new joint committees of the five boroughs.

Schools are now controlled by each borough. The fire brigade is one of several services run on a county-wide basis by a committee made up of members from each borough.

The people from Sunderland and the people from Newcastle did not like being joined in one county. The Royal Commission that recommended changing the county councils of England could not even find a name that the people of the two place liked. Their report just called the new county "area D".

Other websites
Other websites 

1974 establishments in England
 
Ceremonial counties of England
Osteichthyes are a taxonomic superclass of fish, also called bony fish, that includes the ray-finned fish (Actinopterygii) and lobe finned fish (Sarcopterygii). The split between these two classes occurred around 440 million years ago.  The Osteichthyes are paraphyletic with land vertebrates. This is why some classification schemes put the tetrapods into the Osteichthyes.  Osteichthyes are the most various group of vertebrates, consisting of over 29,000 species, making them the largest superclass of vertebrates in existence today.