Aarushhh/wikipedia-simple-splitted huggingface dataset:
Glucose (C6H12O6) is a simple carbohydrate, or sugar. It is one of several kinds of sugars. It is important because cells in an organism use it as a source of energy. Turning glucose into energy is called cellular respiration, which is done inside the cells of a living organism. Excess glucose is converted to fats and are stored in adipose tissues.

Glucose is made by plants in a process called photosynthesis.  It can also be made by animals in their liver or kidneys.

Having the right amount of glucose available in a person's body is important. Glucose is essential in the proper functioning of the brain. It can be measured with a simple blood test. People that do not have enough glucose have low blood sugar levels. This is a health condition called hypoglycemia. People with too much glucose have hyperglycemia. They might have a health condition called diabetes.

Its chemical formula is C6H12O6. This means it has six carbon atoms, 12 hydrogen atoms, and six oxygen atoms bonded together.
How sugars work, and how glucose can be formed, was studied by a German chemist named Emil Fischer in the 1890s. His work earned him the 1902 Nobel Prize in Chemistry.

Isomers

There are two forms of glucose, the α- and β- forms. The only difference between them is the position of the hydroxyl group, above and below the plane of the ring of the molecule.

For α-glucose, the hydroxyl (-OH) group is below the ring, while for β-glucose, the (-OH) group is above.

References

Monosaccharides
Cellulose is the main chemical that forms the main structure of plants.  It is the most abundant macromolecule and the most common organic compound on  Earth.  It is also a kind of fiber.  Cellulose is a very complex carbohydrate, consisting of 3,000 or more glucose units.  Cellulose was discovered by Anselme Payen in 1838.  He isolated it from plant matter and determined its chemical formula.

Properties 
Cellulose has no taste. It is odorless and hydrophilic, meaning it attracts water.  It is insoluble in water and most organic solvents.  It is chiral and is biodegradable.

Cellulose is made from a form of glucose and makes up most of the cell wall of plant cells. This is what keeps a plant in shape. Humans and other animals cannot digest cellulose but some animals such as termites and ruminants use bacteria to digest it.
It is a polysaccharide, which is repeating units of a monosaccharide joined together by a glycosidic bond by a condensation reaction.  It is very tough because when you join beta glucose together, they are opposite ways up. The bonds are straight, forming straight chains. There are hydrogen bonds between the polymers.

These fibers are in bundles of about 40, called microfibrils. Microfibrils are embedded in a hydrated network of other polysaccharides. The cell wall is assembled in place. The parts are made inside the cell and then assembled by enzymes associated with the cell membrane.

Uses
Uses 

It is mainly used to make paper. It is also used to make as cotton, linen, and rayon for clothes, nitrocellulose for explosives, and cellulose acetate for films. Cellulose is used as insulation in transformers, cables, and other electrical equipment. Microcrystalline cellulose and powdered cellulose are used as inactive fillers in drug tablets. Cellulose derivatives are used as emulsifiers, thickeners and stabilizers in processed foods. Cellulose can be converted into cellophane. Cellulose is used to make water-soluble adhesives and binders such as methyl cellulose and carboxymethyl cellulose.

Celluose can also be used as a anti-caking agent in some foods like pre-shredded cheese.

References 

Carbohydrates
Molecular biology
Wikiquote is a sister (related) project of Wikipedia. It is one of many projects run by the Wikimedia Foundation.

Wikiquote was based on an idea by Daniel Alston and made by Brion Vibber. The goal of the project is to produce a large reference of quotations from famous people, books, and proverbs, and to give details about them.
Languages 
The project was first created in English. However, in July 2004, more languages were added. Some of there are:
 Afrikaans language: Wikiquote
 Arabic language: ويكي الاقتباس
 Bulgarian language: Уикицитат
 Catalan language: Viquidites
 Chinese language: 維基語錄
 Danish language: Wikiquote
 Dutch language: Wikiquote
 English language: Wikiquote
 French language: Wikiquote
 German language: Wikiquote
 Greek language: Βικιφθέγματα
 Hindi language: Wikiquote
 Hebrew language: ויקיציטוט
 Hungarian language: Wikidézet
 Italian language: Wikiquote
 Japanese language: ウィキクォート
 Korean language: 위키인용집
 Latin language: Vicicitatio
 Malayalam language: മലയാളം Wikiquote
 Marathi language: Wikiquote
 Punjabi language: Wikiquote
 Pushto language: Wikiquote
 Persian language: ویکی‌گفتاورد
 Polish language: Wikicytaty
 Portuguese language: Wikiquote
 Romanian language: Wikicitat
 Russian language: Викицитатник
 Spanish language: Wikiquote
 Tamil language: விக்கி மேற்கோள் 
 Telugu language: వికీవ్యాఖ్య
Thai language: วิกิคำคม
 Turkish language: Vikisöz
 Urdu language: Wikiquote
As of May 2016, 31 versions each have more than 1,000 articles. The largest Wikiquote is the English project with over 26,500 content pages, followed by the Italian and Polish versions, both with over 22,000 content pages. In total, 60 languages have over 100 content pages.

In February 2010, the Simple English Wikiquote was locked and closed. It can still be read, however.

References

Other websites 
 Main page

Wikimedia
Wikis
Brasília () is the capital city of Brazil. The name is commonly spelled Brasilia in English. The city and its Federal District are in the Central-West region of the country. It is on a plateau known as Planalto Central. Brasília has a population of about 2,557,000 (3,599,000 in the metropolitan area) as of the 2008 IBGE estimate. It is the fourth largest city in Brazil. But the Brasília metropolitan area is the sixth largest in the nation. It is listed as a World Heritage Site. Brasília hosts 124 foreign embassies.
Viewed from above, the main portion of the city resembles an airplane or a butterfly. The Monumental Axis goes east-west and holds government buildings and monuments.  The other axis is curved in a north south direction. The city is commonly referred to as Capital Federal, or simply BSB. As the national capital, Brasília is the seat of all three branches of the Brazilian government. The city also hosts the headquarters of many Brazilian companies. Planning policies place residential buildings around expansive urban areas. The plan includes large avenues. It divides the city into sectors with different purposes, including accommodation and tourism.  The city is built around an artificial lake, Lake Paranoá.
Residents of Brasília are known as brasilienses or candangos. (The candangos are people who moved to Brasília when the city was established). In local usage, the word "Brasília" usually refers only to the First Administrative Region within the Distrito Federal (Federal District), where the most important government buildings are.  Brasília has a unique status in Brazil, as it is an administrative division rather than a legal municipality like nearly all cities in Brazil. In the rest of Brazil, Brasília is almost always means the Brazilian Federal District.  There are several "satellite cities," which are also part of the Federal District.

History 
The city was planned and developed as a new town in 1956. Lúcio Costa was the principal urban planner and Oscar Niemeyer was the principal architect. Roberto Burle Marx was the landscape designer. They created the Plano Piloto de Brasília. Brasília was built in 41 months, from 1956 to April 21, 1960.
On 8 January 2023, supporters of former President Jair Bolsonaro stormed and invaded the Praça dos Três Poderes in Brasília, taking over the offices of the Supreme Federal Court, National Congress of Brazil and the Palácio do Planalto. The event was seen as an attempted coup d'état to overturn the election results of the 2022 general election.

Transportation 
The Brasília subway system (Metrô de Brasília) has 24 stations on two lines  long. The subway currently covers the south half of the metropolitan area. In 2010, a light rail line was added.  By 2014, the light rail line will go from the end of the north wing of the city to the airport in the south.

Brasília International Airport is the main airport in Brasília, connecting the capital to all major Brazilian cities and many airports in other countries. It is the third most important airport of Brazil, in terms of passengers and aircraft movements.

References

Capital of Brazil
World Heritage Sites in South America
Brazilian Federal District
A musical genre is how people describe different styles of music. Some of the most common music genres are:

 Blues
 Country
 Funk
 Gospel
 Hip hop
 Jazz
 Pop
 Rock
 Rhythm and blues
 Soul music
 Alternative

Plus there are several more common music genres. Religious music is also common, such as hymns, choir music and many more.

To provide an example of cross genre descriptions; Joe Walsh is to the SteelDrivers as Metallica is to Trampled by Turtles. Furthermore, The Rolling Stones are to Flatt and Scruggs as Nickelback is to Doyle Lawson and Quicksliver.

Related pages
 Musicology
Dim sum is a way of serving Chinese and/or Vietnamese food. A range of different foods are served to the people who are eating, including pork wontons, fried shrimp, and egg rolls.
They are served on small wooden platters, and are usually steamed.

Gallery

Other websites 
 Hong Kong Tourism Board Guide to Dim Sum 
 The mysterious art of dumpling cuisine , Asia Times, April 6, 2002

Chinese food
Super Smash Bros. Melee, known in Japan as  is a video game where players can choose from many people from famous Nintendo games and have them fight each other. Players can fight alone or team up with someone else against a friend. This game is a sequel to Super Smash Bros. for the Nintendo 64. Super Smash Bros. Melee is for the Nintendo GameCube. The subsequent game is Super Smash Bros. Brawl for the Wii.

Characters
Super Smash Bros. Melee takes 26 characters from many of Nintendo's series. It includes all 12 veteran characters from Super Smash Bros. 64, and adds 14 new characters, including Princess Peach and Bowser from the Super Mario Bros. series, Princess Zelda/Sheik and Ganondorf from The Legend of Zelda, and new characters like Ice Climbers from Ice Climber and Marth from Fire Emblem. Some characters seem to play more like other characters who were in the first game, like Ganondorf compared to Captain Falcon.
Sakurai planned to include more characters, including Diddy Kong, Meta Knight, King Dedede, Balloon Fighter, Urban Champion, Ayumi Tachibana, Sonic the Hedgehog, Bubbles, Excitebike, Solid Snake, and Lucas, but did not have time to fit them in. All of them except for Balloon Fighter made it into Super Smash Bros. Brawl.

Default characters
Bowser
Captain Falcon
Donkey Kong
Fox McCloud
Ice Climbers
Kirby
Link
Mario
Ness
Pikachu
Princess Peach
Samus Aran
Yoshi
Princess Zelda/Sheik

Unlockable characters
Dr. Mario
Falco Lombardi
Ganondorf
Jigglypuff
Luigi
Marth
Mewtwo
Mr. Game & Watch
Pichu
Roy
Young Link

Items
Items from different games can fall from the sky, like Poké Balls from Pokémon or Mushrooms from Mario. These items can be used in different ways. For example, Poké Balls can summon Pokémon, and Mushrooms can either grow the person whom touches it, unless it is a Poison Mushroom which makes them shrink.
Stages
Super Smash Bros. Melee has many stages that players can battle on. Most of the stages are based on Nintendo series like Mario, Pokémon, and The Legend of Zelda.

Home Stages

Tournament Play
Super Smash Bros. Melee has become very popular in tournaments. These tournaments do not use items or most stages, believing that these make the game unfair. In tournaments, however, a lot of characters are not strong enough to win. Some of the best characters for tournaments are Fox McCloud, Falco Lombardi, and Jigglypuff.

2001 video games
Nintendo GameCube-only games
Super Smash Bros.
in Chemistry 
A catalyst is something which changes the rate of a chemical reaction. An example is when manganese oxide (MnO2) is added to hydrogen peroxide (H2O2), and the hydrogen peroxide starts to break up into water and oxygen. Catalysts are either of natural or synthetic origin. Catalysts are useful because they leave no residue in the solution they have sped up. A catalyst can also be used in a reaction again and again as it is not used up. There are many catalysts in our body which play an important part in many biochemical reactions. These are called enzymes. Most catalysts work by lowering the 'activation energy' of a reaction. This allows less energy to be used, thus speeding up the reaction. The opposite of a catalyst is an inhibitor. Inhibitors slow down reactions. Some of them are found in snake venom and are dangerous for our nervous system or heart.

Related pages 
 Enzymes are biological catalysts
Hydrogen peroxide is a chemical compound. Its molecular formula is H2O2. It is used as a cleaner, and as hair bleach. In a concentration of 3% (meaning that there are 3 grams of hydrogen peroxide for 100 grams of a water solution), it can be used to treat wounds. Over time it will slowly become oxygen gas and water through decomposition. 

Chemists often use hydrogen peroxide in chemical reactions. It is a very strong oxidising agent when used with acid and water. Oxidising agents take electrons from other compounds.

2 Fe2+(aq) + H2O2 + 2 H+(aq) → 2 Fe3+(aq) + 2 H2O(l)

Here hydrogen peroxide takes an electron from the Fe2+ ions and becomes water.

It can also be a reducing agent when used with other compounds. When it acts as a reducing agent, oxygen gas is also produced. Reducing agents give electrons to other compounds. This method is often used to make oxygen in laboratories.

NaOCl + H2O2 → O2 + NaCl + H2O
Hydrogen peroxide can be bought in shops when mixed with lots of water but is very dangerous when the concentration is higher. It is flammable and causes burns.

Oxygen compounds
Hydrogen compounds
Mayotte is an island in the Indian Ocean next to Madagascar. 
It is geographically part of the Comoros Islands, but politically, it is part of France.

Related pages 
 Communes of Mayotte

Other websites 
 
 
 Open Directory Project - Mayotte  directory category
 Mayotte travel information at Wikivoyage
 Analysis of the linguistic situation on Mayotte  (in French)

 
Geography of the Comoros
Halldór Ásgrímsson (8 September 1947 – 18 May 2015) was the Prime Minister of Iceland. He became the leader of the Progressive Party in 1994. On September 15, 2004, he took over as Prime Minister from the Independence Party leader, Davíð Oddsson. He resigned in 2009.

Halldór died from a heart attack at a Reykjavik hospital, aged 67.

References

1947 births
2015 deaths
Deaths from myocardial infarction
Prime Ministers of Iceland
Somaliland (;  ,  ), officially the Republic of Somaliland (,  is a territory that covers the former protectorate British Somaliland. De facto, .Somaliland  It is next to Djibouti to the west, the Federal Republic of Ethiopia to the south and Somalia to the east.

The area used to be the Somaliland area which was part of the British empire along with Jubaland, which was called Trans-juba. It was called the British Somaliland Coast Protectorate before 26 June 1960.  called the "Somaliland Republic". In May of 1991, after a war, Somaliland regained independence.  

Currently, Somaliland  international organization views Somaliland as an independent country. Instead, they see Somaliland as a part of Somalia. 

Somaliland has a republican government with free elections. The capital is Hargeisa. Berbera is a beautiful city on the coast. About 55% of the people of Somalilands are nomads. Most Somalis are Sunni Muslims. Some people are part of Sufi orders.
A territory in the west, called  Khatumo State has been disputed between Somaliland and Puntland.

Demographics

Language
Most people in Somaliland speak Somali and Arabic. Article 6 of the Constitution of 2001 says the official language of Somaliland is Somali, but Arabic is a mandatory subject in school. English is also spoken and taught in schools.

The main Somali dialect is Standard Somali. Standard Somali is spoken in most of Somalia and in countries that are next to it. Standard Somali is used by almost all of the media in the Somaliland region.

Religion
Almost all Somalilanders are Muslims. This is because Islam is the state religion, and practicing a religion other than Islam is against the law. Small amounts of non-Islamic traditions exist in Somaliland, but Islam is very important to the Somali sense of national identity.

References

Other websites 

 Somaliland's official website

 
States of Somalia
The NSDAP 25 points manifesto is a 25-point plan written by Anton Drexler and edited and supported by Adolf Hitler for the National Socialist German Workers' Party (NSDAP), Nazi Party, when it was founded in 1920.

The purpose of the 25 points was explained in the fifth chapter of the second volume of Mein Kampf

The manifesto in detail
(This is a simple English translation of the original NSDAP manifesto of 1920; unnecessary or explanatory text has been left out)
We want all Germans to live in "Germany" 
 We want Germany to be treated the same as other nations, and we want the peace treaties of Versailles to be cancelled.
 We want land and territory (colonies) to feed our people and to settle our surplus population.
 Only Germans may be citizens of Germany. Only those of German races may be members of the nation. Their religion does not matter. No Jew may be a citizen.
 Non-citizens may live in Germany, but there will be special laws for foreigners living in Germany.
 Only citizens can vote for parliament and councils, or vote on laws. Everyone who works for the German government, a state government or even a small village must be a citizen of Germany. We will stop giving people jobs because of the political party they are in. Only the best people should get a job.
 We think that the government's first job is to make sure every citizen has a job and enough to eat. If the government cannot do this, people who are not citizens should be made to leave Germany.
No-one who is not of a German race should be allowed to live in Germany. We want anyone who is not of a German-race who started living in Germany after 2 August 1914 to leave the country.
 All citizens shall have equal rights and duties.
 Every citizen should have a job. Their work should not be selfish, but help everyone. Therefore we demand
 The abolition of incomes unearned by work. The breaking of the slavery of interest
 So many people die or lose their property in a war, it is wrong for other people to make money from the war. Anyone who made money from the war should have all that money taken away.
 We want all very big corporations to be owned by the government.
 Big industrial companies should share their profits with the workers.
 We want old age pensions to be increased.
 We want
 to create a healthy middle class
 to split up big department stores, and let small traders rent space inside them
 to make State and town governments try to buy from small traders.
We want to change the way land is owned. We also want
 a law to take over land if the country needs it, without the government having to pay for it;
 to abolish ground rent; and
 to prohibit land speculation (buying land just to sell to someone else for more money).
 Crimes against the common interest must be punished with death.
 We want the Roman law system changed for the German common law system.
 We want to change the system of schools and education, so that every hard-working German can have the chance of higher education.
 What is taught should concentrate on practical things
 Schools should teach civic affairs, so that children can become good citizens
 If a poor parent cannot afford to pay the government should pay for education.
 The State must protect health standards by
 protecting mothers and infants
 stopping children from working
 making a law for compulsory gymnastics and sports, and
 supporting sports clubs for young men.
We want to get rid of the old army and replace it with a people's army that would look after the ordinary people, not just the rich officer-class
 We want the law to stop politicians from being anti-German, and newspapers from writing about them. To make a German national press we demand:
 that all editors of, and writers in the German language newspapers are members of the nation (of a German race);
 Foreign newspapers need permission from the government. They must not be printed in the German language;
 Non-Germans cannot own or control German newspapers.
 any non German who does own or control a newspaper will be made to leave Germany, and the newspaper closed down,
 Newspapers which criticise the country or the government are not allowed.
 Art and books which support foreign ideas, should be banned.
We want to allow all religions in the State, unless they offend the moral feelings of the German race. The NSDAP is Christian, but does not belong to any denomination. The NSDAP will fight the Jewish self-interest spirit, and believes that our nation will be strongest only if everyone puts the common interest before self-interest.
 We will
 create a strong central government for the Reich;
 give Parliament control over the entire government and its organizations;
 form groups based on class and job to carry out the laws in the various German states.
The leaders of the Party promise to work—if need be to sacrifice their very lives—to put this programme into action.

Notes

Nazism
1920s in Germany
A penny (plural pence in the United Kingdom, plural pennies in Canada and the United States) is a coin used by several countries where people speak English. This includes United Kingdom, the United States, where a penny is worth one cent, and Canada, where "penny" is an informal term for one cent coins. Canada stopped minting the penny in 2012.
Popular Culture
In British and American culture, finding a penny is often thought to be lucky. A popular expression is "Find a penny, pick it up, and all the day you'll have good luck." If someone asks you "A penny for your thoughts" They're wanting to know what you think. The phrase was first written in John Heywood's 1547 Dialogue Conteinying the Nomber in Effect of All the Proverbes in the Englishe Tongue, written when the penny was still a sterling silver coin. The possibly related American expression "my two cents" (meaning "my humble opinion") uses the low value of the penny to make fun of one's own thoughts in a funny way. In British English, to "spend a penny" means to urinate. The phrase does actually imply spending an actual penny: coin-operated public toilets commonly charged a predecimal penny, starting with the Great Exhibition of 1851. Around Decimal Day, British Rail introduced the "Superloo", better public toilets that charged 2p (roughly the equivalent of 6d.).

Related pages
Penny sterling
References

Coins
Former currencies of the United Kingdom
Matthew Abram "Matt" Groening (born February 15, 1954) is an American cartoonist, screenwriter, producer, animator, author, musician, comedian, and voice actor. He is the creator of the comic strip Life in Hell, as well as two successful television series, The Simpsons and Futurama.

Groening has won 12 Primetime Emmy Awards, ten for The Simpsons and two for Futurama as well as a British Comedy Award for "outstanding contribution to comedy" in 2004. In 2002, he won the National Cartoonist Society Reuben Award for his work on Life in Hell. He received a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame on February 14, 2012.

Early life
He was born on February 15, 1954 in Portland, Oregon, the middle of five children. His mother Margaret Ruth was once a teacher. His father Homer Philip Groening was a filmmaker, advertiser, writer and cartoonist. Groening has Norwegian and German ancestry.
Groening grew up in Portland, and attended Ainsworth Elementary School, Lincoln High School and also The Evergreen State College in Olympia, Washington.

Personal life
Groening identifies himself as agnostic and liberal. He has often made campaign contributions to Democratic Party candidates. His first cousin, Laurie Monnes Anderson, is a member of the Oregon State Senate representing eastern Multnomah County.

He has been married twice. Groening and Deborah Caplan married in 1986. They had 2 sons - Homer (who is called Will) and Abe. Couple split up in 1999. In 2011, Groening married Argentinian artist Agustina Picasso and became stepfather to her daughter Camille. In May 2013, Picasso gave birth to Nathaniel Philip Picasso Groening who was named after American writer Nathanael West.

References

Other websites
Other websites

 
 Incomplete list of Matt Groening appearances on The Simpsons  at The Simpsons Archive
 The Story (1969) – Matt Groening tells a story to his sisters Lisa & Maggie in this film by father, Homer
 The Simpsons – a Norwegian/German success (in Norwegian)
 Forvo: Matt Groening Pronunciation

Actors from Portland, Oregon
Writers from Oregon
American agnostics
American cartoonists
Democrats (United States)
American voice actors
1954 births
Living people
Comedians from Oregon
Nikolai Ivanovich Lobachevsky (, 1792–1856) was a Russian mathematician. He became known for his achievements in non-Euclidean geometry.

Biography 
Lobachevsky was born in Nizhny Novgorod, Russia. His parents were Ivan Maksimovich Lobachevsky, a clerk in a landsurveying office, and Praskovia Alexandrovna Lobachevskaya. In 1800, his father died and his mother moved to Kazan. In Kazan, Nikolai Ivanovich Lobachevsky attended Kazan Gymnasium. He graduated in 1807 and then went to Kazan University which was founded just three years earlier, in 1804.
At Kazan University, Lobachevsky was influenced by professor Johann Christian Martin Bartels (1769–1833). Bartels was a former teacher and friend of German mathematician Carl Friedrich Gauss. Lobachevsky received a Master's degree in physics and mathematics in 1811. In 1814, he became a lecturer at Kazan University, and in 1822 he became a full professor. He served in many administrative positions and was the rector of Kazan University from 1827 to 1846. He retired (or was dismissed) in 1846. After this event his health rapidly deteriorated. In addition to teaching mathematics and physics at Kazan University Lobachevsky also was an astronomy teacher there. 

In 1832, he married Varvara Alexivna Moisieva. They had seven children.

1792 births
1856 deaths
Russian geometers
People from Nizhny Novgorod
A wildebeest (or gnu) is an animal. It is a large hoofed mammal in the Bovidae family. There are two species of wildebeest. Both live in Africa.

Taxonomy
 Genus Connochaetes
Blue wildebeest or brindled gnu (Connochaetes taurinus)
Black wildebeest or white-tailed gnu (Connochaetes gnou)

Size
Wildebeest grow to 1.15 to 1.40 metres (at the shoulder) and they weigh between 150 and 250 kilograms when they are fully grown. They live in the plains and open woodlands in southern Africa. The biggest herds can be found in the Serengeti. Wildebeest can live for more than 20 years.

What they eat
Like other members of the same family (antelopes, deer and goats, amongst others), they mainly eat grass. But since in the African grasslands, there is not always grass, wildebeest are forced to migrate to find food all year round. In May, about 1.5 million animals move from the grasslands to the woods. In November they move back; there is grass in the plains in summer.

Breeding and mating season
The cows (female Gnus) will calve (give birth to the young) in summer in the plains. After the females have given birth, the breeding season begins. The dominant males mark off (and defend) some territory. They do this with feces, and with scent.

Wildebeest are an important part of the ecosystem. With their feces, they fertilize the ground, and their trampling is good for new growth. They also provide food for predators, like lions and hyenas.

References
The Columbia Encyclopedia

Other websites 

The Great Migration , on migration patterns of the wildebeest
Wildebeest images

Bovids
Mammals of Africa
Gnu or GNU may mean:
Gnu, an animal
GNU, a computer operating system
The Serengeti (also Seremgeti) is a region of  savannah (woodlands and grasslands) in East Africa. The south of it (80%) belongs to Tanzania. The north of it is in Kenya. It is about 30,000 square kilometers, and one of the greatest areas for wildlife.

It has more than 1.6 million herbivores and thousands of predators. Wildebeests, gazelles, zebras and buffalos are the most common animals in the region.

This area is most famous for the migration that takes place every year.
Every year around October nearly 1.5 million herbivores travel towards the southern plains, crossing the Mara River, from the northern hills for the rains. And then back to the north through the west, once again crossing the Mara river, after the rains in around April. This phenomenon is sometimes also called the Circular Migration.

Also in this area is the archeologically significant Olduvai Gorge where some of the oldest hominid fossils are found.
The Serengeti region contains the Serengeti National Park, the Ngorongoro Conservation Area and Maswa Game Reserve in Tanzania and the Maasai Mara National Reserve in Kenya.

Serengeti National Park

Geography 
The park covers 14,763 km² (5,700 square miles) of grassland plains and savanna as well as riverine forest and woodlands. The park is in the north of the country, bordered to the north by the national Tanzania and Kenyan border, where it is continuous with the Masai Mara National Reserve. To the southeast of the park is Ngorongoro Conservation Area, to the southwest is Maswa Game Reserve, and to the western borders are Ikorongo and Grumeti Game Reserves, to the northeast is Loliondo Game Control Area.

Few people are allowed to live in the National Park. Exceptions the staff of the Park, researchers and staff of Frankfurt Zoological Society, and staff of the various lodges and hotels. The main settlement is at Seronera.
The park has three regions:
Serengeti plains: the endless, almost treeless grassland of the south. This is where the wildebeest breed, as they stay in the plains from December to May. Other hoofed animals–zebra, gazelle, impala, hartebeest, topi, buffalo, waterbuck–also occur in huge numbers during the wet season. Kopjes are granite mounds which are very common in the region, and they are great observation posts for predators, and a refuge for hyrax and pythons.
Western corridor: the "black cotton" (actually black clay) soil covers the swampy savannah of this region. Grumeti river is home to enormous Nile crocodiles, colobus monkey, and the martial eagle. The migration passes through from May to July.
Northern Serengeti: the landscape is dominated by open woodlands and hills, from Seronera in the South, to the Mara river into Kenya. Apart from the migratory wildebeest and zebra (which occur from July to August, and in November), the bushy savannah is the best place to find elephant, giraffe and dik dik.
Wildlife 

As well as the migration of ungulates, the park has a healthy stock of other resident wildlife, especially the "Big Five":
Lion: the Serengeti is believed to hold the largest population of lions in Africa due in part to the abundance of prey species. Currently there are more than 3000 lions living in this ecosystem.
African Leopard: these reclusive predators are commonly seen in the Seronera region but are present throughout the national park with the current population at around 1000.
African elephant: the herds are recovering from population lows in the 1980s caused by poaching, and are mostly in the northern regions of the park
Black Rhinoceros: mainly around the kopjes in the centre of the park, very few individuals remain due to rampant poaching. Individuals from the Masai Mara Reserve cross the park border and enter Serengeti from the northern section at times.
African Buffalo: still abundant and present in healthy numbers, but numbers have been somewhat reduced due to disease
The park also supports many further species, including cheetah, Thomson's and Grant's gazelle, topi, eland, water buck, hyena, baboon, impala, African wild dog and giraffe. The park also boasts about 500 bird species, including ostrich, secretary bird, Kori bustard, crowned crane, marabou stork, martial eagle, lovebirds and many species of vultures.

Ngorongoro Conservation Area 
Ngorongoro is the caldera of a huge extinct volcano, which is part of the Serengeti area.

The Ngorongoro Conservation Area (NCA) is a  UNESCO World Heritage Site 180 km (112 miles) west of Arusha in the Crater Highlands area of Tanzania.

Ngorongoro Crater 
The main feature of the NCA is the Ngorongoro Crater, a large volcanic caldera. The crater, which formed when a giant volcano exploded and collapsed on itself some two to three million years ago, is  deep and its floor covers .

Estimates of the height of the original volcano range from fifteen to nineteen thousand feet (4500 to 5800 metres) high.
Although thought of as "a natural enclosure" for a very wide variety of wildlife, up to 20% or more of the wildebeest (Connochaetes taurinus) and half the zebra (Equus burchelli) populations leave the Crater in the wet season. The Ngorongoro lions are significantly inbred, with many genetic problems passed from generation to generation. This is due to the very few new bloodlines that enter the local gene pool, because few migrating male lions enter the crater from the outside. Those who do enter the crater often cannot contribute to the gene pool. The crater's male lions, because of their large size (the result of an abundant food source), easily expel outside competitors.

Animal populations in the crater include most of the species in East Africa, but there are no impalas (Aepyceros melampus), giraffes (Giraffa camelopardalis), or crocodiles (Crocodylus niloticus).
The crater highlands on the side facing the easterly trade winds receives 800–1200 mm of rain a year and is covered largely in montane forest, while the less-steep west wall receives only 400–600 mm; this side is grassland and bushland dotted with Euphorbia bussei trees. The crater floor is mostly open grassland with two small wooded areas dominated by Acacia xanthophloea.

The Munge Stream drains Olmoti Crater to the north, and is the main water source draining into the seasonal salt lake in the center of the crater. This lake is known by two names: Makat as the Maasai called it, meaning salt; and Magadi. The Lerai Stream drains the humid forests to the south of the Crater, and it feeds the Lerai Forest on the crater floor - when there is enough rain, the Lerai drains into Lake Magadi as well. Extraction of water by lodges and NCA headquarters reduces the amount of water entering Lerai by around 25%.
The other major water source in the crater is the Ngoitokitok Spring, near the eastern crater wall. There is a picnic site here open to tourists and a huge swamp fed by the spring, and the area is inhabited by hippopotamus, elephants, lions, and many others. Many other small springs are around the crater's floor, and these are important water supplies for the animals and local Masaai, especially during times of drought.

Aside from herds of zebra, gazelle, and wildebeest, the crater is home to the "Big Five Game" of rhinoceros, lion, leopard, elephant, and buffalo. The crater plays host to almost every individual species of wildlife in East Africa, with an estimated 25 000 animals within the crater.
Following the recommendations of a committee of scientists after the 2000 drought, an ecological burning program was implemented in the crater, which entails annual or biannual controlled burns of up to 20% of the grasslands. Maasai are now permitted to graze their cattle within the crater, but must enter and exit daily.

Olduvai Gorge 

The conservation area also protects Olduvai Gorge, in the plains area. It is considered the seat of humanity after the discovery of the earliest known specimens of the human genus, Homo habilis  as well as early hominidae, such as Paranthropus boisei.

The Olduvai Gorge or Oldupai Gorge is a steep-sided ravine in the Great Rift Valley, which stretches along eastern Africa. Olduvai is in the eastern Serengeti Plains in northern Tanzania and is about thirty miles long. It is in the rain shadow of the Ngorongoro highlands and is the driest part of the region.
It is one of the most important prehistoric sites in the world. Research there has greatly developed our understanding of early human evolution. Excavation work there was pioneered by Mary and Louis Leakey in the 1950s. It is still continued today by their family. During the Pleistocene, the site was that of a large lake, the shores of which were covered with successive deposits of volcanic ash. Around 500,000 years ago seismic activity diverted a nearby stream which began to cut down into the sediments, revealing seven main layers in the walls of the gorge.

References

Other websites 
World Heritage Site 
 Flickr photos tagged serengeti

Biosphere reserves
Calderas
IUCN Category II
National parks in Africa
Volcanoes of Africa
World Heritage Sites in Africa
Geography of Kenya
Geography of Tanzania
Spiders (class Arachnida, order Araneae) are air-breathing arthropods. They have eight legs, and mouthparts (chelicerae) with fangs that inject venom. Most make silk. The spiders are seventh in number of species of all animal orders. About 48,000 spider species, and 120 families have been recorded by taxonomists. Over twenty different classifications have been proposed since 1900.p3 

Spiders live on every continent except for Antarctica, and in nearly every habitat with the exceptions of air and sea. 
Almost all spiders are predators, and most eat insects. They catch their prey in several ways. Some build a spider web, and some use a thread of silk that they throw at the insect. Some kinds of spiders hide in holes in the ground, then run out and grab an insect that walks by. Others will make web 'nets' to throw at passing insects. Or they go out and simply attack their prey. Some can jump quite well and hunt by sneaking close to an insect and then jumping on it.

Anatomy
Anatomy 

Spiders have a two-part body, the front part (cephalothorax) and the abdomen. Unlike insects, spiders do not have antennae. The more advanced spiders have a centralized nervous system, with their ganglia fused into one mass in the cephalothorax. Unlike most arthropods, spiders have no extensor muscles in their limbs, and extend them by hydraulic pressure.

Size range 
The smallest of full-grown spiders can be less than 4 mm. (0.1 inch). The largest of spiders can have a body length of 10 cm. (4 inches) or more. The largest can weigh 150 grams (5.3 oz). The largest of spiders are the tarantulas and the huntsman spiders. Some huntsman spiders in South East Asia can have a leg span of around 250–300 mm (9.8–11.8 in).

Spider eyes and other senses
Spiders and other arthropods have modified their cuticles into elaborate arrays of sensors. Various sensors, mostly bristles, respond to touch, from strong contact to very weak air currents. Chemical sensors provide equivalents of taste and smell. Spiders also have in the joints of their limbs sensors that detect forces and vibrations. In web-building spiders all these mechanical and chemical sensors are more important than the eyes. The eyes are more important to spiders that hunt actively. Like most arthropods, spiders lack balance sensors, and rely on their eyes to tell them which way is up.

Fangs 
The fangs are hollow, like the needles used to give injections. Spiders use their fangs to inject toxins that kill the insects they will eat. Some kinds of spider venom attack the nervous systems of their prey, and other kinds of venom attack body tissues.

Behavior

What most spiders eat
The black widow spider got its name because the females sometimes eat the males that mate with them. This may also happen in other species. Each species of spider has its own way of communicating with other spiders they meet. Because of the danger of being eaten, in some species the males have special hooks on their front legs with which they hold the female while they mate. Others bring the female something to eat. There are a few species in which the male spiders construct their own little webs that are connected to the webs of the females. In these species, the male is so much smaller than the female that it would be difficult for her to actually capture the male.

Most spiders have such poor vision that they will not even notice a dead insect. Jumping spiders are one exception to this rule. They have such good vision that they can find recently dead flies or other insects to eat.
Some spiders are not predators 
Spiders are basically predators, but some have other food sources. The jumping spider Bagheera kiplingi gets over 90% of its food from fairly solid plant material produced by acacias as part of a beneficial relationship with a species of ant.
Various species are known to feed on dead arthropods (scavenging), web silk, and their own shed exoskeletons. Pollen caught in webs may also be eaten, and studies have shown that young spiders have a better chance of survival if they have the opportunity to eat pollen. In captivity, several spider species are also known to feed on bananas, marmalade, milk, egg yolk and sausages.

Methods of catching prey

Webs 
The best-known method spiders use to capture prey is a sticky web. The placing of the web allows different spiders to trap different insects in the same area. Flat, horizontal webs allow them to trap insects that fly up from vegetation underneath, for example. Flat vertical nets allow them to trap insects in flight. The spiders that build webs usually do not see very well, but they are very sensitive to vibrations.
Underwater 
Females of the water spider Argyroneta aquatica build underwater "diving bell" webs which they fill with air and use while eating their prey, molting, mating, and raising offspring. They live almost entirely within the bells, darting out to catch prey animals that touch the bell or the threads that anchor it. A few spiders use the surfaces of lakes and ponds as "webs", detecting trapped insects by the vibrations that these cause while struggling.
Bola casting 
Net-casting spiders weave only small webs but then manipulate them to trap prey. They stretch their webs and then release them when prey strike them. Those of the family Deinopidae weave even smaller webs, hold them outstretched between their first two pairs of legs, and lunge and push the webs as much as twice their own body length to trap prey, and this move may increase the webs' area by a factor of up to ten. Experiments have shown that Deinopis spinosus has two different techniques for trapping prey: backwards strikes to catch flying insects, whose vibrations it detects; and forward strikes to catch ground-walking prey that it sees. These two techniques have also been observed in other deinopids. Walking insects form most of the prey of most deinopids, but one population of Deinopis subrufus appears to live mainly on tipulid flies that they catch with the backwards strike.
Mature female bolas spiders of the genus Mastophora build "webs" that consist of only a single "trapeze line", which they patrol. They also construct a bolas made of a single thread, tipped with a large ball of very wet sticky silk. They emit chemicals that resemble the pheromones of moths, and then swing the bolas at the moths. They catch about the same weight of insects per night as web-weaving spiders of similar size. The spiders eat the bolas if they have not made a kill in about 30 minutes, rest for a while, and then make new bolas. Juveniles and adult males are much smaller and do not make bolas. Instead they release different pheromones that attract moth flies, and catch them with their front pairs of legs.

Using trapdoors
Using trapdoors 

The primitive Liphistiidae, the "trapdoor spiders" (family Ctenizidae) and many tarantulas are ambush predators. They lurk in burrows, often closed by trapdoors and surrounded by networks of silk threads that alert these spiders to the presence of prey. Other ambush predators do without such aids, including many crab spiders. A few species that prey on bees, which see ultraviolet, can adjust their ultraviolet reflectance to match the flowers in which they are lurking. Wolf spiders, jumping spiders, fishing spiders and some crab spiders capture prey by chasing it, and rely mainly on vision to get their prey.

Capturing insects without using webs
Not all spiders use silk to net their prey. Instead, these spiders may capture insects by grabbing them and then biting them. Among these kinds of spiders the two best known are the wolf spiders and the jumping spiders.

Wolf spiders
Wolf spiders

A wolf spider will usually wait until an insect comes near to it, and then rush at the insect, grab it using its front legs, and then bite the insect so that its venom can do its work.

Female wolf spiders lay their eggs on a pad of silk and then draw the edges together to create a round ball that they carry along with them wherever they go. They hold their egg balls to their tail ends by using their silk. When the eggs hatch, the little spiders will crawl onto the mother's back, and she will carry them along with her for days or weeks.

Wolf spiders are very good mothers and will strongly protect both their egg balls and their infants. When the time comes, the little spiders will leave the mother and each will go its own way.

Jumping spiders
Jumping spiders

Jumping spiders have very good eyes and can see well. They sneak as close to an insect as they can, and then they jump onto the insect and immediately bite it. Since they often hunt in trees, bushes, and on the sides of walls, if the jumping spider misses it may fall off. But they have a way to save themselves from harm. Before they jump they fasten their silk to the place where they have been standing, and as they jump they let out a silk safety line. So if they fall they will catch themselves when they reach the end of their silk safety line. Sometimes a jumping spider will catch an insect and then fall while still holding onto the insect. But the spider is still safe.

Jumping spiders make little silken "tents" for themselves to sleep in. When they lay eggs they keep them inside such a shelter. They do not take their eggs with them when they go out to hunt.
For all male spiders it is dangerous to seek a mate. The female spider may not realize that the male is a spider of her kind, so she may try to eat it. The jumping spiders not only have visual patterns that identify them to each other, but the male jumping spider will do a special dance when it approaches a female of the same species. That way, the female can recognize that it is a male of her species. She will generally forget about eating for long enough to mate with the visiting male spider.

Jumping spiders have such good eyes that they will usually watch any human who tries to watch them. Some species are very shy and will run away if the human gets too close. But some species, such as Phidippus audax (the audacious or brave jumping spider) and Platycryptus undatus, can become calm if the human comes close to them slowly. Sometimes they will jump onto one of your fingers and then jump from finger to finger and from hand to hand. They seem to want to explore.
Hunting other spiders 
Some jumping spiders of the genus Portia hunt other spiders in ways that seem intelligent, outflanking their victims or luring them from their webs. Laboratory studies show that Portias instinctive tactics are only starting points for a trial-and-error approach from which these spiders learn very quickly how to overcome new prey species. However, they seem to be relatively slow thinkers, which is not surprising as their brains are vastly smaller than those of mammalian predators.

 Disguising as ants