Aarushhh/wikipedia-simple-splitted huggingface dataset:
People can also pay to dress up like geisha or  for the day. Being dressed up as a geisha or  is known as . Some dress-up services, like those in Kyoto, allow someone to walk around the city for the day in dress-up. However, they will not dress someone completely accurately so that real geisha and  cannot be confused with people in costumes. If someone wearing  wants to be dressed the exact same as a geisha or , they cannot walk around outside. Most, if not all,  services will take photographs of someone in dress-up for them to keep. Real geisha do not have the time to take pictures with tourists and so most women dressed as geisha or  who appear on the photos of tourists are in fact people in .
Young women who wish to become geisha now usually begin their training after they finish junior high school or even high school or college. Many women begin their careers as adults. Geisha still study traditional musical instruments like the , the  (bamboo flute), and drums, as well as traditional songs, Japanese traditional dance, tea ceremony, literature and poetry. By watching other geisha, apprentices also become skilled in the difficult traditions of dressing, makeup, and dealing with clients.
Geisha are often hired to go to parties and gatherings at tea houses or traditional Japanese restaurants (). Their time is measured by the time it takes an incense stick to burn, which called  ("incense stick fee") or  ("jewel fee"). In Kyoto, the terms  and , meaning "flower fees," are used instead. Clients hire the services of geisha through the geisha district's union or registery office, known as the , which takes care of the geisha's schedule and makes appointments for her to entertain customers and train in the traditional arts.

Training 

Traditionally, geisha began their training at a very young age. Although some girls were sold to become geisha as children, that was not normal practice in hanamachi with good reputation. Daughters of geisha were often educated as geisha themselves.
The first part of training is called "shikomi". When girls first arrived at the okiya, they used to be put to work as maids, or do everything they were told. The work was difficult to "make" and "break" the new girls. The most junior shikomi of the house had to wait late into the night for the senior geisha to return from work, sometimes at as late as two or three in the morning. During that stage of training, the shikomi went to classes at the hanamachi's geisha school. In modern times, that stage still exists, but it is less hard than before. Shikomi now become used to the traditions and dress of the karyūkai ("flower and willow world").
When an apprentice became skilled in the geisha arts and passed a final and difficult dance test, she was promoted to the second stage of training, the minarai, and not longer did housework. This stage still exists but is much shorter than before (only a month). The minarai learn in the field and go to banquets and dance with the geisha. However, they do not participate but just sit, watch, and learn from their onee-san (older sisters). Their kimono are more elaborate than even that of a maiko, and it does the talking for them.
After a short time, the third and most famous stage of training begins, the maiko. The apprentice geisha stayed in this stage for years. Maiko learn from their senior geisha and follow them around to every presentation that she does. The onee-san/imoto-san ("older sister/younger sister") relationship is very important. The onee-san teaches her maiko everything about working in the hanamachi. She teaches her the right ways of serving tea, playing the shamisen, and dancing and everything about the art of iki (see below). Maiko wear heavy white makeup and elaborate hairstyle and have their lips painted almost all the time. Their kimono and obi have more vibrant colors and richer embroidery than those of full geisha. Like the minarai, maiko charge less money to go to parties or gatherings than full geisha.
After a period of only six months (in Tokyo) or five years (in Kyoto), the maiko is promoted to a full geisha and charges full price for her time. Geisha use kimono of fewer colors and wear makeup only for work or dance because they are more mature than a maiko, and the simpler style shows her own natural beauty. Geisha remain as such until they retire.

Art of geisha and iki 

Geisha must be very skilled at traditional Japanese music, dance, and poetry since they use all three skills at their work. The arts of makeup, hairstyles, and clothing are very important as well.
The most important principle of a geisha is iki, which started in the 18th century as a reply to the extravagant ways of the courtesans (oiran) and those who liked their style. Oiran wore very elaborate clothes, makeup, and jewelry. Geisha preferred to be discreet, and more intelligent. They created iki as a style that gave more importance to conversation and wit. Instead of working with sex, as oiran then did and simple prostitutes still do, geisha try to be sexy. A geisha will flirt, tease, and joke with men but always with art and elegance. Japanese clients know that nothing more can be expected. Men enjoy the illusion of that which is never to be. Geisha do not have sex with clients for money.
Becoming a geisha needs such :discipline. A geisha believes she must be a work of art in herself. She works everyday to improve everything she does. A geisha's movements and her way of walking, sitting, and talking are very important. She is a geisha all the time, even when she is at home or not working. An example of the dedication is the old custom of kangeiko ("lessons in the cold"). Until the early 1920s, apprentice geisha would put their hands in icy water and then go outside in cold weather to practice playing the shamisen until their fingers bled.

Picture gallery

Related pages 
 Japanese tea ceremony
 Kimono
 Mineko Iwasaki
 Oiran

References

Other websites 

 Geiko and Maiko Photo Gallery , by Lubomir Cernota.
 Geisha and Maiko, Haruyo Morita's art.
 Coming of Age - Yukina: Japan. Documentary about a modern young woman who wishes to train to be a geisha. BBC.com

Japanese words and phrases
Entertainment occupations
Entertainment in Japan
Humanity could mean:

 The human race
 Human nature, the fundamental nature and substance of humans, "one's humanity"
 Compassion, altruism, etc.
 Humanities, those academic disciplines which study the human condition using methods that are largely analytic, critical, or speculative
Thomas Midgley (18 May 1889 – 2 November 1944), was an American inventor. His two most famous inventions are both now banned because they are dangerous for the world environment: the use of lead in petrol (gasoline)  and the use of chlorofluorocarbons (CFCs) in refrigerators.  Midgley was accidentally killed by something he was inventing.

Early life
Midgley was born in Beaver Falls, Pennsylvania.  His father was also an inventor.  He grew up in Columbus, Ohio, and graduated from Cornell University in 1911 with a degree in mechanical engineering.

Discovery of Leaded Gasoline/Petrol
Midgley began working at General Motors in 1916. In December 1921 Midgley discovered that the addition of Tetraethyllead to gasoline prevented "knocking" in internal combustion engines.
Discovery of Freon
In the 1930s Midgley  developed a non-poisonous substance called CFC (chlorinated fluorocarbon) for use in refrigerators, inhalers and aerosol spray cans.  He was given many high awards for his work and in 1944 he became president and chairman of the American Chemical Society.

His death
In 1940, at the age of 51, Midgley became ill with polio which left him disabled. It was to the point where it was hard to do every day tasks; like getting  out of bed.  He decided to invent a complicated  system of strings and pulleys to lift him from his bed. However, this plan backfired, and he got caught up in the ropes and died of strangulation.

After his death

Midgley died before the days when people realized that CFCs were destroying the ozone layer which prevents harmful rays from the sun reaching the earth.  They are now banned in refrigerators, but are still used in some countries.
In the United States it was not until 1973 that people started to produce gasoline without lead and, in 1996, the Clean Air Act banned the sale of leaded fuel for use in on-road vehicles.  However it was still legal in the U.S. for aircraft, racing cars, farm equipment, and marine engines until 2008.  Leaded gasoline is still common in South America, Africa, and some parts of Asia and the Middle East.

American chemists
American inventors
Cornell University alumni
Scientists from Pennsylvania
Scientists from Columbus, Ohio
Businesspeople from Pennsylvania
Businesspeople from Columbus, Ohio
1889 births
1944 deaths
Hovhannes Shiraz (Armenian: Հովհաննես Շիրազ) (April 27, 1915 - April 14, 1984) was a notable Armenian poet.

He was born Hovhannes (Onig) Garabedyan in the city of Alexandropol, then part of the Russian Empire (now Gyumri, Armenia). His first work called Beginning of Spring was published in 1935. Novelist Atrpet gave the talented poet the epithet "Shiraz", because "this youth's poems have the fragrance of roses, fresh and covered with dew, like the roses of Shiraz." Shiraz being one of Iran's major cities, famous for its roses and poets. Most of Shiraz's publications were poetry.

He married famous Armenian poetess Silva Kaputikyan. His son with Kaputikyan, Ara Shiraz, is a sculptor. A street in Julfa of Isfahan is named after him. In 2005 Levon Mkrtchyan released a documentary film titled "Hovhannes Shiraz".  Hayk Studio 43min.

1915 births
1984 deaths

Armenian poets
A polar low is a small sized and short-lived atmospheric low pressure system that is found over the ocean areas pole ward of the main polar front in both the Northern and Southern Hemispheres. The systems usually have a horizontal length scale of less than 1,000 km and live for less than a couple of days. They are part of the larger class of mesoscale weather systems. Polar lows can be difficult to detect using standard weather reports and are a problem to high-latitude operations, such as shipping and gas and oil platforms.

Polar lows have been also known as by using many other terms, such as comma cloud, mesocyclone, polar mesoscale vortex, Arctic hurricane, Arctic low, and cold air depression. Today the term is usually set aside for the more-energetic systems that have near-surface winds of at least gale force (17 m/s).

Other websites
 European Polar Lows Working Group 
 NSIDC 
 Polar Low Forecasting by MetEd
Further reading
Rasmussen,E.A. and Turner,J.(2003). Polar Lows: Mesoscale Weather Systems in the Polar Regions, Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, pp 612.

Meteorology
Pericles or Perikles (ca. 495–429 BC, , meaning "surrounded by glory") was a prominent and influential statesman. He also was an orator, and general of Athens. He lived between the Persian and Peloponnesian wars. He was descended, through his mother, from the Alcmaeonid family.

Pericles had great influence on Athenian society. Thucydides, a contemporary historian, described him as "the first citizen of Athens". Pericles turned the Delian League into an Athenian empire and led his countrymen during the first two years of the Peloponnesian War. The period during which he led Athens, roughly from 461 to 429 BC, is sometimes known as the "Age of Pericles,". This period though can include times as early as the Persian Wars, or as late as the next century.
In Pericles late 20’s he sponsored a major dramatic production for the festival of Dionysus, and he also entertained the whole city. Pericles also got married and had 2 sons. His wife's name is unknown. He associated with a courtesan named Aspasia. A decade later the people started to like him more and more. He got involved with the politics called Ephialtes. Pericles and Ephialtes took away the noble's powers. Ephialtes was later assassinated.
 
Pericles promoted the arts and literature. This was a chief reason Athens holds the reputation of being the educational and cultural centre of the ancient Greek world. He started an ambitious project that built most of the surviving structures on the Acropolis (including the Parthenon). This project made the city more beautiful., It also showed its glory, and gave work to the people. Furthermore, Pericles fostered Athenian democracy to such an extent that critics call him a populist.

Related pages 
 Pericles' Funeral Oration

References
References

Works about Pericles 
 Aristophanes, The Acharnians. See original text in Perseus program.
 . See original text in Perseus program.
 Aristotle, Politika (Politics). See original text in Perseus program.
 Cicero, De Oratore. See original text in Perseus program.
 Diodorus Siculus, Library, 12th Book. See original text in Perseus program.
 Herodotus, The Histories, VI. See original text in Perseus program.
 Plato, Alcibiades I. See original text in Perseus program, from 
 Plato, Gorgias. See original text in Perseus program, from 
 Plato, Menexenus. See original text in Perseus program, from 
 Plato, Phaedrus, See original text in Perseus program, from 
 Plutarch, Cimon. See original text in Perseus program.
  Plutarch, Pericles. See original text in Perseus program.
 Quintilian, Institutiones. See original text in The Latin Library.
, I-III. See original text in Perseus program.
 Xenophon (?), Constitution of Athens. See original text in  Perseus program
Gore Vidal, Creation (novel) for a fictional account of Pericles and a Persian view of the wars.

490s BC births
429 BC deaths
Ancient Greek generals
Ancient Greek politicians
Wind speed is the speed of the weather related air movement from one place to the next.

Wind speeds usually mean the movement of air in an outside environment, but the speed of movement of air inside is also important in many cases, including weather forecasting, aircraft and maritime operations, construction and civil engineering. High wind speeds can cause unpleasant side effects, and strong winds often have special names, including gales, hurricanes, and typhoons. The highest wind speed ever measured on earth, 253 miles per hour, was recorded on Barrow Island, Australia.

Measurement
The most simple method of measuring wind speed is to estimate the speed from the observed event against the Beaufort Scale. Obviously, this method is not the most accurate available, so each value on the scale represents a range of values, three on the scale, for example, covers the wind speeds between seven and ten knots.

Notes

Winds

es:Viento#Características físicas de los vientos
The Minoan civilization was a civilization on Crete called after Minos. It began in the Bronze Age between 3000 and 2700 BC. It lasted until about 1450 BC. The Minoan civilization is famous for its sea trading and well-planned cities. The Minoans had an agricultural system which relied mainly on olives and grapes. Their religion worshipped mostly goddesses. The Minoan civilization was later replaced by the Mycenaean culture.

Minoan Architecture
Cretans built palaces during their architecture era. In a non-royal palace there were many small rooms with cooler places to sit, because Crete got very hot in the summer. Palaces were used for many things. They were used as government centers, storerooms, stores, and administrative offices. Most palaces were very big. The Cretans might have gotten the money to create these palaces from working for the Egyptians. The royal palace was very different. Everyone had toilets, baths, and running water. The ones for the king and queen were very fancy. Their palace was fancy also. The architecture era was ended by a great fire. This era went from 2000 B.C. to 1450 B.C. Then they were no more

Further reading

http://www.historyforkids.org/learn/greeks/history/minoans.htm 
http://photo.pds.org:5005/student/article?id=ar028740
Minoan civilization -Academic Kids

Minoan culture
An alliance is an agreement made between two or more parties to benefit them.

The word is used mainly in war. Two or more countries that make an alliance promise to help one other during war. Such countries are called allies. Those countries are said to be allied.

An example of an alliance with more than two countries is the Central Powers during World War I. That alliance was made up of Germany, Austria-Hungary, the Ottoman Empire, and Bulgaria.

War
Persia is another name for Iran, a country in Western Asia. Sometimes it means only the southwestern part of Iran.

The Persian Empire ( - ) is another name for a few empires that ruled over modern-day Iran.

 Achaemenid Empire (550 BC – 330 BC), the first Persian Empire.
 Sassanid Empire (224 – 651 AD),  the second Persian Empire.
 Persia (1501-1935) under thé Safavid dynasty, Afsharid dynasty, Zand dynasty, Qajar dynasty and Pahlavi dynasty 
 Persian Empire, dynastic-states of Iranian origin that ruled Iran from the Medes to the Pahlavi period.

Persia may also refer to:
Persia, Iowa, a city in the United States
Persian Gulf, an extension of the Indian Ocean between Iran and the Arabian Peninsula
Fars Province, a province in Iran, also known as Pārs

Related pages
 Persian (disambiguation)
Prince of Persia, a series of video games
Epic poetry tells a dramatic story in a poem. There are characters in the story. It is usually long, and takes place in different settings. Epic poems started in prehistoric times as part of oral tradition. The Kyrgyz Epic of Manas is one of the longest written epics in history.

Beowulf is a typical example, written in Old English. Well-known people who wrote epics were Homer, Virgil, Ovid, Dante, Edmund Spenser and Milton. William Wordsworth's Prelude plays with epic ideas though the poem is autobiography.
Characteristics 
Epics have seven main characteristics: 
 The hero is outstanding. They might be important, and historically or legendarily significant.
 The setting is large. It covers many nations, or the known world.
 The action is made of deeds of great valor or requiring superhuman courage.
 Supernatural forces—gods, angels, demons—insert themselves in the action.
 It is written in a very special style (verse as opposed to prose).
 The poet tries to remain objective.
 Epic poems are believed to be supernatural and real by the hero and the villain
 
Conventions of epics: 
 It starts with the theme or subject of the story.
 In epics inspired from Western civilization the writer invokes a Muse, one of the nine daughters of Zeus.  The poet prays to the Muses to provide divine inspiration to tell the great story.  
 Narrative opens in medias res, or in the middle of things, usually with the hero at his lowest point. Usually flashbacks show earlier portions of the story.
Catalogues and genealogies are given. These long lists of objects, places, and people place the finite action of the epic within a broader, universal context. Often, the poet is also paying homage to the ancestors of audience members.
 Main characters give extended formal speeches.
Use of the epic simile.
 Heavy use of repetition or stock phrases.
 It presents the heroic ideals such as courage, honour, sacrifice, patriotism and kindness.
 An epic gives a clear window of the social and cultural patterns of the contemporary life. Beowulf thus shows the love of wine, wild celebration, war, adventure and sea-voyages.

Examples

Ancient 
20th to 10th century BC:
Epic of Gilgamesh  (Mesopotamia)
8th century BC to 3rd century AD:
Mahābhārata  (Indian mythology)
8th to 6th century BC:
Iliad and Odyssey, ascribed to Homer  (Greek mythology)
1st century BC:
Aeneid, Vergil (Latin)

Medieval 
Song of Roland
8th to 10th century AD
Beowulf (Old English)
12th to 13th century AD
Sirat Bani Hilal (Arabic)    *[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Taghribat_Bani_Hilal]*
10th to 12th century AD
Njál's saga (Old Norse)
14th century AD
Sir Gawain and the Green Knight (dialect of middle English)

Contemporary 
Omeros (1990), Derek Walcott

Empire of Dreams (1988), Giannina Braschi
Other page 
Lyric poetry - contrary notion

References

Poetry forms
Water lilies could mean:
 The water flowers named Nymphaea
 The famous series of paintings by Claude Monet: Water Lilies
Kousuke Atari (, Atari Kōsuke; born July 13, 1980 in Amami island, Kagoshima) is a Japanese singer and Shimauta utasha.

Albums

Other websites 
  
 Sony Music Online Japan Artist 
 Kousuke Atari at EPIC-JP.net

1980 births
Living people
Japanese singers
People from Kagoshima Prefecture
The Apostles, op. 49, is an oratorio for soloists, chorus and orchestra composed by Edward Elgar. It was first performed on October 14, 1903.

History of its composition
Elgar had been thinking for many years about writing a musical work about Jesus's Twelve Apostles.  He was already 42 when his orchestral work Enigma Variations was first performed in 1899.  He was then asked by the Birmingham Triennial Music Festival to compose a big work for the following year.  At first he thought of writing The Apostles, but then he realized he would need more than a year to write it, so he composed an oratorio called The Dream of Gerontius.  When it was first performed it was not a success.  This was because the orchestra and choir had only had two weeks to learn it and also because the conductor did not like Elgar's music anyway.  Then it was performed in Düsseldorf in Germany and shortly afterwards in Westminster Cathedral, London.  Both these performances were greeted with lots of applause.  Elgar was given a doctorate (title of Dr) by the University of Cambridge and he was becoming famous.  He started to work on The Apostles, and it was performed in Birmingham in 1903.
Originally Elgar wanted to write three oratorios which would belong together.  The Apostles is the first one, the second one became The Kingdom but the third one, which would have been about the Last Judgement, was never written.

The words and music

The oratorio is about the disciples of Jesus and the way they react to the amazing things that Jesus does.  There are six soloists: the narrator (who tells the story)-  he has a tenor voice and also does the part of St John, St Peter (bass), Jesus (bass) and Judas (bass) and the two female singers: the soprano who is both the Blessed Virgin and the angel Gabriel, and the mezzo-soprano who is Mary Magdalene.

Sometimes The Apostles is criticized for not being a carefully thought out dramatic story.  Elgar was more interested in what makes people behave in the way they do.  He was particularly interested in the two sinners Mary Magdalene and Judas Iscariot.
The orchestra is very big.  The music includes the call of the shofar.  Often this is played on a brass instrument.  There is a double choir and a small choir (semichorus).

The parts of the oratorio
The work is in two parts and seven sections, each played without a break. Elgar chose the words himself.  He spent a lot of time looking at different translations of the Bible and combining sentences from several of the versions.
(Part 1) "The Calling of the Apostles". The music begins just before dawn; the sun rises, and one by one the Apostles are chosen.
 "By the Wayside". This shows Jesus's teaching, and includes the Beatitudes.
 "By the Sea of Galilee". This is all about Mary Magdalene.  After a stormy night she is converted (changes her behaviour to live a good life).
 (Part 2) "The Betrayal". This is all about Judas.  Elgar shows Judas as a person who was trying to make a situation in which Jesus would have to perform a miracle to prove that he was the Son of God.   In the end Judas despairs.
 "Golgotha". This is a short interlude, as is the following section.
 "At the Sepulchre". The story of the Resurrection is briefly told by the narrator and a chorus of angels.
 "The Ascension". Elgar is not so interested in the actual miracle.  The music is really about the Apostles who are going to start the Christian Church on Earth.
Evaluation
Unlike The Dream of Gerontius which people did not like the first time they heard it, The Apostles was an immediate success with audience and critics.  People were getting used to the kind of big oratorio that Elgar was writing.  However, today The Dream of Gerontius is the most popular of Elgar's oratorios. The Apostles is a strange mixture of words from different parts of the bible, but it has some very beautiful music.  Elgar often wrote the music first and then added the words afterwards.

Elgar uses leitmotifs in this work: melodies that are associated with particular people or ideas.  He got this idea from Wagner.  Some of the leitmotifs heard in The Apostles can also be heard in The Kingdom.

Oratorios
Compositions by Edward Elgar
A knot is a unit of speed. It is abbreviated kt or kn. It is a non-SI unit accepted for use with the SI. It is used around the world in meteorology and for maritime and aviation purposes.

Definition 
1 international knot = 1 nautical mile per hour = 1.852 kilometres per hour exactly. This is based on the internationally agreed length of the nautical mile, as adopted by the US in 1954 (which previously used the US nautical mile of 1853.248 m), the UK in 1970 (which previously used the UK or Admiralty nautical mile of 1853.184 m) and other countries. This is the definition used in most, if not all, modern circumstances.  Knot is sometimes used for the nautical mile itself, but this is incorrect.
The speed of a vessel relative to the fluid in which it travels is usually measured in knots.  This may be referred to as 'boat speed', 'vessel speed' and, for aircraft, 'air speed'. The speeds of relevant fluids, such as tidal streams, river currents and wind speeds, are also usually specified in knots. Knots are then also used to describe the actual speed of a vessel over the ground (SOG) and for its rate of progress toward a distant point ('velocity made good' or VMG).

Conversions 
One (international) knot is the same as 1.852 kilometres per hour (km·h−1), and is approximately equal to the following:

 101.268591 feet per minute
 1.687810 feet per second
 514.4444 mm per second (mm·s−1) 
 1.150779 mile (statute) per hour (mph)
 0.99936 Admiralty knot
Discussion 
Although knots do not fit within the primary SI system, they are used for nautical and aviation use  for navigational reasons, because the length of a nautical mile is almost identical to a minute of latitude. As a result, distance in nautical miles on a navigational chart can easily be measured by using dividers and the latitude indicators on the side of the chart.

Related pages
 Metre per second

References

Other websites 
 Non-SI units accepted for use with the SI, and units based on fundamental constants  - At one time, the knot, along with the nautical mile, was discouraged for use by the BIPM, but it is now officially accepted for use (as of the 8th edition of the SI brochure), since its use is "expected to continue indefinitely", as well as having an exact SI definition.
 OnlineConversion.com: What is a knot? What is a nautical mile?

Units of velocity
Water transport
Knot could mean:

 knot – a fastening or securing of linear material such as rope, by tying or interweaving
 List of knots
 Knotted rope or quipu, an Incan record-keeping device
 Decorative knotwork in East Asia, including Chinese and Korean knots
 Knots per sq cm, a measure of quality in hand-knotted carpets
 Celtic knot, a decorative graphic representation of a knot

 knot (mathematics), an abstract representation of an interwoven linear object
 knot theory, the study of mathematical knots
 list of mathematical knots and links
 In the theory of splines, a knot is an interpolating point on the spline.

 knot (speed), a unit of water or air speed ideally equaling 1 nautical mile per hour, depending on the relative motion of the medium

 knot (wood), a mark left in timber by the origin of branches; the knot's grain travels in a different direction to the trunk of the tree

 Knotwork, a neofolk musical duo comprising journalist Michael Moynihan and Annabel Lee.
In biology:
 Red Knot, a wading bird (simply called "Knot" in Europe)
 Great Knot, a wading bird 
 Knotted Marjoram, an alternative name for the herb Marjoram
 Knotted wrack, a seaweed
 Knotgrass or knotweed, a member of the buckwheat family

Knot could also mean:
 the bulbus glandis, a part of the penis of a canine, in animal anatomy
 a knot garden, an elaborate interlace of tightly-clipped low hedging 
 a tight cluster or group, in statistics
 a type of join, in figurative language, as in a marriage
 a small, hard, tender spot in a muscle referred to as a kink or trigger point
 Cramp, a strong muscle contraction resulting in pain

Knots could mean:
Knots (film), a 2004 film starring Scott Cohen and Annabeth Gish
Knots, a 1970 book on psychology by R. D. Laing.

Related pages
 Knott
 Knots Landing, an American soap opera
 Gordian Knot (disambiguation)
 In some languages, the words for "node" and "knot" are the same.
The Royal Philharmonic Orchestra (RPO) is a British orchestra based in London. It travels around to give concerts in many places.

History 
The RPO was started just after World War II, in 1946, by the conductor Sir Thomas Beecham. Beecham did not start to get his players together until three weeks before the first concert which took place in Croydon on September 15, 1946. Beecham was principal conductor until his death in 1961.

When the orchestra toured the United States in 1950 they were the first British orchestra to visit America since the London Symphony Orchestra in 1912.
Beecham controlled all the organization of the orchestra. After Beecham’s death, the orchestra was made into a self-governing group, like the other London orchestras. They went through some difficult years. In 1963 the Royal Philharmonic Society decided they would stop asking the RPO to play for their concerts, and in Glyndebourne, where the RPO had played for the opera since 1948, the London Philharmonic Orchestra became the resident orchestra instead. Sir Malcolm Sargent helped the orchestra to put on its own concerts at a cinema in north London.

The orchestra had made an agreement with the Royal Philharmonic Society about the concerts it would play. This meant it could call itself “Royal”. In the 1960s the work they were doing no longer allowed them to call themselves “Royal”, so in 1966 the Queen officially gave them the title “Royal”.

In 1992 the orchestra appointed Peter Maxwell Davies as associate conductor and composer of the RPO.
On April 7, 1994, the Royal Philharmonic had the honour of performing at the Vatican in the historic "Papal Concert to Commemorate the Holocaust" with Sir Gilbert Levine.

The RPO give a series of concerts in the Cadogan Hall, London, and in the Royal Albert Hall. They tour all over Britain and also abroad. In the period 2002-2007 they played in 30 different countries.

Recordings 
The orchestra made many recordings with Sir Thomas Beecham. In 1964 Igor Stravinsky recorded his opera "The Rake's Progress" with the RPO. From 1964 to 1979 they recorded many Gilbert and Sullivan operas with the D’Oyly Carte Opera Company.

Non-classical work 
The Royal Philharmonic Concert Orchestra is part of the same organization. They spend their time playing lighter classical music. The RPO have also worked with pop music groups and has given its own series of children’s concerts. In 2007 they announced a series of free educational workshops for the local community.
Conducting leadership 
 Thomas Beecham (1946-1961)
 Rudolf Kempe (1962-1975)
 Antal Doráti (1975-1978)
 Walter Weller (1980-1985)
 André Previn (1985-1992)
 Vladimir Ashkenazy (1987-1994)
 Yuri Temirkanov (1992-1998)
 Daniele Gatti (1996-2009)
Charles Dutoit (2009-present)

Other websites 
 Royal Philharmonic Orchestra official website

British orchestras
Sir Adrian Cedric Boult CH (8 April 1889 – 22 February 1983) was an English conductor.

Life

Early years
Boult was born in Chester. He went to school in Westminster School and studied at Christ Church, Oxford. He then went to the Leipzig Conservatory where he learnt to conduct by watching the great Hungarian conductor Arthur Nikisch. He sang in choral festivals and at the Leeds Festival of 1913, where he went to watch Nikisch conduct.

During World War I he worked for the War Office, and while he was there in 1918 he planned a series of concerts with the London Symphony Orchestra, which included several important new British works including Gustav Holst's The Planets, A London Symphony by Ralph Vaughan Williams, and Elgar's Symphony No. 2. When Boult was a boy he had already met Elgar. Elgar now wrote to him and said he felt sure the future of his music was safe in Boult's hands. Boult was at the start of a great career in which he conducted a lot of 20th century British music.
Birmingham and the BBC
In 1924 Boult became conductor of the City of Birmingham Orchestra—now the City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra — and in 1930 he was made Director of Music at the BBC. When the BBC formed the BBC Symphony Orchestra, Boult also became its chief conductor, combining both jobs.

Boult became famous for conducting a wide repertoire, including the very modern-sounding music of Arnold Schoenberg. In 1933 he married Ann Wilson, the ex-wife of the singer and administrator Steuart Wilson. The marriage lasted until Boult's death. Boult was knighted in 1937.

War years and after
During World War II the BBC Symphony Orchestra was evacuated to Bristol. Even there it was not safe from the bombing and they moved again to Bedford.
After the war the BBC started the BBC Third Programme and Boult was involved in many new plans for concerts and recordings.
In 1948, Steuart Wilson became Director of Music at the BBC. Some people were saying that the music on the BBC was not so good and that Boult ought to retire when he became 60 in 1949. He then became conductor of the London Philharmonic Orchestra with whom he made many recordings.

Later years
Boult continued to conduct until he was very old. His many recordings, including music he had heard Nikisch conduct many years before. His last public performance was conducting Elgar's ballet The Sanguine Fan for London Festival Ballet at the Coliseum, in London on 24 June 1978. 

Boult was made a Companion of Honour in 1969.

Writings
Boult wrote two books about conducting, Thoughts on Conducting and A handbook on the technique of conducting. He also wrote an autobiography: My Own Trumpet (the expression “to blow one’s own trumpet” means: “to boast about oneself).  He also gave talks on the radio. He spoke in a very polite, formal style.
His conducting
Boult always conducted with a baton (conductor’s stick).  His conducting was very graceful, his movements were very simple and clear.

Discography
Studio albums
 Shostakovich: Symphony Nos. 6 & 9 (1995)
 On the Banks of Green Willow (1997)
 Vaughan Williams: Dona Nobis Pacem and Other Works (2001)
 Beethoven: Symphony No. 5; Leonore Overture No. 3 (2005)
 Havergal Brian: Symphony No. 1 'The Gothic''' (2010)
 Elgar: Symphony No. 2; Wagner: Tannhauser Overture & Venusberg Music'' (2013)

References

1889 births
1983 deaths
British autobiographers
British conductors
Companions of Honour
Knights Bachelor
Musicians from Cheshire
People from Chester
Franz Lehár (born 30 April 1870; died 24 October 1948) was an Austrian composer of Hungarian descent. He was the leading composer of operettas in the 20th century. He is still one of the most popular composers of light music.

His life
Lehár was born in Komáron in the Austro-Hungarian Empire. Today the town is called Komárno and it is in Slovakia. He was the eldest son of a bandmaster in the Austro-Hungarian army. He studied violin and composition at the Prague Conservatory. Antonín Dvořák told him he should be a composer. After graduation in 1899 he joined his father's band in Vienna, as assistant bandmaster. In 1902 he became conductor at the historic Vienna Theater an der Wien, where his first opera Wiener Frauen was performed in November of that year.
He is most famous for his operettas. The best known one is The Merry Widow (in German: Die lustige Witwe) which is probably the most popular of all operettas. He also wrote sonatas, symphonic poems, marches, and a number of waltzes, some of which come from his famous operettas. Some of the songs from his operettas have become very well-known, especially "Vilja" from The Merry Widow and "You Are My Heart's Delight" ("Dein ist mein ganzes Herz") from The Land of Smiles.

The tenor Richard Tauber sang in many of his operettas. Six of them had parts especially written for him.

Lehár died in 1948 in Bad Ischl, near Salzburg where he was also buried. His villa in Bad Ischl is now a museum in his memory.

1870 births
1948 deaths
Romantic composers
20th-century composers
Hungarian composers
The planet Neptune has a planetary ring system that is not very bright. It is made up of a few rings and some "ring arcs". The "ring arcs" are part of the outer ring called the Adams ring and are not to be seen anywhere else. The ring particles (small parts) are weirdly dark colored, and have large amounts of microscopic dust. Neptune has thirteen moons. Four of them orbit the planet inside the outermost rings.

Discovery and observations 
The rings around Neptune could not be seen from Earth with strong telescopes. The evidence that they were there was first seen when scientists were watching the planet as it passed between the Earth and a star. (When this happens, the light of the star is blocked. This is called "stellar occulation".) Scientists watched this happen 50 times, and on five of those times in the early 1980s they saw the star give a little "blink" just before or after the planet covered it. This meant that rings around the planet were blocking the light, but the rings were not complete.
In 1989 the unmanned spacecraft Voyager 2 flew by Neptune. Voyager 2 sent back pictures that gave most of the information that scientists now have about the rings of Neptune. The pictures also help scientists to know why the rings looked incomplete. Not only did the pictures give a closer view, but they also showed the rings in a way that cannot ever be seen from earth. From earth the rings are always seen with the light of the sun shining towards them. When the spacecraft went past the planet, it took pictures with the sun shining behind the rings, as well. Big particles in the rings looked dark against the sunlight, but all tiny dust particles (microscopic dust) shone brightly when the sun was behind it. This allowed the scientists to work out what the rings were made of, and how all the particles were arranged.
As better types of telescopes have been developed, scientists can now see some of the rings from earth. The brightness of Neptune makes it hard to see the rings, which are much dimmer and the faintest rings still cannot be seen, even with vey powerful telescopes.

Adams ring and the Ring Arcs 

The most famous of Neptune's rings is the thin outer Adams ring, although by comparison with the rings of the planets Saturn or Uranus, it is very hard to see. It was originally named as 1989 N1R. The reason that the Adams ring is famous is that it has a feature that has not been seen on any other planetary rings. These are three long narrow "arcs" which are much brighter and look more solid than the rest of the ring system. Each one spans from 4-10° of the whole ring. All the arcs are close to each other, spanning under 40° of longitude, only about 1/8th of the edge of the ring. It has been a puzzle to understand why the stuff in these arcs does not spread out evenly through the whole ring.
The three arcs have been named with French names Liberté, Égalité, and Fraternité. These names came from the famous saying of the French Revolution, which translates into English as "Liberty, Equality and Brotherhood!".  These names were suggested by the scientists who discovered them during stellar occultations in 1984 and 1985.

Four of Neptune's 13 moons are inside the ring system. The one that is nearest to the Adam's ring is called Galatea. It is a lumpy mass of rock that orbits around the planet at about the same speed as the planet is rotating. It is about 1000 kilometers inside the ring.

Many scientists now think that it is the effect of the moon Galatea that is causing the three arcs in the Adam's ring. The ring also has 42 wiggles, which are like waves 30 kilometers high. Scientists are able to use this information to work out the mass of the moon Galatea. .
The best photos that came back from Voyager 2 showed that there are clumps of particles in the rings, but no-one can tell whether they are made of fine dust, or if there may be bigger particles in the clumps as well. All of Neptune's rings have a lot of microscopic dust but particularly the arcs of the Adam's ring. Scientists know this because they looked very bright in the photos that Voyager 2 took with the sun shining behind them.
 There is much more dust in the rings of Neptune than there is in the rings of Saturn.

The Adams ring is very red. The background particles that make up the ring look twice as bright near the three arcs as they do on the side of the ring that is opposite the arcs.

Arc dynamics 
With the arrival of the Hubble Space Telescope and adaptive optics ground-based telescopes the ring arcs have been re-examined several times, starting in July 1998.
This has showed that they are amazingly active, changing a lot over only a few years: Fraternité and Égalité have been exchanging material and changing their lengths noticeably. Even more dramatically, Liberté appears to be fading away, being only 30% of its original 1989 brightness in 2003, and hardly visible in Hubble Space Telescope images from June 2005. In the meantime, it seems to have gotten a split two-humped profile, and wandered several degrees closer to the more stable Égalité. Courage, a very small and dim arc during the Voyager flyby, was seen to flare in brightness in 1998, while more recently it was back to its usual dimness but had advanced by an additional 8° ahead of the other arcs. That is, it appears to have jumped over to the next stable corotation resonance position. There were also some suggestions that the ring arcs may have been normally fading away
.  However, visible light observations show that the total amount of material in the arcs has remained approximately steady, but they are dimmer in the infra-red where previous observations were taken.  This activity of the ring arcs is not currently understood.
Inner rings 
In addition to the outer Adams Ring, the other ring arrangements in the direction of Neptune's surface are:

 An unnamed, unclear, clumpy ring of dust in the orbit of Galatea.
 The large Lassell Ring (1989 N4R), is a thin sheet extending for 4000 km inwards of about 59,200 km radius. It is dusty but less than some of the other rings, being comparable in this situation to the continuous piece of the Adams ring. There is a brightness enhencement on its outer edge which has been called the Arago Ring (1989 N5R), and the Lassell Ring's inner edge abuts the LeVerrier Ring.
 The narrow LeVerrier ring (1989 N2R) is the second most famous of Neptune's rings, and lies just outside the orbit of the moon Despina by about 700 km. It is very dusty, and very similar to the ring arcs.
 The innermost Galle Ring (1989 N3R) is very small and not well known. It lies deep inside the orbit of the innermost of Neptune's moons, Naiad. The Galle Ring is very dusty similarly to the ring arcs.
Voyager pictures appear to also suggest a wide disc of scattered material extending inside of the 50,000 km radius which surrounds the Galle ring, but is difficult to tell apart from Neptune's brightness, and for this reason its existence is uncertain.

List of rings 

The rings are named after astronomers who made important discoveries to the study of Neptune.

Four of Neptune's moons: Naiad, Thalassa, Despina, and Galatea orbit inside the ring system.

References

Other websites 
 Neptune's Rings by NASA's Solar System Exploration

Neptune
Igor Mikhailovich Diakonov (December 30, 1914 (January 12, 1915), Petrograd – May 2, 1999, St Petersburg) was a Russian historian, linguist, and translator.

1914 births
1999 deaths
Russian historians
Baudouin I ( or ; 7 September 1930 – 31 July 1993) was the King of the Belgians from 1951 to 1993. 

The king was the oldest son of King Leopold III (1901-1983) and his first wife, Princess Astrid of Sweden (1905-1935). 

On 15 December 1960, Baudouin was married in Brussels to Doña Fabiola de Mora y Aragón. The King and Queen had no children. All of the Queen's five pregnancies ended in miscarriage. Badouin died of heart failure. Having had no children, the crown passed on to his brother, Albert II of Belgium, following his death.

During Baudouin's reign the colony of Belgian Congo became independent.

Titles and styles
7 September 1930 – 17 February 1934: His Royal Highness The Count of Hainaut
17 February 1934 – 10 August 1950: His Royal Highness The Duke of Brabant
10 August 1950 – 17 July 1951: His Royal Highness The Prince Royal, Duke of Brabant
17 July 1951 – 31 July 1993: His Majesty The King of the Belgians

References
References

1930 births
1993 deaths
Belgian Roman Catholics
Deaths from heart failure
Disease-related deaths in Andalusia
Kings and Queens of Belgium
Knights of the Golden Fleece
People from Brussels
Core generally is the heart or inner part of a thing, as of a column, wall, rope, of a boil, etc.; especially, the central part of fruit, containing the kernels or seeds; as, the core of an apple or quince.

Core could mean:

In media:
 Core (album), an album by Stone Temple Pilots
 Core (Persefone album)
 Core (radio station), a digital radio station in the United Kingdom
 The Core, a 2003 science fiction film
 Core Design, a videogame developer best known for the Tomb Raider series
 C.O.R.E., a computer animation studio
In science and academics:
 Core (group), in mathematics, an object in group theory
 Core (functional analysis), in mathematics, a subset of the domain of a closable operator
 core (graph theory), in mathematics, the homomorphically minimal subgraph of a graph
 core of a triangulated category in mathematics. 
 Core (economics), the collection of stable allocations that no coalition can improve upon
 Planetary core, in planetary science, the center of a planet
 Earth's core
 Solar core, the region of the Sun where nuclear fusion takes place
 Lithic core, in archaeology, a stone artifact left over from toolmaking
 Core curriculum, in education, an essential part of the curriculum
 Core sample, in Earth science, a sample obtained by coring
 Core countries, in dependency theory, an industrialized country on which peripheral countries depend
 Core (anatomy), in anatomy is everything except the appendages.
In computers and technology:
Semiconductor intellectual property core, part of a CPU design
Multi-core (computing), a type of microprocessor design in which multiple processors coexist on the same chip
 Intel Core, in processors, a brand of computer processor
 Magnetic core memory, in computing, the primary memory
 Core dump, in computing, a record of the core memory
 Nuclear reactor core, a portion containing the fuel components
 Magnetic core, in electricity and electronics, ferromagnetic material around which wires are wound
 the signal-carrying portion of an optical fiber

Acronyms:
 Central Organization For Railway Electrification, an organization in India
 Congress of Racial Equality, United States civil rights organization 
 Coordinated Online Register of Electors, central database in the United Kingdom
 Challenge of Reverse Engineering, a warez group
 Comment on Reproductive Ethics, a Christian pressure group in the United Kingdom
A mesocyclone is a vortex of air, about 2 to 10 km in diameter (the mesoscale of meteorology), inside a convective storm.
That is, it is air that rises and rotates around a vertical axis, usually in the same direction as low pressure systems in a given hemisphere. They are most often cyclonic, that is, related with a localized low pressure area inside a severe thunderstorm. Such storms can create strong surface winds and a lot of hail. Mesocyclones often happen together with updrafts in supercells, where tornadoes may form. 

The word mesocyclone originated around 1970–75; meso- + cyclone] This word is first recorded in the period 1970–75. meso- is a combining form meaning “middle,” used in the formation of compound words.

Mesocyclones are normally relatively very small in size; they lie between the synoptic scale (hundreds of kilometers) and small scale (hundreds of meters).

References

Other websites
 Electronic Journal of Severe Storms Meteorology

Weather