Aarushhh/wikipedia-simple-splitted huggingface dataset:
A salt mine is a mine where salt is taken from the earth. Very often, this is done in the mountains. It is different from a salt evaporation pond, where salt is taken from salt water. Getting salt from different layers of rock in a mountain used to be a very dangerous job. The Romans used to sentence prisoners to this kind of labour.

Usually the salt is mixed with rock that has chlorides and sulfates. 

Empty salt mines are used very often as a storage area, for example, for unused radioactive elements (from nuclear power plants). Salt mines are empty if there is no salt left to take, or if taking the salt that is left would be too expensive.

Mining
A key signature is a group of sharps or flats which are printed at the beginning of a line/measure of music.  It shows which notes have to be changed into sharps or flats.  For example: if there is one sharp in the key signature it will be an F sharp.  It means that every time the note F is written one plays (or sings) an F sharp (on a keyboard: the black note just to the right of the F) instead.

There are twelve major and twelve minor keys (properly called “modes").  This is because a scale can start on any note, and there are twelve notes within an octave: seven white notes and five black notes on a keyboard.  Each major key has its own key signature. The relationship between the keys is explained in the article "circle of fifths".  Each minor key shares a key signature with one of the major keys.
There are fifteen possible key signatures: up to seven sharps, up to seven flats, or no sharps or flats.  The reason why there are fifteen and not twelve is because three of them have two possible names: F sharp major (6 sharps) can also be called G flat, C sharp is D flat and B is C flat.  We call these enharmonic i.e. the same note but with a different name.

There are two reasons for writing a key signature.  Firstly, it saves writing out lots of sharps or flats during the piece.  Secondly, it helps the player to think in the key (music) of the piece.  This helps to understand the music better.
If the composer wants any extra sharps or flats during the piece, or he wants to cancel the ones in the key signature, these can be written in the music.  These are called accidentals.  An accidental is always written before the note it belongs to (we say “C sharp” but we write the sharp sign and then the note C).   As an example:  in a piece in G major all Fs are F sharps.  If the composer wants a C sharp he writes a sharp sign in front of the C that needs to be sharpened.  This will last for the rest of the bar (measure).  If he wants a B flat he has to write it in.  If he wants an F instead of the usual F sharp he writes a natural sign.  There are also double sharps (the sign looks like an x) and double flats (two flat signs).  An F double sharp is an F sharp that has been sharpened.  It is the same note as G.
Key signatures are written at the beginning of each line of music.  This helps the player to remember what the key signature is.  The time signature, however, is only written at the beginning of the piece (the order is: clef – key signature – time signature).  Sometimes music changes key (modulates) during a piece.  If the music is going to stay in the new key for some time the composer may decide to change the key signature.  Another reason for changing the key signature might be that the music has modulated to a key like G sharp major with eight sharps (including a double sharp).  It is easier to read the music if it is written in A flat major (4 flats).
One can tell from the key signature what key a piece is in so long as one knows whether it is major or minor (see “mode”).  For example: a key signature of one sharp is either G major or E minor.  The best way to find out which it is would be to see whether the end of the piece is based on G major or E minor.  Also: if the piece is in the minor key it is very likely that there will be several accidentals in the piece which sharpen the 7th note of the scale (in this case changing a lot of the Ds to D sharps).

Some modern composers do not use key signatures.  This is often the case when the music is atonal or not very firmly in one key.  If there are lots of sharps and flats and the bars are very long they may write accidentals in front of every note that needs one instead of just once in a bar.  This should be explained at the top of the music.  It may also be because the piece is modal.
One way to read key signatures is to use the order of sharps and flats. The order of sharps is F-C-G-D-A-E-B. This means that if a piece has two sharps at the beginning, they will be F and C. You can also find the tonic note (“do” in solfege) for key signatures with sharps by going to the note you left on (so, in our example with the two sharps, would be C) and moving up a note in the alphabet, giving us D as our home note. It’s a bit different for the order of flats, which is B-E-A-D-G-C-F. We will still count the flats, meaning that if there are two flats at the beginning they will be B and E, but we find the tonic note differently. For the order of flats, we will go back one in the order, meaning that in our example our home note is B flat. If there is only one flat in the key signature, the tonic is F since it’s at the end of the order. If there are no sharps or flats in the key signature, the tonic is C.
{| align=center cellpadding="2" cellspacing="0"
|-
!Key Sig.
!Major Key
!Minor Key
|-
| align=center|No sharps or flats</td>C major
|A minor
|}

Related pages
Scale
Tonality
Circle of Fifths
Transposing Instrument

Music theory
Musical notation
A virtuoso is someone (usually in the performing arts) who is an expert in his or her field. 

A musical virtuoso is one who plays a musical instrument very well.  Musicians who have exceptional talent and can play extremely fast and difficult music are "virtuosi" (plural of "virtuoso").  In the 19th century Niccolò Paganini was a virtuoso violinist as well as a composer.  Franz Liszt was a virtuoso pianist and composer.

Musicians may sometimes talk about “virtuoso music” meaning music which is so difficult that only a virtuoso could play it.

References 

Music
Performing arts
Nancy Patricia D'Alesandro Pelosi (born March 26, 1940) is an American politician. She served as the Speaker of the United States House of Representatives from 2019 to 2023. She was also Speaker from 2007 to 2011. She represents the 12th district of California, which is part of the city of San Francisco. She was first elected to Congress in 1987. 

Pelosi is a member of the Democratic Party. She is the first woman to lead a major party in the United States Congress. She is also the first woman and the first Italian-American to be the Speaker of the House. On January 3, 2019, Pelosi was elected speaker for the second time. This would make her the first former speaker to become speaker again since Sam Rayburn in 1955.
In the 2022 midterm elections, Republicans won control of the House, thus ending her second speakership. She announced her retirement as the leader of the House Democratic Caucus, but said she would remain a member of the House. On November 29, 2022, the House Democratic Caucus appointed Pelosi Speaker Emerita of the United States House of Representatives.

Early life
Pelosi was born in University of Maryland St. Joseph Medical Center in Towson, Maryland and she is of Italian heritage. Her father, Thomas D'Alesandro, Junior, was Mayor of Baltimore, Maryland. He served five terms in Congress. Her brother, Thomas D'Alesandro III, also was Mayor of Baltimore. He died in October 2019, aged 90.

Pelosi graduated from Trinity College in Washington, D.C. in 1962. She and her husband, Paul Pelosi, have five children: Nancy Corinne, Christine, Jacqueline, Paul and Alexandra. They also have five grandchildren.

Political activity
Political activity

On September 24, 2019, Pelosi announced the start of first impeachment hearings into Donald Trump. In December 2019, the House formally impeached Trump, though he was later acquitted in the Senate.

On January 14, 2021, Pelosi announced the start of the second impeachment hearings into Donald Trump. In February 2021, the Senate acquitted Trump with a vote of 57 senators voting "guilty" to 43 "not guilty". 

On August 5, 2022, China imposed sanctions on Speaker Pelosi and her immediate family. This was because she visited Taiwan on August 2.

References

1940 births
Living people
United States representatives from California
Politicians from Baltimore
Politicians from San Francisco
Speakers of the United States House of Representatives
Minority leaders of the United States House of Representatives
The Delaware River is a large river estuary in the Northeast United States. It is about 280 miles (450 km) long. It begins in the Catskill Mountains in southeast New York State and ends at the Atlantic Ocean at Delaware Bay. It forms the border or part of the border between the states of Pennsylvania and New York, Pennsylvania and New Jersey and also between Delaware and New Jersey. The cities of Trenton, New Jersey, and Philadelphia, Pennsylvania are on the Delaware River.

Another name for this river is the South River. It is named for Thomas West, 3rd Lord De La Warr, a colonial Governor of Virginia.

Other websites
A historical map made in 1639 of the Delaware River

Rivers of New York (state)
Rivers of Delaware
Rivers of Pennsylvania
Rivers of New Jersey
Malcolm 'Mal' Evans (27 May 1935 – 5 January 1976) was a road manager and assistant to The Beatles, the most popular rock and roll band of the 1960s.

Evans was hired to help Neil Aspinall, who was the band's original road manager. Tall and strong, Evans was sometimes called "The Gentle Giant". His wife was called Lil.

Aspinall's and Evans's jobs changed through the years. At first they were in charge of driving the Beatles's musical equipment to places where they were to perform, setting it up ahead of time, and taking it down later to prepare for their next show. As the band became popular, they had other people to help.
Evans sometimes served as a bodyguard to the Beatles, protecting them from fans who got out of control, or might want to hurt members of the band. He also sometimes forged their autographs on photographs, when the band themselves did not have the chance to sign them, and helped choose girls from concert audiences to meet later with the band. (Aspinall also did these duties.) After the Beatles stopped performing live in 1966, he worked for them in other ways.

Along with playing musical instruments on a few of their songs (organ on "You Won't See Me", trumpet on "Helter Skelter", tambourine on "Dear Prudence", and an anvil on "Maxwell's Silver Hammer"), and singing on "Yellow Submarine" and "You Know My Name (Look Up the Number)", Evans also helped with lyrics from time to time. Paul McCartney paid him in cash for help with "Fixing A Hole", instead of giving him co-credit.
Evans appeared on-camera in both Magical Mystery Tour (as a magician), and Let it Be. He is seen during the rooftop concert in Let it Be, stalling the police who had come to stop the Beatles from performing. The sound of their music had caused a traffic jam on the street below.

He was also responsible for Badfinger being signed to the Beatles's record label, Apple Records.

Evans was fired in 1970 by Allen Klein, who had taken over many of the jobs once held by the late Beatles manager, Brian Epstein. Later Evans separated from his wife, and moved to the United States. During 1974 he was a companion and helper to John Lennon, who was staying in Los Angeles while separated from his wife, Yoko Ono.

Early in 1976, Evans had a fight with his girlfriend, who called the police when he locked himself in a room with a air rifle. Fearing he might hurt other people, the police shot him dead. The policeman in charge admitted the shooting "was all a mistake".
Evans wrote an autobiography, Living with the Beatles Legend, which has never been published in full, but extracts were printed in 2005.

1935 births
1976 deaths
English autobiographers
People from Liverpool
People shot and killed by law enforcement officers in the United States
The Beatles
Camucamu (Myrciaria dubia), also called camu camu, cacari, and camocamo, is a type of tree that lives in the Amazon Rainforest.  Its fruit is high in Vitamin C.

Trees
Myrtaceae
Geddy Lee (born Gary Lee Weinrib on July 29, 1953 in Toronto, Ontario) is the Canadian bass guitarist, singer, and synth player of the rock band Rush. He is known for melodic basslines and high pitched singing. 

In the 1970s, Geddy Lee mainly used Rickenbacker 4001 basses. For the Grace Under Pressure album he used Steinberger basses. From the mid-80's to mid-90's he used Wal basses. Currently, he uses Fender Jazz basses.

1953 births
Living people
Canadian guitarists
Singers from Toronto
Progressive rock singers
María Eva Duarte de Perón (May 7, 1919 – July 26, 1952) was the second wife of Argentine President Juan Perón. She was born in Los Toldos. She was the First Lady of Argentina from 1946 until she died and she served with her husband as a co-ruler of Argentina during those years. Before she died the Congress made her Spiritual Leader of the Nation. She was an actress before she married Perón.

Early life 
Eva grew up fairly poor and had wanted to become an actress since an early age. At sixteen, she left school and moved to Buenos Aires to pursue her dream of stardom. She got a job at a radio station there until she met Juan Perón at a charity concert held for the victims of the earthquake of San Juan in 1944. Soon, the two became very close and they were married on October 21, 1945. Eva was an active campaigner in Juan Perón's presidential campaign in 1946, and when he was elected, she continued to play an active government role.
Accomplishments 
By the time of her death, she was one of the most powerful women, or maybe even the most powerful woman, in the world. She is known for her work in many charitable and feminist causes, and became an icon to many people in Argentina. Evita was President of the Peronist Women's Party, a big and powerful political party made up of women who supported the Peróns' party. She ran the Ministry of Labor and the Ministry of Health. She helped legalize divorce in Argentina, as well as playing a leading role in enacting women's suffrage in Argentina. The Maria Eva Duarte de Perón Welfare Foundation gave a lot of funds, goods and medicine to the poor. The poor liked Evita Perón a lot. Her life inspired a musical called Evita and a movie based on the musical called Evita. The movie starred Madonna.
Death 
Her cancer was detected during a hysterectomy in November 1951, but the doctors were encouraged by Juan Perón, to keep it to themselves in order to not influence the presidential campaign negatively. When she died of cervical cancer in Buenos Aires, her corpse was embalmed After her husband was overthrown in a coup d'état in 1955, her body was lost for almost 20 years, until it was found in Italy. It was brought back to Argentina and buried with her husband after he died in 1974. It was brought back by the President Isabel Perón, who was married to Juan Perón years after Eva's death. In memory of her life's work, a giant portrait on the front of Argentina's Social Development Ministry was unveiled on 26 July 2011, exactly 59 years after her death.

References

1919 births
1952 deaths
Argentine actors
Argentine politicians
Cancer deaths in Argentina
Deaths from cervical cancer
Feminists
Former dictators
Argentine movie actors
First Ladies and Gentlemen of Argentina
Embalming is the act of preserving a dead body, so it will not decompose.  If a human body is not embalmed, it will start to decay very quickly.  Because of this, most bodies are embalmed if they will be on display (for example, lying in state) for a funeral. 

Embalming is similar to mummification, which many ancient peoples did to dead bodies.  Embalming is different from taxidermy, where only the skin is preserved.

History

Mummification

The oldest mummified corpses that have ever been found were mummified around 5000-6000 BCE.  These corpses are called the Chinchorro mummies.  These dead bodies were mummified by ancient people who lived in the Atacama desert, in what is now Chile and Peru.

The ancient Egyptians often mummified dead bodies.  They started mummifying corpses as early as 3200 BCE.  They believed that once a dead body was mummified, the body's soul could find its way back to the body and begin its journey to the afterlife.

Ancient embalming
Ancient embalming

Ancient cultures from Ethiopia, Peru, Tibet, and southern Nigeria also used embalming techniques.  So did the Guanches, the Jivaro Indians, the Aztecs, the Toltecs, and the Mayans.

In ancient Europe, embalming dead bodies was less common.  The earliest known preserved bodies in Europe are about 5000 years old.  These bodies were covered in cinnabar to preserve them.  They were found in Osorno, Spain.  Embalming dead bodies was unusual in Europe up to the time of the Roman Empire.

Archaeologists have found preserved bodies in China from the time of the Han dynasty (206 BCE – 220 ACE).  Nobody knows how these bodies were preserved.

The Middle Ages and Renaissance
By about 500 ACE, knowledge about preserving bodies had spread from ancient cultures, and embalming became much more common in Europe.   This happened partly because science and medicine were developing, and scientists needed to dissect dead bodies to learn more about the human body.  If bodies were not preserved, they would decay right away, and scientists could not dissect them or keep them for other scientists to learn from.

The 17th and 18th centuries
The English physician William Harvey created the modern method of embalming in the 17th century.  This method involves injecting chemicals into a dead body's arteries to keep the body from decaying.
Up until the middle of the 18th century, embalming was used mostly in science and medicine.  However, in the mid-18th century, the Scottish surgeon William Hunter used Harvey's methods to preserve bodies in morgues.  His brother, John Hunter, was the first to advertise embalming to regular people who wanted to see their loved ones'  bodies preserved after death.

The 19th century
In the 19th century, many people became more interested in embalming dead friends and relatives.  For example, sometimes a person might want to be buried at a far-away place.  However, first, the people who cared about them would want to see their body and pay their last respects to that person.  They could do this if the body was embalmed, because the body would not decay.
In the United States, embalming became very common during the time of the Civil War.  This happened because many people died far from home while fighting in the war.  Their bodies needed to be returned home to be buried, and embalming kept their bodies from decaying during these long trips.  When President Abraham Lincoln was killed, embalming allowed his body to be sent home to be buried.  This made people in the United States more aware about embalming.

In the past, if a person died from an infectious disease, their body would be buried very quickly to prevent the disease from spreading.  Embalming became more common as a way to keep diseases from spreading.

By the mid-19th century, people began to run businesses that provided funerals and burials.  At that time, the people who ran these businesses were called undertakers.  (Now they are called funeral directors.)  These people began to use embalming methods regularly, instead of using older methods like packing bodies in ice.

Modern history
Modern history

Until the early 20th century, arsenic was often used to embalm bodies.  Eventually it was replaced by other chemicals that work better and are less poisonous.  In 1867, the German chemist August Wilhelm von Hofmann discovered formaldehyde.  Scientists soon realized that this chemical worked very well to preserve dead bodies.  Soon formaldehyde replaced other chemicals as the most common chemical used to embalm bodies.

Embalming today

In the United States and the Western world, embalming is now very common.  Usually, there are a few steps to embalming:
 The embalmer injects chemicals (called embalming fluids) into the body's blood vessels.  This causes the blood and other fluids in the body to drain out of the body, and replaces them with the chemicals.
 The embalmer breaks open the hollow organs in the body and fills them with embalming fluids.
 The embalmer may inject embalming fluid under the skin.
 The embalmer may use embalming chemicals right on the skin if the body has injuries.
Usually, embalming takes a few hours.

Embalming does not keep a body from decaying forever.  It is meant to preserve a dead person's body for a little while.  This allows people to see the body during funeral services, and allows bodies to be shipped to far-away places to be buried.  However, no matter what type of embalming is used, the body will eventually decompose.

Religious views about embalming

Different religions have many different ideas about embalming.  For example, these religious usually allow embalming:
 Buddhism
 Most branches of Christianity
 The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints (Mormons)
 Hinduism
 The Society of Friends (Quakers)

Some religions, like some Neopagan religions, discourage embalming, but do not forbid it.

Some religions say that embalming is never allowed.  These religions include:
 The Bahá'í Faith
 Islam and Judaism (except in places where laws say bodies must be embalmed)
 Zoroastrianism

Related pages 
 Taxidermy

References

Death customs
Taxidermy (which comes from the Greek word for "the arrangement of skin") is act of taking the skin of an animals and preserving it, by putting it on a fake body. If you perform taxidermy, you taxiderm. Taxidermed animals can be mounted and put on display, sometimes in a museum or a home. People who taxidermy animals are called taxidermists. Many hunters and fishermen taxidermine the animals they catch and kill for trophies. Ones that are on display in museums are used to make dioramas and for educational purposes. Some people taxiderm their pets and other street animals.

Biology
Guantanamo Bay is a bay in the south of the island of Cuba. Part of it is controlled by the United States. They took control of it in 1903, under a treaty between the United States and Cuba. The current government of Cuba does not see this treaty as legal. They say it violates International law (more specifically, the Vienna Convention on the Law of Treaties of 1969).

The southern part of the bay is surrounded by a navy station of the United States. The name of the station (or base) is sometimes shortened to GTMO, called "Gitmo". The mission of this station is to act to prevent terrorism, help people who are fleeing Cuba and stop drug crime.
This base is also now used as a place to keep people captured by American forces from Afghanistan and Iraq. Also some prisoners were taken from other countries, like Britain and France. Some people say that these people do not get the rights that they should get as prisoners of war under the Geneva Conventions. One reason that they are there may be that the laws of the United States do not apply to them. According to some well-known human rights groups, some prisoners have been tortured  and others may have been badly treated according the FBI Inquiry. This has also been reported by some Europeans who were taken by CIA "torture flights" and have now been released.
Status
There is a lot of argument about Guantanamo Bay. This camp is a navy base and would sometimes hold people who had escaped from the Cuban government by sea. Now it also has a prison for people who oppose the United States, including some soldiers.  Some people have called it a concentration camp. George W. Bush has said that it is sometimes used for prisoners of war, but many human rights groups accuse America of keeping people from countries they are not at war with. This was shown to be sometimes true when British prisoners were returned home in 2003.
There is now some work starting to bring Guantanamo prisoners to some justice. Some people have been sent back to their home countries, some have been sent to other countries. Some people who were shown to not be terrorists have then been released by their governments, some people are now in prison in their home countries. Some Uyghur people from China have been sent to Albania, possibly because China did not want them back.

References

Organizations based in Cuba
United States Navy
Politics of the United States
1903 establishments in North America
20th-century establishments in Cuba
Military buildings and structures
The Munich U-Bahn is an underground railway network in the city of Munich, Germany. It is run by the Münchner Verkehrsgesellschaft, or MVG for short. It has 6 lines and has a network of 103,1 km (64,1 miles) and has exactly 100 stations. Only one line, the U6 crosses the city border in Garching.

Lines 

There are currently 7 lines:

The trains can go 80 km/h, which is the fastest in Germany.
Only the lines U5 and U6 are partly above ground. The U5 comes over ground only at the last station, the U6 for the last six stations in the north.

Trains run every 10 minutes, in rush hours every 5 minutes. In the early morning and late evening trains run every 20 minutes.

There are 3 "line families". They share the tunnel in the city centre. Each family has a colour. It is used in the stations.
 U1/U2 red
 U3/U6 blue
 U4/U5 yellow
Almost every station has a platform in the middle. Only the stations Olympia-Einkaufszentrum (U1), Richard-Strauss-Straße (U4), Neuperlach Süd (U5), Garching-Hochbrück and Nordfriedhof (both U6) have platforms on the side.

At the stations Innsbrucker Ring (U2/U5) and Scheidplatz (U2/U3) there are four tracks with two platforms. To change trains you only have to go to the other side of the platforms. Two lines cross at these stations. The stations Hauptbahnhof (Central Station) (U1/U2) and Münchner Freiheit (U3/U6) have four tracks. At the Hauptbahnhof there are two more tracks on another level for the U4 and U5. Here two lines separate. The stations Kolumbusplatz (U1/U2), Implerstraße (U3/U6) and Max-Weber-Platz (U4/U5) have three platforms. Two for trains to the city and one for trains from the city. Two lines separate at these stations.

U1 
In 1980 the U1 started running with the U8 (now the U2). After the branch to Rotkreuzplatz was opened, it became a single line.
Today the U1 is 12.2 km long. It runs between Olympia-Einkaufszentrum and Wettersteinplatz. It shares track with U2 between Hauptbahnhof (Central Station) and Kolumbusplatz.

U2 
In 1980 it started together with the U1. First it was called U8. Today it is 24.4 km long. It runs between Feldmoching and Messestadt Ost. It shares track with U1 between Hauptbahnhof (Central Station) and Kolumbusplatz.

U3 
In 1972 this line was opened, because of the Olympic Games.

The line is 21.0 km long. It runs between Moosach and Fürstenried West. It shares track with the U6 between Münchner Freiheit and Implerstraße.

U4 
The U4 was named U9 at first. It opened together with the U5.
The line is the shortest in the network. It is 9.3 km long and has only 13 stations. It runs between Arabellapark to Westendstraße. Between Max-Weber-Platz and Westendstraße. In the evenings, it only operates between Lehel and Arabellapark.
U5 
The U5 was opened together with the U4.
The line is 15.4 km long. It runs between Laimer Platz and Neuperlach Süd.

U6 
U6 is the oldest and longest line. The first bit was built in 1938, but it was opened in 1971. It is 27.4 km long. It operates between Garching-Forschungszentrum and Klinikum Großhadern.

U7 
The line was opened in 2011. It runs beetween Westfriedhof and Neuperlach Zentrum only in rush hour.

Trains
The Munich U-Bahn uses three different kinds of trains. Altogether there are 550 trains, which can be used on any line.

Line Chronicle

Extensions

Recent Extensions

 U6 (North): Upgrade of Fröttmaning Station
 Because of the new Allianz Arena (soccer stadium) the nearby U-Bahn station needed to be upgraded. A new, second platform was built and the old platform was moved north by about 100 m. All together the new station has four tracks. Start of construction: 10 October 2002, opened: 4 May 2005
U3/U6 Upgrade of Marienplatz Station.
 Because of more passengers and the new Allianz Arena also this station was extended. New pedestrian tunnels were built and the platforms widened. Start: 27 May 2003, opened: 29 May 2006

 U6 (North): Extension Garching-Hochbrück - Garching - Garching-Forschungszentrum
 This extension through the town of Garching connects Campus Garching of Munich University of Technology and other research institutes to Munich's subway system. Start: 2 April 2001, opened: 14 October, 2006

 U3 (North): Extension '''Olympia-Einkaufszentrum-Oberwiesenfeld-Olympiazentrum 
 This extension goes past the Olympiapark and the Oberwiesenfeld on to the Olympia-Einkaufszentrum, where also the U1 ends. opened: 28 October 2007

Rapid transit systems in Germany
Munich
1971 establishments in Germany
Richard Strauss (born Munich June 11 1864; died Garmisch-Partenkirchen, Bavaria, September 8 1949) was a German composer.  He soon became very famous when he was a young man.  His tone-poems including Also sprach Zarathustra were played by orchestras all over Europe.  After 1900 he spent most of his time writing operas including Salome.  His opera Der Rosenkavalier, written in 1910, is extremely popular.  Strauss was the last great composer who wrote in a Romantic style.  He liked the music of Wagner who was a great influence on his music, but he also liked Mozart and his work also shows the elegance and grace of Mozart’s music.  Strauss was a very good conductor and often conducted his own music.  

He is not related to the Austrian Johann Strauss family famous for their waltzes.

Strauss, Richard
Strauss, Richard
1864 births
1949 deaths
20th-century German composers
Gustav Mahler (born Kalischt (now Kalište), Bohemia, July 7 1860; died Vienna, May 18 1911) was a Czech-Austrian composer and conductor. He was one of the last great composers of the Romantic period. He wrote ten symphonies (he left the tenth symphony unfinished) and several collections of songs with orchestral accompaniment. He was very interested in German folk song and he found new ways to use folk song in large orchestral symphonies. His work Das Lied von der Erde (The Song of the Earth) is one of his greatest works, combining song with the sonata form of a symphony. He was also a great conductor and helped to make the Vienna Opera world famous.

Life
Life

Childhood 
Gustav Mahler was born on 7 July 1860 into a Jewish family. He was the second of 12 children and the first one of the six who were to survive childhood and grow up to adults. His father worked hard to build up his business. He owned a distillery and seven taverns in Iglau to where the family moved in the autumn of 1860. There he heard a lot of music: military music, folk music and different kinds of art music. He learned the piano and performed in public in 1870 and started to compose.

In 1875 he went to study at the Vienna Conservatory. After a while he gave up studying the piano and concentrated on composition and conducting. He was very interested in Wagner’s ideas about philosophy and politics, and he studied philosophy at the University of Vienna. He started to earn some money by teaching. His first important composition was a cantata called Das klagende Lied.
Early career 
Mahler’s first job as a conductor was at Bad Hall in Upper Austria. The small opera company there was not very good and the music they sang was just light operetta. Mahler soon found another job at Laibach (now called Ljubljana). They sang better music there, but he only stayed one year. His next job was in Olmütz (now called Olomouc). The standard of singing was not very good, but Mahler was very strict. Although the singers did not like him at first he helped them to become better. Then he got a job in Kassel, but he had to conduct a lot of operettas. He had an unhappy love affair with one of the singers. This inspired him to write a collection of orchestral songs Lieder eines fahrenden Gesellen and he started his first symphony.

In 1885 he got a conducting job in Prague. For the first time he was able to conduct works for which he was to become famous: operas by Mozart, Wagner, and music by Beethoven. However, Mahler had arguments with the people he worked with and so he left Prague.
Mahler’s next job was in Leipzig. The orchestra of the Neues Stadttheater was larger and much better than any he had worked for until then. One of the conductors who worked there was Arthur Nikisch. He was very famous, and the young Mahler was often criticized because he was very different to Nikisch and the way he conducted. When Nikisch was ill Mahler conducted Die Walküre and Siegfried. This helped him to show that he was a great conductor. He met the grandson of the composer Carl Maria von Weber who gave him sketches for an opera Die Drei Pintos which Weber had left unfinished. The sketches were very difficult to read, but Mahler completed the opera and performed it. He also worked at his own compositions and he met Richard Strauss who was to remain a close friend until his death.

Rising fame: Budapest and Hamburg
From 1891 to 1897 Mahler had a conducting post at Hamburg. Here there was an opera company of international standard. Mahler soon became world famous. He conducted many operas as well as orchestral concerts. He conducted in London in 1892 and was invited back again but he did not accept because he wanted time to compose. He spent the summer months composing, writing his music down in short score (not showing the orchestration) and during the theatre season he would revise and orchestrate them. The performance of his Second Symphony in Berlin in 1895 was a huge success.

Since the death of his parents Mahler had supported his two sisters. He had encouraged his brother Otto to become a musician, but Otto committed suicide. Mahler continued to support his two sisters until they married two famous brothers: Eduard and Arnold Rosé in 1898 and 1902.
In Vienna Mahler soon became famous for his conducting of Wagner and Mozart. His friend Guido Adler paid for the publication of his First and Third Symphonies. Mahler replaced Hans Richter as conductor of the Philharmonic Concerts. Mahler attracted bigger audiences, but he had disagreements with the players. They did not like some of his unusual ideas and he was very strict. After an illness in 1901 he resigned. He bought a house in Maiernigg in Carinthia where he spent his summers composing. In 1901 he fell in love with Alma Schindler whose father Anton Schindler was a famous landscape painter. She was nearly twenty years younger than Mahler. She was studying composition, but Mahler made her give up composing so that she could devote herself to being a good wife. This made the relationship between them rather difficult. In 1910 Mahler went to see the psychoanalyst Sigmund Freud. Freud helped him to understand not only his marriage problems but also his creative nature
. He now felt a deeper love for Alma than he ever had before.
At the Hofoper Mahler conducted many of the great operas, but not many new ones. He wanted to conduct Richard Strauss’s new opera Salomé, but the censors did not allow it to be performed. Nevertheless, Mahler’s years conducting in Vienna were very important because he had many new ideas. Through his wife he met many artists, especially those connected with the Sezession movement. One of them, Alfred Roller, designed the sets for a new production of Tristan und Isolde. He became Mahler’s chief stage designer. At last Mahler could work closely with someone who shared his views. They staged many operas together: Fideleo, Don Giovanni , Die Entführung aus dem Serail, Le Nozze di Figaro, Die Zauberflöte and Iphigénie en Aulide.

Mahler felt much more secure now that he was married. This made him more creative. He composed his Eighth Symphony very quickly. It needs a huge orchestra and choir, which is why it is often called "Symphony of a Thousand". Mahler thought it was his best work.
Final years: New York and Europe 
Mahler was invited to go to America to conduct the Metropolitan Opera in New York City. It was very different from what he had been used to in Europe. Instead of working with a group of singers who worked together as a team, the operas at the Metropolitan Opera were sung by great operatic stars. Mahler did not try to change this. He even agreed to make cuts to Wagner operas. Then he was invited to be the conductor of the New York Philharmonic so he resigned from the Metropolitan. The last time he conducted there was as a guest artist.

In 1909 he finished his Ninth Symphony. He was very busy conducting in Europe. In January 1911 he conducted his Fourth Symphony in New York. Then he became ill and decided to go to Vienna. He arrived there on 12 May but he died a few weeks later at the age of 50.
His music 
Mahler was one of the last composers who belonged to the great musical tradition of Germany and Austria. Although many German composers had written great symphonies (e.g. Beethoven), Mahler found something new to say in his music. His symphonies often have long melodies and he uses folk song as well as new sounds in the orchestra. Mahler worked most of his life in the theatre, and this influences his musical language. A good example is Symphony No.4 which starts in the happy key of G major where the music describes the early life, but finishes in E major where the soprano soloist sings about the heavenly pleasures.
Mahler became very interested in German folksong and he composed several sets of orchestral songs. He took poems from the collection called Des Knaben Wunderhorn (The Boy’s Magic Horn). These songs were originally medieval, but Mahler made them feel very different by interpreting them through his own personality. The language of his songs is heard in his symphonies, four of which use singing (nos 2, 3, 4 and 8). He wrote nine symphonies and started a tenth, but died before it was finished.

Mahler was a great orchestrator. Some of his later works need a very large orchestra. He often used unusual effects, e.g. in his First Symphony there is a double bass solo playing very high notes, accompanied by timpani.

His set of orchestral songs Das Lied von der Erde (The Song of the Earth) are like a symphony, but he did not call it a symphony. This was for superstitious reasons: several great composers, including Beethoven, had written nine symphonies and then died.
His conducting 
As a conductor Mahler had a tremendous influence on musical life in Europe. He often conducted his own works. When he conducted works by other composers he played it according to his own ideas. He even made changes to the orchestration of some works by Beethoven. He was not the sort of conductor who tried to make the music as close as possible to what the composer had wanted. He always wanted the music to sound very clear.

References 
 The New Grove Dictionary of Music & Musicians, ed. Stanley Sadie, 1980; 

1860 births
1911 deaths
Austrian composers
Austrian conductors
Austrian Jews
Jewish musicians
Jews who converted to Christianity
Romantic composers
The Boston Marathon is a famous marathon which is run every April in Boston, Massachusetts on Patriot's Day.  The distance of the race is 26.2 miles or 26 miles and 385 yards. To participate, runners need to qualify ahead of time by getting a certain time on another marathon first. This time is different depending on how old the runner is. (Every year, some runners who do not qualify are allowed in by raising money for charity).

2013 bombings

During the 2013 Boston Marathon on April 15, 2013, two explosions happened near the finish line at 2:49 PM EDT. Three people were killed and around 183 people were injured.

References

Other websites

Official website 

Marathons
Sports in Boston
April events
An ultramarathon is a running race that is longer than a 26.2 mile marathon race.  The most common distances for ultramarathons are:

50 Kilometers (31 miles)
50 Miles (80.5 kilometers)
100 Kilometers (62 miles)
100 Miles (161 kilometers)

The most famous ultramarathon run in the United States is the Western States 100 Mile Race.
Captain Planet is the main character of the animated television series Captain Planet and the Planeteers. He is a superhero summoned when the powers of Earth, Fire, Wind, Water, and Heart are put together. On June 27, 2013, Sony Pictures announced that they are currently producing a live-action movie based on Captain Planet.

References

Other websites

 Captain Planet Foundation
 Ted Turner's Captain Planet site 

 The Rubber Chicken - Captain Planet Comic Analysis 
 What Would Captain Planet Do? 
 Mother Nature Network 

Animated television characters

pl:Nowe przygody Kapitana Planety
Pl:Nowe ptzygody kapitana planety
World of Warcraft is a massively multiplayer online role-playing game (MMORPG). It was made by Blizzard Entertainment. The game setting is the same for other games using the name "Warcraft". It has seven expansions, World of Warcraft: The Burning Crusade, World of Warcraft: Wrath of the Lich King, World of Warcraft: Cataclysm, World of Warcraft: Mists of Pandaria, World of Warcraft: Warlords of Draenor, World of Warcraft: Legion and World of Warcraft: Battle for Azeroth.

Warcraft: Orcs and Humans was a real-time strategy game. The same for Warcraft 2 and its add-on, Warcraft 2: Tides of Darkness and Warcraft 3 and its add-on, Warcraft 3: The Frozen Throne. World of Warcraft is different than the other games because it is a MMORPG. This means that many people from around the world may play together in the online world.
Gameplay 
Players move or advance through the game by gaining experience from killing enemies and finishing quests that are given throughout the game. If a player has enough experience, they will gain a level. The maximum level that a player can reach is currently 60. 

Each level is made higher by each expansion by 10 or 5. At the highest level, players can still get stronger by obtaining items from instances and raids, which are dungeons that require 10 to 25 players to work together to take down bosses and enemies. World of Warcraft has developed a community of 'raiding guilds' that compete with each other for in these raid instances.

Players are allowed to choose from a number of races and classes.

Races

Alliance 
 Human
Humans look similar to human beings. Humans may choose from the following classes: warrior, rogue, hunter, paladin, mage, warlock, priest, and death knight.
Humans : Increased stealth detection, increased spirit, bonus reputation gain, good use of swords and maces, escape ability from trapping effects (Every Man for Himself).

 Dwarf
Dwarves are short, scruffy, and enjoy their liquor. Dwarves may choose from the following classes: warrior, rogue, paladin, priest, hunter, warlock, mage, shaman

Dwarves : Stone form ability, higher critical strike rate with guns, higher frost resistance, treasure finding ability, good use of maces.

 Gnome
Gnomes are very short and mischievous and enjoy explosions and dangerous tools, their hair color may be pink or green or other colors. Gnomes may choose from the following classes: warrior, rogue, warlock, mage, and death knight.

Gnome : Escape ability from trapping effects (Escape Artist), increased intelligence, higher arcance resistance, bonus to engineering skill.
Night Elf
Night elves are tall and muscular. Their skin can be colored purple to pale white. Night elves may choose from the following classes: warrior, rogue, druid, priest, hunter, and death knight.

Night Elf : Ability to fade into the shadows (Shadowmeld), harder to hit, move faster while dead, higher nature resistance.

 Draenei (Requires account upgrade to the Burning Crusade Expansion)
Draenei are tall blue creatures from the planet Draenor. Draenei may choose from the following classes: warrior, shaman, paladin, mage, priest, hunter, death knight.

Draenei : Bonus to jewelcrafting skill, may heal self or others over time (Gift of the Naru), bonus chance to hit, higher shadow resistance.

 Worgen (Requires account upgrade to the Cataclysm Expansion)
Worgen are werewolves that used to be humans. Worgen may choose from the following classes: Mage, Priest, Rogue, Warlock, Warrior, Druid, Hunter, and Death Knight.
Worgen : Bonus to skinning skill, may skin without skinning knife, increased shadow and nature resistance, bonus critical chance, may move faster for a short period of time (Darkflight).

Horde 
 Orc
Orcs are muscular, hairy, and green. Orcs may choose from the following classes: Warrior, Rogue, Shaman, Warlock, Hunter, and Death Knight.

Orc : Have the ability to enrage increasing damage output, resistant to stun effects, pet damage increased, good with axes and fist weapons.
 
 Tauren
Tauren are very tall, nature-loving cows that walk on two feet. Tauren may choose from the following classes: Warrior, Shaman, Druid, Hunter, and Death Knight.

Tauren : Have the ability to stomp stunning nearby enemies, bonus heath increase, herb gathering skill bonus, increased nature resistance.

 Troll
Trolls are tall and can have large tusks, ranging from blue to green skin, with very colorful hair. Trolls may choose from the following classes: Warrior, Rogue, Shaman, Mage, Priest, Hunter, and Death Knight.
Troll : Ability to go berserk increasing attack speed, health regeneration bonus, increased damage against beasts, higher critical strike chance with bows and thrown weapons, slowing effects reduced.

 Undead
Undead of the Forsaken faction are fairly short and pale with stringy hair, and their bones show through their clothing. Undead may choose from the following classes: Warrior, Rogue, Mage, Warlock, Priest, and Death Knight.

Undead : Ability to remove fear, sleep and charm effects, eat corpses to regenerate heath, underwater breathing increased, higher shadow resistance.

 Blood Elf (Requires account upgrade to the Burning Crusade Expansion)
Blood Elves are of medium height and very thin, ranging in color from brown to pink to white. They have green eyes and long eyebrows. Blood elves may choose from the following classes: Warrior, Rogue, Paladin, Mage, Warlock, Priest, Hunter, and Death Knight.
Blood Elf : Ability to silence nearby opponents and restore energy, rage, mana and runic power, enchanting skill bonus, higher magic resistance.

 Goblins (Requires account upgrade to the Cataclysm Expansion)
Goblins are short, ugly, and green. They are very greedy and like to destroy things. Goblins may choose from the following classes: Mage, Priest, Rogue, Warlock, Warrior, Shaman, Hunter, and Death Knight.

Classes 
In the game, there are classes.  Once a player has made a character, the character's class cannot be changed, but the character can be deleted. Players can have up to 50 characters on each account they pay for, and up to 10 characters per realm.
Note : There are three key roles in a raid / party group 
The Tank. This person / people will be the focus of the bosses attention and will be taking large amounts of damage.
The DPS.(Damage per Second) These people will be in charge of dealing large amounts of damage to try and kill the enemy. It important that they do not cause too much attention as to pull creatures away from the tank.
The Healer. This person / people will look after the group. Healing the tank, and any DPS who get targeted by an Area of Effect spell. (AoE)
Below is a list of classes available in World of Warcraft:

 Mage
Mages cast spells using arcane, frost, or fire magic. Mages wear cloth armor and are very vulnerable to melee damage. They have access to massive ranged spell damage and area of effect capabilities.

Roles : DPS.