Aarushhh/wikipedia-simple-splitted huggingface dataset:
Inbreeding is a term in genetics, meaning the crossing (mating) of closely related animals or plants.  Self-fertilisation in plants is the most extreme kind of inbreeding.  It is quite widespread in plants which carry both male and female flowers on the same plant. Inbreeding is the opposite of outcrossing, which is the mating of unrelated members of the same species. The combination of inbreeding and outcrossing is a standard method of artificial selection.

Other terms are inbred strain, a group of organisms so inbred that they have little or no genetic variation, and inbreeding depression, which is the decreased fitness (usually lack of fertility and early illness and death) brought about by inbreeding.

Inbred strains, for example of mice or drosophila, are often used in biology as model organisms when genetic uniformity makes them useful in investigation of such things as drugs and cancer.
For human beings, inbreeding is destructive, and almost all cultures have an incest taboo. For example, many prohibit marriage between first cousins, and most prohibit it for closer family members.

Loss of genetic variation 
Loss of genetic variation means that many gene loci that were heterozygous are now homozygous. The result of both genes at a locus being mutant can be serious. 

The most intense form of inbreeding is the self-fertilisation in an hermaphrodite, in which the proportion of heterozygotes is halved in each generation.p139 Aa x Aa (100%) gives 1 AA: 2 Aa; 1 aa (50%), and so on. A similar effect takes twice as long with brother-sister mating, and longer still with mating in very small isolated groups. The latter situation is famous because Sewall Wright did his calculations for just such groups, and he called the process genetic drift. Genetic drift and inbreeding are closely related concepts.
The degree of inbreeding can be measured in various ways. A simple test for mammals is the exchange of skin grafts. If the grafts are not rejected, the animals must be nearly identical genetically. Skin grafts can be successfully exchanged between rats in standard laboratory strains, and between cheetahs caught in the wild.

Discussion 
Why is it that inbreeding brings about a loss of viability? There are two answers, and both seem to be true. The first is that a group with little genetic variation is vulnerable to environmental challenges: infections, sudden climate events, predators. Small groups are vulnerable to chance events in any case, but with no heritable variability they are even more vulnerable.
The second explanation is genetic. Some of the homozygous genes will be deleterious recessives which would normally be shielded by a dominant allele. Also, there are some loci where the heterozygote is inherently fitter than either homozygote. If so, inbreeding will automatically cause a loss of vigour.p103

Many plant species do self-pollination in the wild, but the great majority have occasional outcrossing. This provides them with sufficient variety for their survival.

References 

Classical genetics
Cambridge is a city in England. It is  north of London. The city is famous for its university, the University of Cambridge, which is thought to be one of the best universities in the world. The university has a hospital (Addenbrooke's Hospital), laboratory (Cavendish Laboratory), chapel (King's College Chapel) and library (Cambridge University Library). There is also a Central Library in Cambridge, on the first floor of the Grand Arcade, St Andrew's Street.

There are 108,863 people living in Cambridge, of which 22,153 are students. There are lots of smaller towns and villages around Cambridge.

The city has lots of parks and is next to the river Cam - the city's name "Cambridge" means "bridge over the Cam."

References
Adventures of Huckleberry Finn is a book written by Mark Twain, published in 1884. It is a sequel to his earlier book, Tom Sawyer.

Story 
After The Adventures of Tom Sawyer, Huck was adopted by the widow Douglas who wants to “civilize” him and so he joined Tom’s band of robbers.

One day, Huck’s father Pap, a violent drunkard, appears in St. Petersburg. When a new judge arrives, Pap gains custody of his son and moves to a cabin on the other side of the river. Huck is kept locked but fakes his own death and hides on Jackson’s Island, a small island on the river. There he meets Miss Watson’s black slave Jim who ran away.

When they find a raft, they decide to go to a free state. After a storm, a house is floating down the river and they enter it and grab what they can. Inside, there is a dead man shot in the back and Jim prevents Huck from seeing the dead man’s face.
Huck dresses as a girl and returns to town because he wants to hear what’s going on in town. A woman tells that Jim is considered to be Huck’s murderer. Moreover, she is suspicious about Huck’s true sex and reveals that he is a boy. Huck returns to the island and together with Jim he flees downriver.

After some time on the river, they are separated by a passing steaming boat and Huck meets the Grangerfords, a rich family. He befriends with Buck Grangerford who is about his age. The Grangerfords are in a 30-year feud against the Shepherdsons, another rich family along the Mississippi. When a conflict breaks out, all Grangerford males are killed. Huck can escape and reunites with Jim. Together they float further downriver.

Later, they rescue two con men who join the boys on their journey. They pull several scams along the river. Once, they pretend to be a dead man’s brothers and escape after their true identities are revealed.
Later, the elder one sells Jim. Huck finds out that Jim is now owned by the Phelps. He decides to free him and pretends to be the Phelps’ nephew Tom Sawyer. When the real Tom arrives, he plays along.

Jim is held in a shed and Tom has a risky escape plan. As they carry out their plan, Tom is shot in the leg. While Huck gets help, Jim remains with Tom. When they return to the farm, Jim is recaptured while Tom is unconscious.

When Tom awakes, he reveals that Jim had been free for weeks after his owner died two months ago. He did not tell Huck because he wanted a risky plan to rescue Jim. Furthermore, Tom’s Aunt Polly arrives and reveals Huck’s and Tom’s real identities. Moreover, Jim tells that Pap was the dead man on the floating house. Finally, Huck decides to go West.
Controversy 
Adventures of Huckleberry Finn received often good reviews, but the novel was controversial from the beginning. When the American edition came out in 1885 some libraries banned it.
Today, many people feel that the book attacks racism and shows that it is bad. Others criticize the book because it shows things like slavery, and uses words like "nigger". They also think that, although Jim is not meant to be a bad character, he has some stereotypes of that time.

References

Related pages

The Adventures of Tom Sawyer

Books by Mark Twain
1884 books
American children's books
19th-century American novels
Snooker is a cue sport played by two players. It is popular in the United Kingdom, the Commonwealth and parts of Asia. 

It is played on a large (12 by 6 feet) table that is covered with a smooth green cloth called baize and has holes (called pockets) in each of the four corners and in the middle of each of the long side cushions.
 
The players use long thin sticks called cues to strike a white ball (the cue ball). The cue ball must always be hit first when attempting a shot at the target ball. 

There are 21 target balls in total - 15 red balls (worth 1 point each) and 6 colours: a yellow (2 points), green (3 points), brown (4 points), blue (5 points), pink (6 points) and black ball (7 points). 

Each target ball must be aimed or 'potted' into one of the pockets in order. A red ball followed by a colour then a red ball again. This happens until only the coloured balls are left. The colours then have to be potted in the following order: yellow, green, brown, blue, pink and black.
The player who scores more points wins the game or 'frame'. A match consists of an agreed number of frames.

Big events in snooker are the World Snooker Championship, UK Championship and the Masters. Professional players play on the World Snooker Tour.

The best-known snooker players are the seven-time world champion Ronnie O'Sullivan, seven-time world champion Stephen Hendry. Other former world champions are for example Joe Davis (fifteen wins), his brother Fred Davis, John Pulman (each eight wins) and six-time world champions Ray Reardon and Steve Davis.

References
Aaliyah Dana Haughton (January 16, 1979 – August 25, 2001) was an American singer, actress, dancer, and model.

She was born in Brooklyn, New York, and raised in Detroit, Michigan. From her youth, she began to sing: she did singing competitions, castings and shows. Her career began in 1994 with the release of her first album Age Ain't Nothing But A Number. She continued going to the High School of the Performing Arts after this.

In 1996, Aaliyah's second album, One in a Million. Aaliyah always wanted to act and she got the leading role in Romeo Must Die (2000). Then she starred in Queen of the Damned in 2002.
In 2001, Aaliyah returned to music with her third eponymous album, she put a lot into it, as a singer and as an executive producer. She worked on it with her uncle. After completing her music video Rock the Boat, she was killed in a plane crash in the Bahamas on August 25, 2001 at age of 22. She was going to be in the movie The Matrix Reloaded, but the filmmakers had to use another person after her death.
Personal life
Aaliyah Dana Haughton was born in Brooklyn, New York. She was of African American descent, with Native American heritage from her grandmother. Her father was of Jamaican heritage. She was the second and younger child of Diane and Michael Haughton. Aaliyah was enrolled in voice lessons by her mother, and she would perform at weddings, church choir and charity events. When she was five years old, her family moved to Detroit, Michigan, where she was raised along with her older brother, Rashad. She attended a Catholic school, Gesu Elementary, where she received a part in the stage play named Annie in first grade. From then on, she was determined to become an entertainer.
Aaliyah's mother was a vocalist. Her uncle, Barry Hankerson, was an entertainment lawyer who had been married to Gladys Knight. As a child, Aaliyah traveled with Knight and worked with an agent in New York to audition for commercials and television programs, including Family Matters; she went on to appear on Star Search at the age of ten. She then auditioned for several record labels and appeared in concerts alongside Knight at age 11.

Aaliyah attended the Detroit High School for the Performing Arts, where she majored in drama and graduated in 1997. Aaliyah began her acting career that same year.
Career
After Hankerson signed a distribution deal with Jive Records, he signed Aaliyah to his label named Blackground Records when Aaliyah was 12 years old. She released her debut album Age Ain't Nothing but a Number in 1994. Rumors circulated that she and her mentor R. Kelly were not only romantically involved, but had also married. Aaliyah admitted to a friendship with R. Kelly, which had developed while recording Age Ain't Nothing but a Number. She said they would go out together and watch a movie or eat somewhere when they went on breaks from recording the album and said they were "rather close". She dismissed the rumors about her relationship with him as people taking it "the wrong way."
Jomo Hankerson later said that Aaliyah was treated bad over the marriage and that she had a hard time getting her second album to have a producer because of what had happened between her and R. Kelly. With the exception of Sean Combs, he said, there were not too many producers seeking to work with her because people were upset with her, which he did not understand given her age at the time. After the marriage ended, she stopped answering questions about R. Kelly and would often change the subject whenever it was brought up. This was noted by several organizations that did interviews with her. Aaliyah indicated that she would never again work with R. Kelly during an interview with Christopher John Farley, who went on to write a biography of the singer titled Aaliyah: More Than a Woman. R. Kelly would go on to have more allegations about relationships with underage girls and the relationship with Aaliyah was brought up or mentioned most of the time as a starting point
. He refused to discuss his relationship with her and explained his reason for doing this: ""Out of respect for her, and her mom and her dad, I will not discuss Aaliyah. That was a whole other situation, a whole other time, it was a whole other thing, and I'm sure that people also know that." According to her mother Diane Haughton, everything "that went wrong in her life" began with her relationship with R. Kelly. The allegations were dismissed as having little effect on her image or career.
In 1996, Aaliyah left Jive Records and signed with Atlantic Records. She worked with record producers Timbaland and Missy Elliott, who contributed to her second studio album, One in a Million. She developed friendships with the pair. Timbaland was in love with her, but did not act out on it due to her being years younger than him. Instead he wanted to be a bigger brother figure for her, similar to her own brother Rashad Haughton. However, he struggled with keeping his feelings at bay. During her last days, the pair had an argument and it would be the last time they would speak to each other, as he next learned that she had passed.

She played as herself in the police drama television series New York Undercover. During this time, Aaliyah participated in the Children's Benefit Concert, a charity concert that took place at the Beacon Theatre in New York.
Aaliyah's first major movie role was in Romeo Must Die. Aaliyah starred opposite martial artist Jet Li, playing a couple who fall in love amid their warring families. It grossed US$18.6 million in its first weekend, ranking number two at the box office. Aaliyah was scared about bad reviews so she did not look for them. She heard good things about her role in the movie, but there were critics that did not like her role because of her relationship with Jet Li's character not having any realism along with the rest of the movie.
Before she died, she talked to the Isley Brothers about working together, having recorded one of their songs when she was younger during her tenure with Jive Records and was signed to appear in more movies. One of them was Honey, which came out in 2003 Some Kind of Blue, a romantic movie and Sparkle, a movie produced by Whitney Houston that was the remake of the 1976 film of the same name. Houston said after Aaliyah passed that she wanted to be in the movie. Studio officials from Warner Brothers said she and her mother read the script and Aaliyah was passionate about appearing in the movie.
Aaliyah had a vocal range of a soprano. With the release of her first single "Back & Forth", Dimitri Ehrlich of Entertainment Weekly expressed that Aaliyah's "silky vocals are more agile than those of self-proclaimed queen of hip-hop soul Mary J. Blige." Aaliyah described her sound as "street but sweet", which featured her "gentle" vocals over a "hard" beat. Though Aaliyah did not write any of her own material, her lyrics were described as in-depth. She incorporated R&B, pop and hip hop into her music. Her songs were often uptempo and melancholy, revolving around "matters of the heart". Her songs have been said to have "crisp production" and "staccato arrangements" that "extend genre boundaries" while containing "old-school" soul music. When she experimented with other genres, such as Latin pop and heavy metal, critics did not like the attempt. As her albums progressed, writers felt that Aaliyah acted more older, calling her progress a "declaration of strength and independence"
. Stephen Thomas Erlewine of Allmusic described her eponymous album, Aaliyah, as "a statement of maturity and a stunning artistic leap forward" and called it one of the strongest urban soul records of its time. She portrayed "unfamiliar sounds, styles and emotions", but managed to please critics with the contemporary sound it contained. Ernest Hardy of Rolling Stone felt that Aaliyah reflected a stronger technique, where she gave her best vocal performance. Others felt that she was "satisfying rather than extraordinary", stating that she added little to modern R&B.
Death and investigation
On August 25, 2001, at 6:50 pm (EST), Aaliyah and various members of the record company boarded a twin-engine Cessna 402B (registration N8097W) at the Marsh Harbour Airport in Abaco Islands, The Bahamas, to travel to the Opa-locka Airport in Florida, after they completed filming the music video for the single "Rock the Boat". They had a flight scheduled the following day, August 26, but with filming finishing early, Aaliyah and her entourage were eager to return to the United States and made the decision to leave immediately. The designated airplane was smaller than the Cessna 404 in which they had originally flown. The whole party and all of the equipment were accommodated on board. As a result, when the aircraft attempted to depart, it was over its maximum takeoff weight by  and was carrying one excess passenger, according to its certification. The plane crashed shortly after takeoff, about  from the runway
. Aaliyah and the eight others on board, pilot Luis Morales III, hair stylist Eric Forman, Anthony Dodd, security guard Scott Gallin, video producer Douglas Kratz, stylist Christopher Maldonado, and Blackground Records employees Keith Wallace and Gina Smith, were all killed.
According to findings from an inquest, conducted by the coroner's office in The Bahamas, Aaliyah suffered from "severe burns and a blow to the head", in addition to severe shock and a weak heart. The coroner theorized that, even if Aaliyah had survived the crash, her recovery would have been virtually impossible given the severity of her injuries. The National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) report stated that "the airplane was seen lifting off the runway, and then nose down, impacting in a marsh on the south side of the departure end of runway 27 and then exploding in flames." It indicated that the pilot was not approved to pilot the plane he was attempting to fly. Morales falsely obtained his Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) license by showing hundreds of hours never flown, and he may also have falsified how many hours he had flown in order to get a job with his employer, Blackhawk International Airways
. Additionally, an autopsy performed on Morales revealed traces of cocaine and alcohol in his system. The NTSB reported that the maximum allowed gross weight of the plane was "substantially exceeded" and that the center of gravity was positioned beyond its rear limit. John Frank of the Cessna Pilots Association stated that the plane was "definitely overloaded".
The day of the crash was Morales' first official day with Blackhawk International Airways, an FAA Part 135 single-pilot operation. Morales was not registered with the FAA to fly for Blackhawk. As a result of the accident, Aaliyah's parents filed a wrongful death lawsuit against the company, which was settled out of court for an undisclosed amount. Barry & Sons, Inc., a corporation formed in 1992 to develop, promote and capitalize Aaliyah and to oversee the production and distribution of her records and music videos, brought an unsuccessful lawsuit in the New York Supreme Court against Instinct Productions LLC, the company that was hired in August 2001 to produce the music video for "Rock the Boat". The case was dismissed because of New York's wrongful death statute only permitting certain people to recover damages for wrongful death.

Legacy
Legacy

Aaliyah's funeral was held on August 31, 2001, at the Saint Ignatius Loyola Church in Manhattan. Her body was set in a silver casket, which was carried in a glass hearse and was drawn by horse. An estimated 800 mourners were in attendance of the procession. Among those in attendance at the private ceremony were Missy Elliott, Timbaland, Gladys Knight, Lil' Kim and Sean Combs. After the service, 22 white doves were released to symbolize each year of Aaliyah's life. She was interred in a crypt in a private room in the Rosewood Mausoleum at the Ferncliff Cemetery.
The week after Aaliyah's death, her third studio album, Aaliyah, rose from number 19 to number one on the Billboard 200. "Rock the Boat" was released as a posthumous single. The music video premiered on BET's Access Granted; it became the most viewed and highest rated episode in the history of the show. The song peaked at number 14 on the Billboard Hot 100 and number two on the Billboard Hot R&B/Hip-Hop Songs chart. It was also included on the Now That's What I Call Music! 8 compilation series; a portion of the album's profits was donated to the Aaliyah Memorial Fund. The following two singles from Aaliyah, "More than a Woman" and "I Care 4 U", peaked within the top 25 of the Billboard Hot 100. The album was certified double Platinum by the RIAA and sold 2.95 million copies in the United States. "More than a Woman" reached number one in the UK singles chart making Aaliyah the first deceased artist to reach number one in the UK single chart
. "More than a Woman" was replaced by George Harrison's "My Sweet Lord" which is the only time in the UK singles chart history where a dead artist has replaced another dead artist at number one.
She won two posthumous awards at the American Music Awards of 2002; Favorite Female R&B Artist and Favorite R&B/Soul Album for Aaliyah. Her second and final movie, Queen of the Damned, was released in February 2002. Before its release, Aaliyah's brother, Rashad, re-dubbed some of her lines during post-production. It grossed US$15.2 million in its first weekend, ranking number one at the box office. On the first anniversary of Aaliyah's death, a candlelight vigil was held in Times Square, where millions of fans observed a moment of silence. Throughout the United States, radio stations played her music in remembrance. In December 2002, a collection of previously unreleased material was released as Aaliyah's first posthumous album, I Care 4 U. A portion of the proceeds was donated to the Aaliyah Memorial Fund, a program that benefits the Revlon UCLA Women Cancer Research Program and Harlem's Sloan Kettering Cancer Center. It debuted at number three on the Billboard 200, selling 280,000 copies in its first week
. The album's lead single, "Miss You", peaked at number three on the Billboard Hot 100 and was at the top of the Hot R&B/Hip-Hop Songs chart. In August of the following year, clothing retailer Christian Dior donated profits from sales in honor of Aaliyah.
Aaliyah was signed to appear in several future movies, including Honey (recast to Jessica Alba). Some Kind of Blue and a Whitney Houston-produced remake of the 1976 movie Sparkle were canceled due to Aaliyah's death. Before her death, Aaliyah had filmed part of her role in The Matrix Reloaded and was scheduled to appear in The Matrix Revolutions as Zee. The role was later recast to Nona Gaye. Aaliyah's scenes were later included in the tribute section of the Matrix Ultimate Collection series.
In 2005, Aaliyah's second compilation album, Ultimate Aaliyah was released in the UK by Blackground Records. Ultimate Aaliyah is a three disc set, which included a greatest hits audio CD and a DVD. Andy Kellman of Allmusic remarked "Ultimate Aaliyah adequately represents the shortened career of a tremendous talent who benefited from some of the best songwriting and production work by Timbaland, Missy Elliott, and R. Kelly." A documentary movie Aaliyah Live in Amsterdam was released in 2011., shortly before the tenth anniversary of Aaliyah's death. The documentary, by Pogus Caesar, contained previously unseen footage shot of her career beginnings in 1995 when she was appearing in the Netherlands.
In 2012 music producer Jeffrey "J-Dub" Walker via twitter said "Just got great news today; the smash unreleased song called "Steady Ground" I produced on #Aaliyah is gonna be on her upcoming album". Walker co-wrote "I Refuse" and "What if" from Aaliyah's third self-titled album and produced the song "Steady Ground" for her 'One in a Million' album. This second proposed posthumous album would feature this song using demo vocals since Walker claims the originals were somehow lost by his sound engineer. However, Walker's original tweet announcing this event has since been removed, and Aaliyah's brother, via Twitter, has stated that "no official album [is] being released and supported by the Haughton family."

Discography
Studio albums
 Age Ain't Nothing But a Number (1994)
 One in a Million (1996)
 Aaliyah (2001)

Compilation albums
 I Care 4 U (2002)
 Ultimate Aaliyah (2005)

References
References

1979 births
2001 deaths
Actors from Brooklyn
Actors from Detroit
African American actors
African American musicians
American contemporary R&B singers
American movie actors
Atlantic Records artists
Aviation deaths
Musicians from Brooklyn
Singers from Detroit
Singers from New York City
Simple Plan is a rock band from Montréal, Canada that was founded in 1999.

Influences 
Simple Plan's influences include Fastball, Green Day, Cheap Trick, Pennywise, Weezer, The Mr. T Experience, MxPx, Blink-182, Elvis Costello, Rancid, Jawbreaker, Everclear and The Cars.

Members 
 Pierre Charles Bouvier, Vocals & Acoustic Guitar (born May 9 1979 in Montréal)
 David Phillippe Desrosiers, Bass & Background Vocals (born August 29 1980 in Sept-Îles, Canada)
 Charles André "Chuck" Comeau, Drums (born September 17 1979 in Montréal)
 Sébestien Lefebvre, Rhythm Guitar and Background Vocals (born June 5 1981 in Montréal)
 Jean-François "Jeff" Stinco, Lead guitar (born August 22 1978 in Montréal)
When they were 13, schoolmates Pierre Bouvier and Chuck Comeau founded the band Reset. They published their first album in 1997. Soon after that, Comeau left the band because school was more important to him. He came back in 1999 and founded Simple Plan with Sebastien Lefebvre and Jeff Stinco. Bouvier met up with Comeau at a Sugar Ray concert, and Comeau offered Bouvier to join his band. David Desrosiers, who had replaced Bouvier in Reset, joined the band in 2000. in 2002, they published the album No Pads, No Helmets,... Just Balls. They worked together with Joel Madden (Good Charlotte) and Mark Hoppus (Blink-182). One year later, the album Still Not Getting Any... was published.

Singles
  No Pads, No Helmets... Just Balls.
 "I'm Just a Kid" (2001)
 "I'd Do Anything" (2002) #51 US
 "Addicted" (2003) #45 US, #63 UK, #10 AUS (2004 release)
 "Perfect" (2004) #24 US, #6 AUS (2004 release)
Still Not Getting Any....
 "Welcome To My Life" (2004) #40 US, #7 AUS, #1 CAN, #1 SPAIN, #12 FR
 "Shut Up!" (2004) #99 US, #14 AUS, #12 CAN, #14 SP
 "Untitled (How Could This Happen to Me)" (2005) #49 US, #9 AUS,#3 CAN, #1 SPAIN
 "Crazy" (2005) #32 AUS, #4 CAN
 "Perfect World" (2006) (Single only in iTunes, but not launched in CD single)

 Simple Plan
 "When I'm Gone" (2007) 
 "Your Love is a Lie" (2008)
 "Save You (2008)

Albums 
 No Pads, No Helmets...Just Balls (2002)
 Live in Japan 2002 (2003)
 Live in Anaheim (2004) (Limited Edition)
 Still Not Getting Any... (2004)
 MTV Hard Rock Live (2005)
 Simple Plan (2008)
 Get Your Heart On! (2011)

DVDs 
 A Big Package for You (2003)
 MTV Hard Rock Live (2005)

Other websites

 Official website

Pop punk bands
Canadian rock bands
2000s music groups
2010s music groups
Atlantic Records artists
Serj Tankian (born on August 21, 1967 in Beirut, Lebanon) is an Armenian-American musician who lives in Auckland, New Zealand. He was the lead vocalist of System of a Down. He is now a solo artist and has released five solo albums.

Early life
Tankian was born in Beirut, Lebanon. Tankian moved with his parents to Los Angeles, California when he was five years old.

Studio Albums
Solo
 Elect the Dead (2007)
 Imperfect Harmonies (2010)
 Harakiri (2012)
 Orca (2013)
 Jazz-Iz-Christ (2013)

Soundtracks
Fuktronic (with Jimmy Urine) (TBA)
Prometheus Bound (TBA)

With System of a Down
System of a Down (1998)
Toxicity (2001)
Mezmerize (2005)
Hypnotize (2005)

With Arto Tunçboyacıyan
Serart (2003)

EPs
Lie Lie Live (2008)
Imperfect Remixes (2011)
Elasticity (EP) (2021)
''Perplex Cities (2022)
Other websites 
 Serj Tankian's official page
 
 Screamers Official Site
 'Screamers' and Genocide: A Talk With Serj Tankian From System of a Down 
 System of a Down Official Site
 Serjical Strike Records
 SOADFans Profile for Serj Tankian 
 SOADTalk.com Serj Tankian Biography 
 Recent interview with Serj 
 SerjFans.com

1967 births
Living people
Naturalized citizens of the United States
People from Beirut
Singers from Los Angeles
Axl Rose (born February 6, 1962) is an American hard rock singer and songwriter. He was born William Bruce Bailey in Lafayette, Indiana, and grew up under the name William 'Bill' Bailey. He is best known as the lead singer for the rock band Guns N' Roses.

Personal life
Rose started dating Erin Everly in early 1986. He wrote "Sweet Child o' Mine" for her and she was in the song's video.

He married Everly on April 28, 1990 in Las Vegas. Everly later said that Rose came to her house the day before their wedding with a gun and told her he would kill himself if she didn't marry him.

In 2012 it was rumored that he was dating Lana Del Rey.

References

Other websites 
 GunsNRoses.Com - Official website of Guns N' Roses
 

1962 births
Living people
Guns N' Roses
American singer-songwriters
Singers from Indiana
American heavy metal singers
An object gets gravitational potential energy when it moves uphill. The energy used up when moving up the hill is changed into gravitational potential energy. When the object comes back down again, the gravitational potential energy is turned back into kinetic energy (movement). That is why riding a bike up a steep hill is very hard, but when you are coming back down, you will not need to pedal at all - you are being powered by the gravitational potential energy that you stored when you rode up the hill. Another way gravitational potential energy helps us is by keeping earth and the other planets in orbit in our solar system around the Sun.

Formula and example 
The mathematical formula for the gravitational potential energy:

Gravitational potential energy =  

Where:
 m is the mass of the object , 
 g is the gravitational acceleration of the object , and
 h is the height above a chosen point.

Most scientists and students use these measurement unit:
The value m is in kilograms.
The value h is in metres.
The value g is a physical constant with the value of 9.81 metres per second squared. This is known as the gravitational constant.
The value of the gravitational potential energy that is calculated using values in the above units is called the Joule (J).

For example, an object with a mass of 1.5 kilograms that is 2.5 metres above the ground would have a gravitational potential energy value of:

 joules.

Mechanics
Gravitation
The Shining Rock Wilderness is a protected area in the U.S. state of North Carolina. Its first  have been part of the National Wilderness Preservation System since the System was created in 1964. It now includes , and is managed by the United States Forest Service.

Within the wilderness, the Art Loeb trail can be followed to the top of Cold Mountain. Cold Mountain is the namesake of a historical fiction novel set in the time of the American Civil War. A movie based on the book is also named Cold Mountain.

Other webstites
Shining Rock Wilderness at recreation.gov
Shining Rock Wilderness at wilderness.net

Wilderness Areas of the United States
Geography of North Carolina
Appalachian Mountains
Radioactive decay happens to some chemical elements. Most chemical elements are stable. Stable elements are made up of atoms that stay the same. Even in a chemical reaction, the atoms themselves do not change ever.

In the 19th century, Henri Becquerel discovered that some chemical elements have atoms that change over time. In 1898, Marie and Pierre Curie called this phenomenon radioactive decay. Becquerel and the Curies were awarded the Nobel Prize in Physics for this discovery, in 1903.
Example 
Most carbon atoms have six protons and six neutrons in their nucleus.  This carbon is called carbon-12s (six protons + six neutrons = 12).  Its atomic weight is 12.  If a carbon atom has two more neutrons it is carbon-14. Carbon-14 acts chemically like other carbon, because the six protons and six electrons are what govern its chemical properties.  In fact, carbon-14 exists in all living things; all plants and animals contain carbon-14.  However, carbon-14 is radioactive. It decays by beta decay to become nitrogen-14. Carbon-14, in the small amounts found about us in nature, is harmless.  In archeology, this kind of carbon is used to determine the age of wood and other formerly living things. The method is called radiocarbon dating.
Different kinds of decay 
Ernest Rutherford found that there are different ways in which these particles penetrate matter. He found two different kinds, which he called alpha decay and beta decay. Paul Villard discovered a third kind in 1900. Rutherford called it gamma decay, in 1903.

The change from radioactive carbon-14 to stable nitrogen-14 is a radioactive decay. It happens when the atom emits a beta particle. A beta particle is a high energy electron or positron leaving the nucleus.

Other kinds of decay were discovered later. The types of decay are different from each other because different types of decay produce different kinds of particles. The starting radioactive nucleus is called the parent nucleus and the nucleus that it changes into is called the daughter nucleus. The high-energy particles produced by radioactive materials are called radiation.
These various kinds of decay can happen sequentially in a "decay chain". One kind of nucleus decays to another kind, which decays again to another and so on until it becomes a stable isotope and the chain comes to an end.

Speed of decay
The speed at which this change happens, is different for each element. Radioactive decay is governed by chance: The time it takes, on average for half the atoms of a substance to change is named the half-life. The rate is given by an exponential function. As an example, iodine (131I) has a half-life of about 8 days. That of  plutonium ranges between 4 hours (243Pu) and 80 million years (244Pu)
Nuclear transformations and energy 
Radioactive decay changes an atom from one that has higher energy inside its nucleus into one with lower energy. The change of energy of the nucleus is given to the particles that are created. The energy released by radioactive decay may either be carried away by a gamma ray electromagnetic radiation (a type of light), a beta particle or an alpha particle. In all those cases, the change of energy of the nucleus is carried away. And in all those cases, the total number of positive and negative charges of the atom's protons and electrons sum to zero before and after the change.
Alpha decay 
During alpha decay, the atomic nucleus releases an alpha particle. Alpha decay causes the nucleus to lose two protons and two neutrons. Alpha decay causes the atom to change into another element, because the atom loses two protons (and two neutrons). For example, if Americium were to go through alpha decay it would change into Neptunium because Neptunium is defined by having two protons fewer than Americium. Alpha decay usually happens in the most heavy elements, such as uranium, thorium, plutonium, and radium.

Alpha particles cannot even go through a few centimeters of air. Alpha radiation cannot hurt humans when the alpha radiation source is outside the human body, because human skin does not let the alpha particles go through. Alpha radiation can be very harmful if the source is inside the body, such as when people breathe dust or gas containing materials which decay by emitting alpha particles (radiation).

Beta decay 
There are two kinds of beta decay, beta-plus and beta-minus.
In beta-minus decay, the nucleus gives out a negatively charged electron and a neutron changes into a proton:
 .
where
 is the neutron

 is the proton
 is the electron
 is the anti-neutrino
Beta-minus decay happens in nuclear reactors.

In beta-plus decay, the nucleus releases a positron, which is like an electron but it is positively charged, and a proton changes into a neutron:
 .
where
  is the proton
  is the neutron
  is the positron
  is the neutrino

Beta-plus decay happens inside the sun and in some types of particle accelerators.
Gamma decay 
Gamma decay happens when a nucleus produces a high-energy packet of energy called a gamma ray. Gamma rays do not have electrical charge, but they do have angular momentum. Gamma rays are usually emitted from nuclei just after other types of decay. Gamma rays can be used to see through material, to kill bacteria in food, to find some types of disease, and to treat some kinds of cancer. Gamma rays have the highest energy of any electromagnetic wave, and gamma ray bursts from space are the most energetic releases of energy known.

References

Related pages 
Half-life (element)
Ionizing radiation
Radiometric dating

Nuclear physics
Nicotine is a drug in tobacco cigarettes, cigars, pipe tobacco, chewing tobacco, vaping liquids and some e-cigarettes. Nicotine is an addictive stimulant that causes the heart to beat faster and makes blood pressure rise. It can also make a person feel less hungry and speeds up the metabolism. These effects can be very unhealthy. Many people who use tobacco products want to quit but have a hard time quitting. It is one of the most addictive chemicals that is widely consumed by humans. It can be as addictive as heroin or cocaine.

Nicotine is a substance found in most members of the nightshade family of plants. Small quantities of it can be found in tomatoes, potatoes, aubergines (eggplants) and green pepper (Capsicum, the peppers used as vegetables). Nicotine is also in the Coca plant. In higher quantities it is a very efficient poison. It acts on the nerves. It is a stimulant in lower quantities. It is the main reason people are addicted to smoking.
Nicotine is named after Jean Nicot. Nicot was a French ambassador in Portugal. In 1560 he sent tobacco seeds to Paris for analysis (as a drug).

Besides the treatment of nicotine dependency, it seems that the drug can also be used to treat special (severe) forms of epilepsy, as well as some other diseases.

Cigarette 
The amount of nicotine in one cigarette varies greatly. Factors which influence the amount include type of tobacco; brand of cigarette; and country or region (some markets restrict maximum average nicotine levels). Different ways of smoking a cigarette influence how much nicotine gets into the smoker.
Tobacco products and electronic cigarettes, the most popular form of nicotine worldwide, have become a public health concern. Leading to an increase in countries' governments' and public health organizations' efforts to regulate its use and sales. With 30 countries currently having banned the purchase of any form of these products. Since 2022 legislation against e-cigarettes  is on the rise as more studies are released. A large contributor to this was the World Health Organization's concerns raised about how secondhand smoke affects children in the home. Highlighting the potential risks of exposure to nicotine, which is known to cause issues in brain development and lead to anxiety disorders, among other health problems. While e-cigarettes have been marketed as a safer alternative to traditional cigarettes, there is still much debate about the potential risks and benefits of these products. As nicotine percentages are higher on average in many forms of e-cigarettes compared to traditional tobacco products.
Drugs
Organonitrogen compounds
Addiction is when the body or mind badly wants or needs something in order to work right. When you have an addiction to something it is called being addicted or being an addict. People can be addicted to drugs, cigarettes, alcohol,  caffeine, and many other things. 

When somebody is addicted to something, they can become sick if they do not get the thing they are addicted to. But taking more of the thing they are addicted to can also hurt their health. Some people who are addicts need to go to a doctor or hospital to cure the addiction, so they no longer crave (want or need) the drug.
Addiction takes place when the addictive element enters the body.  The blood stream moves the element around the body so that it gets to the brain, and makes the person feel that they are enjoying it; then they want more of that substance. This takes place remarkably fast for some addictions such as hashish and cocaine; but all of them control the consumer. Once under this control, the consumer does not have complete free will, and listens to the addiction's bidding.

People can also be addicted to other things which are not drugs. You may hear people talk about being "addicted to the Internet" or "addicted to chocolate" or gambling. This means that they get into a habit of enjoying that thing, so if they have to go without it for a while, they miss it a lot.
Addiction is similar to a major disease like chronic heart disease or perhaps diabetes, but addictions are not taken as seriously as these major diseases. Most people believe addiction to be a lifestyle choice, which it is but it is also part of a person's genetics. While some people can do things and control themselves others cannot due to their genetic makeup. There are ways of helping the addict but this takes the admission of a problem and then proper testing to reveal what kind of treatment is needed.

The American Society of Addiction Medicine (ASAM) defines addiction as a treatable, chronic medical disease involving complex interactions among brain circuits, genetics, the environment, and an individual's life experiences. People with addiction use substances or engage in compulsive behaviors and often continue despite harmful consequences. Prevention efforts and treatment approaches for addiction are generally as successful as those for other chronic diseases.
Related pages 
 Substance abuse
 Drug addiction
Alcoholism

References

Other websites 
  American Society of Addiction Medicine
 Addiction Citizendium

 
Psychology
Secession (independence) usually means when part of one country declares its independence and breaks away or leaves that country to start a new country.

Constitutions of countries may include articles that either legally forbid or allow secession of part of the country. Most national constitutions, which have articles about secession, forbid it, but a few constitutions, such as the constitutions of the former Soviet Union, the former Yugoslavia, and Ethiopia allow the secession of their republics.

A secession attempt might be violent or peaceful.

Violent examples include the secession of the 11 southern states, which formed the Confederate States, from the United States and led to the failed American Civil War, and the Bangladesh Liberation War of East Pakistan (Bangladesh), which succeeded against West Pakistan.

Peaceful examples include the secession of the Soviet republics from the Soviet Union, which led to the dissolution of the Soviet Union.
Threats of secession can be a strategy for achieving more limited goals such autonomy or more devolved powers from the national government of the country. 

Examples of giving more delvolved powers to prevent their secession include Quebec, Scotland and Flanders.

References

Political geography
Rockville is a small town in the U.S. state of Virginia. It is in Hanover County near Richmond, Virginia. Rockville is mainly a farming town. It got its name from nearby rock quarries.

Cities in Virginia
An intelligence quotient (acronym: IQ) is a number. This number is the score (result) of a standard test to measure intelligence. There are several different tests designed to measure the intelligence of a person. Measuring intelligence in any way is an idea developed by British scientist Francis Galton in the book Hereditary genius published in the late 19th century.

IQ is a comparative measure: it tells one how much above or below the average a person is. The idea of the test was developed at the start of the 20th century. The tests try to avoid specific knowledge, and try to ask questions which, in principle, anyone might be able to answer.

One modern IQ test is the Wechsler Adult Intelligence Scale. It says where the subject's score is on the Gaussian bell. The bell curve used has a center value of 100 and a standard deviation of 15; other tests may have different standard deviations.
IQ scores can tell some things about a person, as well as intelligence. This is because intelligence is linked to other aspects of life. "All the cognitive tests completed in 1983 predicted onset of dementia and Alzheimer’s disease up to 11 years later". They can predict the social status of the parents, and the parents' IQ.

There is still disagreement about to what extent IQ is inherited. People still disagree about how much of a person's IQ comes from his parents and how much depends on his environment (what his home is like).

IQ scores are used in various ways:
 to predict a person's educational achievement or special needs.
 to tell what kind of jobs a person could probably do.
 to study what the IQ scores of a population are like.
 to study what other things about a person are related to his IQ.
The average IQ scores for many populations have been rising about three points per decade since the early 20th century. Most of the increase is in the lower half of the IQ range. This is called the Flynn effect. People who study it disagree whether these changes in scores are really happening, or it they mean that there were mistakes in how people were tested in the past.

There are associations of people who have scored high on IQ tests, such as Mensa International.

General factor (g) 
There are many different kinds of intelligence tests that use many methods. Some kinds of tests are
 visual (they only use pictures)
 verbal (they only use words)
 abstract-reasoning (thinking about puzzles)
 arithmetic (simple maths)
 spatial imagery (thinking about shapes)
 reading
 vocabulary (how many words a person knows)
 memory
 general knowledge
The different tests are strongly correlated with each other. Psychologist Charles Spearman in 1904 first studied how the scores from different kinds of intelligence tests are related to each other. He did factor analysis of correlations between the tests, and found a single common factor explained the positive correlations among tests.

Spearman found that if a person got a high (or low) score on one kind of test, he probably (but not always) would get a similar score on the other kinds of tests. Because of this, he said that a person's intelligence could be described with one number. He called this number g (for general factor). Tests that use abstract reasoning are usually the best to tell what the scores on the other kinds of tests probably will be. Because of that, Spearman thought that a person's abstract reasoning ability (how good he was at solving puzzles or problems) was what other kinds of intelligence are based on.
Therefore, the number g is what an IQ test is supposed to measure. One of the most commonly used measures of g is Raven's Progressive Matrices, which is a test of visual reasoning.

The war years in the United States 
During World War I, the military needed a way to test recruits and decide what kind of job they could do best. They used IQ tests.

The testing generated controversy and much public debate. Nonverbal or "performance" tests were developed for those who could not speak English or were suspected of malingering. After the war, positive publicity on army psychological testing helped to make psychology a respected field. Afterwards, there was an increase in jobs and funding in psychology in the United States. Group intelligence tests were developed and became widely used in schools and industry.