Aarushhh/wikipedia-simple-splitted huggingface dataset:
The Democratic Socialist Republic of Sri Lanka (ශ්‍රී ලංකා in Sinhala, இலங்கை in Tamil) is a tropical island nation off the southeast coast of the Indian subcontinent. The capital of the country is Sri Jayawardenepura Kotte while the largest city is Colombo. Sri Lanka shares a sea boundary with the Maldives in the south-west part and India in the north-west.

It was known as Ceylon before 1972, and Serendib and Sinhale, among other names, before that. It was South Asia's oldest democracy.

Ethnic make-up 
Sri Lanka has three main ethnic groups. They differ in their religions and origins, and there has often been difficulties between the groups. The total population of the island is over 20 million people, and rapidly expanding.

The largest of the three groups is the population of Sinhalese people.  Most of them are Buddhist.  Their language is Sinhala.  They make up about 75% of the population.
The second largest group is the Tamil people. They are mostly Hindu and most live in the north. There are about 2,271,000 Tamils in Sri Lanka.  The Sri Lankan Civil War against Tamil separatists lasted 28 years.

The third largest group is the Sri Lankan Moors. They are Muslim. There are over one and a half million people in this group. They use Tamil as their language today.

Other than these three main groups, there are burghers (descendants of colonial ancestors), Malays and Chinese.

In areas such as Dabana, Mahiyangaya ; lives the indigenous group called 'veddas' who are said to descend from Kuweni and Vijaya's son 'Jeewahaththa'.

History 
Buddhist missionaries arrived from India in 250 BC during the time period of King Devanampiyatissa. The kings of the island, and eventually most of the Sinhalese people, became Buddhists. Legend has it that Buddha visited the island three times.
The island was subject to waves of European settlement and eventually colonisation. The Portuguese in the 16th and 17th centuries, the Dutch in the 17th and 18th centuries, and lastly the British from 1796 to 1948. The British traded as the others had done, but also developed plantations of coffee and tea. Tea was planted after a fungus destroyed the coffee plantations in 1869. The tea plantations were the basis of Sri Lankan prosperity for a hundred years. Lastly, rubber plantations were started in the early 20th century. In 1965, Ceylon became the world's leading exporter of tea, with 200,000 tonnes of tea being shipped internationally annually.

Independence from the British was got in 1948, together with Dominion status in the British Commonwealth of Nations. In 1972, Ceylon changed its name officially to the Republic of Sri Lanka, and is still a member of the Commonwealth.
In 2009 came the end of a long Sri Lankan Civil War between Sinhalese and Tamils. In the 2010s, tourism rapidly grew as a source of foreign investment and currency. An economic crisis in the early 2020s led to political violence.

National symbols of Sri Lanka

Flag
The Sri Lanka flag is also known as the Lion flag because of the Lion on it. The Lion is holding a sword in its right paw. There is a crimson background with four leaves in each corner. There is a yellow border.  On the left of the flag, there are the colors green and saffron.

The lion represents bravery. The four leaves represent Karuna, Meththa, Muditha and Upeksha. The orange stripe represents the Sri Lankan Tamils and the green stripe represents the Sri Lankan Moors.

Provinces 
Sri Lanka has 9 provinces.
 Central
 North Central
North
 Eastern
 North Western
 Sabaragamuwa
 Southern
 Uva
 Western
Related pages
List of rivers of Sri Lanka
Sri Lanka at the Olympics
Sri Lanka national football team
History of Sri Lanka
Burning of Jaffna library

Notes

References

Other websites

Government
 Official web portal of the Government of Sri Lanka
 Office of the President of Sri Lanka 
 Ministry of Defence, Sri Lanka
 Central Bank of Sri Lanka 
 World Terrorism Blog On Sri Lanka

Business
 Board of Investment of Sri Lanka
 Sri Lanka Export Development Board
 Colombo Stock Exchange
 Sri Lankan Business Directory

Other
 Virtual Library Sri Lanka
 The CIA World Factbook - Sri Lanka 
 Sri Lanka - UNESCO World Heritage Centre
 Collection of slides of Sri Lanka, University of Pennsylvania library 
 NIGHANTAYA | The Environment Friendly E Community | Sri Lanka

 
1948 establishments in Asia
Commonwealth member states
Reptile is the common name for one of the main groups of land vertebrates. It is not used so much by biologists, who use more accurate terms.

The name "reptile" comes from Latin and means "one who creeps". All living reptile species are cold blooded, have scaly skin, and lay cleidoic eggs. They excrete uric acid (instead of urea), and have a cloaca. A cloaca is a shared opening for the anus, urinary tract and reproductive ducts. Reptiles also share an arrangement of the heart and major blood vessels which is different from that of mammals. Birds have all of these features.

Many important groups of reptiles are now extinct, for example the mosasaurs. We used to say the dinosaurs were extinct, but they survive in the form of their feathered descendants (birds). Ancient reptiles that do survive include the turtles, the crocodiles and the Tuatara, the lone survivor of its group. The great majority of present-day reptiles are snakes and lizards.

The study of living reptiles is called herpetology.
Birds in relation to reptiles
Some reptiles are more closely related to birds than they are to other reptiles. Crocodiles are more closely related to birds than they are to lizards. Theropod dinosaurs are even more closely related, because birds evolved from them.

Cladistic writers prefer to put the birds (over 10,000 species) with what people usually call reptiles. (see Sauropsida)

Taxonomy
Reptilia is an evolutionary grade rather than a clade. The main reason is that the term 'reptile' does not include birds, the descendents of theropod dinosaurs. Another reason is that the word 'reptile' is misleading because many extinct types were very different from living reptiles.
So instead of Reptilia as a taxonomic class, today many experts use Class Sauropsida (which includes all reptiles and birds, living and extinct). Class Synapsida includes mammals and all their forebears. Reptile is still the usual informal term to describe living snakes and lizards. Mammals are a genuine clade, and so Mammalia is still the taxonomic term.

Since reptiles are not monophyletic, reclassifying them is one of the key aims of researchers. Some taxonomists, such as Benton, make Sauropsida and Synapsida class-level taxa. The two groups split in the Carboniferous, from stem-group Amniotes (the early tetrapods, which laid cleidoic eggs).

Eye feature
A membrane forms an inner eyelid in reptiles and birds. Whitish or translucent, it can be drawn across the eye to protect it from dust and keep it moist. It is called the nictitating membrane.
Size 
Reptiles can live in large and small sizes. Their land sizes can be both bigger and smaller than mammals. Titanosaurs were the largest land reptiles, and the smallest land reptile is a chameleon 13.5mm long.

Living reptiles 
 Reptiles (living groups only)
 Order Crocodilia (crocodiles, gavials, caimans, and alligators): 23 species
 Order Sphenodontia (Tuatara from New Zealand): 2 species
 Order Squamata (lizards, snakes, and amphisbaenids ("worm-lizards"): about 7,000 species.
 Order Testudines (turtles, tortoises, and terrapins): approximately 300 species

References
Snakes are reptiles. They are part of the order Squamata. They are carnivores, with long narrow bodies and no legs. There are at least 20 families, about 500 genera and 3,400 species of snake.

The earliest known fossils are from the Jurassic period. This was between 143 and 167 million years ago.

Their long, slender body has some special features. They have overlapping scales which protect them, and help them move and climb trees. The scales have colours which may be camouflage or warning colours.

Many species have skulls with more joints than the skulls of their lizard ancestors. This allows the snakes to swallow prey much larger than their heads. In their narrow bodies, snakes' paired organs (such as kidneys) appear one in front of the other instead of side by side. Most have only one working lung. Some species have kept a pelvic girdle with a pair of vestigial claws on either side of the cloaca. They have no eyelids or external ears. They can hiss, but otherwise make no vocal sounds.
They are very mobile in their own way. Most of them live in the tropics. Few snake species live beyond the Tropic of Cancer or Tropic of Capricorn, and only one species, the common viper (Vipera berus) lives beyond the Arctic Circle. They can see well enough, and they can taste scents with their tongues by flicking them in and out. They are very sensitive to vibrations in the ground. Some snakes can sense warm-blooded animals by thermal infrared.

Most snakes live on the ground, and in the trees. Others live in the water, and a few live under the soil. Like other reptiles, snakes are ectotherms. They control their body temperature by moving in and out of the direct sunshine. That is why they are rare in cold places.

Snakes range in size from the tiny, 10.4 cm (4 inch)-long thread snake to the reticulated python of  in length. The extinct snake Titanoboa was  long.
Evolution 
Snakes are thought to have evolved from lizards. The earliest snake fossils are from the Lower Cretaceous. A wide range of snakes appeared during the Paleocene period (c 66 to 56 million years ago).

Not a clade 
The Squamata are definitely a monophyletic group: it is a sister group to the Tuatara. Judged by their fossil record, the squamates were present in the Mesozoic, but had a minor place in the land ecology. Three of the six lines are recorded first in the Upper Jurassic, the others in the Cretaceous. Probably all, certainly the lizards, arose earlier in the Jurassic. The Mosasaurs of the Upper Cretaceous were by far the most successful of all the lizards, becoming the top predator in their ecosystem.

Although snakes and lizards look very different, neither is a proper clade. Snakes did descend from early lizards, not once, but many different times.
There is a monophyletic clade within the Squamata. It is the Toxicofera. It includes all venomous snakes and lizards, and many related non-venomous species. The evidence for this is in recent molecular analyses.

Fossil snakes 
The fossil of a primitive snake from the Lower Cretaceous has been found. It lived about 113 million years ago. It had rather small front and rear legs. Several other fossil snakes have been found with small rear legs, but this is the first one with all four legs. The snake, Tetrapodophis amplectus, lived on land and was adapted to burrowing. The researcher said there were "a lot of very advanced snake features, including its hooked teeth, flexible jaw and spine – and even snake-like scales. And there's the gut contents – it's swallowed another vertebrate. It was preying on other animals, which is a snake feature". The snake came from the Crato Formation in Brazil, and lay in a private collection for many years. It was re-discovered in a museum at Solnhofen, Bavaria.
Venom 
Most snakes are nonvenomous. Those that have venom use it mainly to kill and subdue prey rather than for self-defense. Some have venom potent enough to cause painful injury or death to humans. Nonvenomous snakes either swallow prey alive or kill by squeezing.

Two taxonomic families are entirely venomous:
 Elapids – cobras including king cobras, kraits, mambas, Australian copperheads, sea snakes, and coral snakes.
 Viperids – vipers, rattlesnakes, copperheads/cottonmouths, and bushmasters.

A third family with the "rear-fanged" snakes (and most of the other snake species) is the
 Colubrids – boomslangs, tree snakes, vine snakes, mangrove snakes, but not all colubrids are venomous.
Anatomy 
Many snakes have skulls with more joints than their lizard ancestors. This helps them swallow prey much larger than their heads. The bones of the head and jaws can move apart to let large prey move into their body. The throat, stomach and intestines can also expand in a most extraordinary manner. In this was, a thin-looking snake can swallow and digest a larger animal.

To fit their narrow bodies, snakes' paired organs (such as kidneys) are one in front of the other instead of side by side, and most snakes have only one working lung. Some species have a pelvic girdle with a pair of vestigial claws on either side of the cloaca. This is a relic of the legs which do not appear in modern snakes.
Shedding 
Snakes need to shed their skin regularly while they grow. This is called moulting. Snakes shed their skin by rubbing their head against something rough and hard, like a piece of wood or a rock. This causes the skin, which is already stretched, to split open. The snake keeps on rubbing its skin on various rough objects until the skin peels off from its head. This lets it crawl out, turning the skin inside out.

Feeding 
All snakes are carnivorous; they eat other animals. Some are venomous; they inject venom along grooves in their teeth. Some snakes are constrictors. Constrictors are not venomous, so they squeeze their prey to death. Snakes swallow their food whole, and they cannot chew. Because snakes are cold-blooded, they do not have to eat as regularly as mammals. People who own pet snakes feed them as infrequently as once per month. Some snakes can go as long as six months without a good meal.
Snakes have a very flexible lower jaw, the two halves of which are not rigidly attached, and many other joints in their skull. They can open their mouths wide enough to swallow their prey whole, even if the prey is larger in diameter than the snake itself.

Movement 
Not having arms and legs doesn't stop snakes from moving. They have developed several different ways of moving to deal with particular environments. Each type of snake movement is discrete and distinct from the others.

Lateral undulation 
Lateral undulation is a snake's only way of moving in water, and the most common way of moving altogether. In this mode, the body of the snake alternately bends to the left and right, resulting in a series of rearward-moving "waves". While this movement appears rapid, snakes have rarely been seen moving faster than two body-lengths per second, often much less. This mode of movement has the same amount of calories burned per meter moved as running in lizards of the same mass.
Terrestrial 
Terrestrial lateral undulation is the most common mode of moving for most snake species. In this mode, the posteriorly moving waves push against contact points in the environment, such as rocks, twigs, irregularities in the soil, etc. The movement is just the same over sand and in water. The movement makes a force against the substrate (ground, sand or water). This gives forward thrust. The speed of the movement depends upon the density of push-points in the environment. The wave speed is the same as the snake speed, and as a result, every point on the snake's body follows the path of the point ahead of it. Snakes move through dense vegetation, small openings, sand and water all quite well.

Aquatic 

Snakes move forward in water by moving their bodies in a wave-like motion. The waves become larger as they move down the snake's body, and the wave travels backwards faster than the snake moves forwards. Thrust is got by pushing their body against the water.
Studies show that the pattern of muscle activation is somewhat different in aquatic versus terrestrial lateral undulation.  All snakes can laterally undulate forward (with backward-moving waves), but only sea snakes have been observed reversing the motion (moving backwards with forward-moving waves).

Sidewinding
Sidewinding 

This is most often used by colubroid snakes (colubrids, elapids, and vipers). They use it when the environment lacks anything firm to push against, such as a slick mud flat, or a sand dune. Sidewinding is a modified form of lateral undulation in which all of the body segments oriented in one direction remain in contact with the ground, while the other segments are lifted up. This results in a peculiar "rolling" motion. This mode of moving overcomes the slippery nature of sand or mud by pushing off with only static portions on the body, thereby minimizing slipping. The static nature of the contact points can be shown from the tracks of a sidewinding snake, which show each belly scale imprint, without any smearing. This mode of moving has very low caloric cost, less than  of the cost for a lizard or normal snake to move the same distance.
Concertina 
When push-points are absent, but the space is too narrow for sidewinding, such as in tunnels, snakes rely on concertina moving. In this mode, the snake braces the back part of its body against the tunnel wall while the front of the snake extends and straightens. The front portion then flexes and forms an anchor point, and the back part is straightened and pulled forwards. This mode of moving is slow and very demanding, needing up to seven times the energy of laterally undulating over the same distance. This high cost is due to the repeated stops and starts of portions of the body as well as the need to use the muscles to brace against the tunnel walls.
Rectilinear 
The slowest mode of snake moving is rectilinear moving, which is also the only one where the snake does not need to bend its body laterally, though it may do so when turning. In this mode, the belly scales are lifted and pulled forward before being placed down and the body pulled over them. Waves of movement and stasis pass posteriorly, resulting in a series of ripples in the skin. The ribs of the snake do not move in this mode of moving and this method is most often used by large pythons, boas, and vipers when stalking prey across open ground as the snake's movements are subtle and harder to detect by their prey in this manner.
Other 
The movement of snakes in trees has only recently been studied. While on tree branches, snakes use several modes of moving depending on species and bark texture. In general, snakes will use a modified form of concertina moving on smooth branches, but will laterally undulate if contact points are available. Snakes move faster on small branches and when contact points are present, in contrast to limbed animals, which do better on large branches with little 'clutter'.

Gliding snakes (Chrysopelea) of southeast Asia launch themselves from branch tips, spreading their ribs and laterally undulating as they glide between trees. These snakes can perform a controlled glide for hundreds of feet depending upon launch altitude and can even turn in midair.

Related pages 
 Echidna (mythology)
 Ouroboros

References

Other websites 

 Snake (organism) -Citizendium

Basic English 850 words
 
Venomous animals
Reptiles
He formed Queen in 1970 with guitarist Brian May, and drummer Roger Taylor. Bass guitarist John Deacon joined in 1971. Mercury died in 1991 at age 45 due to complications from AIDS, having confirmed the day before his death that he had the disease. In 1992, Mercury was posthumously awarded the Brit Award for Outstanding Contribution to British Music, and a tribute concert was held at Wembley Stadium, London. As a member of Queen, he was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 2001, the Songwriters Hall of Fame in 2003, and the UK Music Hall of Fame in 2004. In 2002, he was placed number 58 in the BBC's 2002 poll of the 100 Greatest Britons. He is consistently voted one of the greatest singers in the history of popular music.

Life and career
Life and career

Childhood 
Freddie Mercury was born Farrokh Bulsara on 5 September 1946 in Stone Town in the British protectorate of the Zanzibar (now part of Tanzania). His parents were Jer and Bomi Bulsara both of them are Persian origin from Iran. His father worked as a cashier in the British Colonial Office, a branch of the government. Mercury had a younger sister named Kashmira. His friends at school gave him the name "Freddie." His family then began calling him Freddie, too.

At age eight, Mercury was sent to a boarding school in India. The school, St. Peters English Boarding school in Panchgani, was about 50 miles outside the city of Bombay (now called Mumbai). He began to show talent as an artist and a sportsman. At age ten, he was named the school champion of Table Tennis. When he was twelve, he received a trophy called the Junior All-rounder.

Music career, personal life, and death 
While in school he joined a choir and began to learn to play the piano. He had a four-octave vocal range.
He was a  follower of Zoroastrianism.

In 1964, Mercury moved to London with his family. He studied art at Ealing Art College. While in London, he became fond of Mary Austin, a woman he met through his guitarist, Brian May. They lived together for several years before and after the band became famous. They moved into a house in London nicknamed "The Court of King Freddie". Mary still lived in that house after she and Mercury broke up.

Mercury was in love with a local barber when he died. He had been with him in a relationship for six years when it was learned by the media that Mercury had AIDS, which he was tested positive for in 1987. One day after the news was broadcast, Mercury died of Bronchopneumonia caused by AIDS on 24 November 1991 at the age of 45.

References

Other websites 
 Queen Archives: Interviews
1946 births
1991 deaths
Bisexual people
British LGBT people
British pianists
British rock singers
British singer-songwriters
Progressive rock singers
Deaths from AIDS
Deaths from bronchopneumonia
Infectious disease deaths in England
LGBT singers
LGBT songwriters
Queen (band) members
This article is about the military strategist Sun Tzu. For the mathematician of the same name, see Sun Tzu (mathematician).

Sun Tzu (544 BC – 496 BC) also called Sun Wu, was an ancient Chinese general, military expert, and philosopher. He is widely believed to have been the writer of the most important work of military strategy and theory, The Art of War. His name means "Master Sun". His family name is Sun, Tzu is an honorific (title of respect) meaning "master."

Most of what is known about Sun Tzu comes from Ssu-ma Ch'ien's Shih chi, also called the Records of the Grand Historian. According to Ssu-ma, Sun Tzu lived during the era called the Spring and Autumn Period of China (770 to 476 BC).
Life 
Sun Tzu was born in the State of Qi (now Shandong Province). This is according to the Records of the Grand Historians. However, the Spring and Autumn Annals of Wu and Yueh claim he was born in Wu. Sun Tzu lived during the turbulent period of the late Chou dynasty. He grew up in a military family and he studied military science. Not much is known about his childhood or early life. It is known that at some point in his life he became known as a great general and a military strategist. He became a general for King Helü of Wu.
Sun Tzu won battles by not actually fighting his enemy if it was unnecessary. He recommended spies, deception and a commander having complete control of his soldiers. When he fought, he understood warfare better than most of his opponents. Sun Tzu learned to win battles with the least loss of his own men.
 
Many historians believe he was the victor at the Battle of Boju in 506 BC. The great historian Sima Qian (145/135–86 BC), writer of Shiji (Historical Record), called Sun Tzu an exceptional strategic battlefield commander. He also said Sun Tzu was both flexible and had unlimited surprises for his enemies. Sima Qian wrote that in his nearly 40 years as a general, Sun Tzu never lost a battle, a campaign or a war.

The Art of War
The Art of War 

The Art of War was one of the earliest books on Chinese warfare. It remains one of the best known and most influential books ever written. The book was widely copied in the ancient world. An early copy was discovered in 1972. It was written on bamboo slats that were sewn together. It became known in the Western world during the late 18th century. It was translated to English only in the 20th century.

At that time the rules for warfare were based on chivalry. War was the sport of rich noblemen. Sun Tzu refused to see war as a sport. He used Taoist principles and applied them to warfare. In doing so, he changed the rules of war. Unlike generals who enjoyed long campaigns, he understood that war is serious. Sun Tzu believed that once a war started, the goal was to defeat the enemy. Sun Tzu was unconventional in that he did not follow the prevailing wisdom of his time. Other generals were simply unprepared for Sun Tzu's tactics.
Legacy 
For at least the last 2000 years, Sun Tzu has had a tremendous influence on military thinking. The Art of War is credited by Mao Zedong as having helped him defeat Chiang Kai-Shek in the Chinese Civil War.  Ho Chi Minh was a fan of Sun Tzu. He led the Communist Vietnamese in their fight against American-backed South Vietnam. The American generals Norman Schwarzkopf, Jr. and Colin Powell followed Sun Tzu's principles during the Gulf War.

References 

544 BC births
496 BC deaths
 
Chinese generals
Chinese philosophers
Western world has meant various things at various times. In the earliest history of Europe, it referred to Ancient Greece and the Aegean. During the Roman Empire, it meant the Western Roman Empire (covering the area from Croatia to Britain). At other times, it has meant Western Europe or Europe or Christendom. During the Cold War, it sometimes meant the democratic countries or those allied with the various NATO powers.

In this day and age, it often refers to the places that have a European cultural heritage, called Western civilization. This European heritage itself is a combination of Judeo-Christian ethic, classical Greco-Roman thinking and the cultural practices of the "barbarian" peoples of Northern Europe. Under the strictest definition, it would include North America, Australia and Western/Central Europe: with the identities of Latin America, Eastern Europe, the Philippines, Singapore, Israel and South Africa being disputed due to the mix of both Western and non-Western cultures.
Related pages 
 Eastern world

Cultural geography
Political geography
A mouse (plural mice) is a small rodent, which is a kind of mammal.  
It has a pointed snout, small rounded ears, a body-length scaly tail and a high breeding rate. Most belong to the mus genus. The best known mouse species is the common house mouse (Mus musculus). Usually, house mice are brownish-gray. It is also a popular pet. In some places, certain kinds of field mice are also common. They are known to invade homes for food and occasionally shelter.

These small animals are often used in science experiments, or sometimes kept as pets. Some mice carry diseases. In some places they damage crops. This causes some people to think of mice as vermin or pests. Many other people think mice are cute and fun animals. 

Mice are rodents, therefore they are related to squirrels, rats, and beavers. Mice eat weeds, seeds, berries, and more. They are eaten by owls, foxes, snakes, weasels, and cats, amongst others.
Types of mice 
The word "mouse" should only be used for small murines, but does get used for other distantly-related small rodents. The murines are the largest subfamily of mammals. In fact, it is larger than almost all mammal orders.

House mouse 

The common house mouse is thought of as a pest.  They are found in the homes of humans.

Vole 

Voles are not mice, they are in a different family of rodents.

Deer mouse 
These are not mice either, or only distantly related. These mice live in forests. They can run and jump better than mice, and they get their common name from this.

The aggressive grasshopper mouse rarely eats other mice, but it does like grasshoppers and insects. It is also only a distant relative.

Mice in media 
Anthropomorphism makes cartoon mice look and act more like people than like real mice.  For example, the Disney characters Mickey and Minnie Mouse walk, talk, and act like people.  Jerry, the mouse star of Tom and Jerry cartoons, is similarly humanized.

References
References 

Old World rats and mice
Advance Wars is a video game for the Game Boy Advance. It is based on earlier games for Nintendo systems such as the Famicom and Game Boy. It is a strategy game: players must think of ways to win.

The game can be played with two, three, or four players at a time. Each player takes turns controlling their military-style playing pieces, called "units." Every unit can move along the playing field, which is split up into squares. The amount of squares a unit can move in one turn is different for each unit.

Most units can attack other units. Each unit has its own strength and defense. Strength is how much damage the unit can do to another unit. Defense is how much damage it can avoid taking whenever it is attacked. For example, the tank unit has more defense than the soldier, so even though the helicopter always has the same amount of attacking power, it can do more damage to the soldier than the tank.

References

2001 video games
Game Boy Advance-only games
Intelligent Systems games
Wars series
Solomon Islands () are a group of islands in the South Pacific that make up a country.  They are known for their beauty and for the many languages spoken there. The capital of Solomon Islands is Honiara.

History
In the 1890s the islands became a protectorate of the British Empire.

The Empire of Japan forces arrived in early 1942 and the United States Marine Corps attacked them, starting the Guadalcanal Campaign.

Civil unrest 
There was civil unrest between 1998 and 2003, commonly called the tensions or the ethnic tension; it included fighting between the Isatabu Freedom Movement (also known as the Guadalcanal Revolutionary Army) and the Malaita Eagle Force (as well as the Marau Eagle Force). (Although much of the conflict was between Guales and Malaitans, two research papers say that the 'ethnic conflict' label is an oversimplification.
In 2006, riots broke out following the election of Snyder Rini as Prime Minister, destroying part of the capital's Chinatown and displacing more than 1,000 Chinese residents; The Regional Assistance Mission to Solomon Islands (RAMSI), the 16-country Pacific Islands Forum initiative set up in 2003 with assistance from Australia, intervened, sending in additional police and army officers to bring the situation under control.  A motion of no confidence was passed against the Prime Minister. Following his resignation, a five-party Grand Coalition for Change Government was formed in May 2006, with Manasseh Sogavare as Prime Minister, quelling the riots and running the government. The army part of RAMSI was removed and rebuilding took shape.
2007 change of Prime Minister
On 13 December 2007, Prime Minister Manasseh Sogavare was toppled by a vote of no confidence in Parliament, following the defection of five ministers to the opposition. It was the first time a prime minister had lost office in this way in Solomon Islands. On 20 December, Parliament elected the opposition's candidate (and former Minister for Education) Derek Sikua as Prime Minister, in a vote of 32 to 15.
Earthquakes
On 2 April 2007 at 07:39:56 local time (UTC+11:00), an earthquake with magnitude 8.1 occurred at hypocenter S8.453 E156.957, 349 kilometres (217 miles) northwest of the island's capital, Honiara and south-east of the capital of Western Province, Gizo, at a depth of 10 km (6.2 miles).  More than 44 aftershocks with magnitude 5.0 or greater occurred up until 22:00:00 UTC, Wednesday, 4 April 2007. A tsunami followed killing at least 52 people, destroying more than 900 homes and leaving thousands of people homeless. Land upthrust extended the shoreline of one island, Ranongga, by up to 70 metres (230 ft) exposing many once pristine coral reefs.

On 6 February 2013, an earthquake with magnitude of 8.0 occurred at epicenter S10.80 E165.11 in the Santa Cruz Islands followed by a tsunami up to 1.5 metres. At least nine people were killed and many houses demolished. The main quake was preceded by a sequence of earthquakes with a magnitude of up to 6.0.

Provinces
Provinces

The country is divided into nine provinces and the town of Honiara:

 Central
 Choiseul
 Guadalcanal
 Isabel
 Makira-Ulawa
 Malaita
 Rennell and Bellona
 Temotu
 Western
 Honiara City

References

 
Current monarchies
English-speaking countries
Commonwealth realms
Least developed countries
1978 establishments in Oceania
Archipelagos
The intestines, divided into the small intestine and the large intestine, of an animal are like a tube through which food and bile from the stomach move.

The first part of the small intestine is called the duodenum, where most food is broken down by enzymes. Later, the small intestine absorbs useful compounds from the digested food, which is done using small villi or tiny microvilli  - hair-like structures in the walls of the intestine.

The large intestine, also called the bowel, absorbs water and any other nutrients, as well as vitamins made by the gut flora in the colon. Finally, waste is expelled through the anus.

References 

Anatomy of the digestive system
A chemical equation is a way to predict the way that two or more chemicals will work together. Using what chemists know about the way chemicals act, we add the letter symbols together just like a math problem. In this way we can correctly guess if we will get a new chemical when we mix two or more chemicals together, and what that chemical will be.

Chemical equations are either worded or written using the elements' symbols, how much of the element and in what state (solid[s], liquid[l], gas[g]) it is in.

For example: An aqueous solution of sodium chloride (NaCl[aq]) and another aqueous solution of silver nitrate (AgNO3[aq]). These mixed together form sodium nitrate (NaNO3[aq]) and silver chloride (AgCl[s])

Which in symbols is:

NaCl(aq) + AgNO3(aq) → NaNO3(aq) + AgCl(s)

The solutions formed the solid AgCl. This formation can be called a precipitate and the reaction between the two solutions a precipitation reaction, because the solid produced is not dissolved, whereas all the other products are dissolved.
More about chemical equations 
Chemical equations need to be balanced to satisfy the law of conservation of matter. Chemical equations tell that in a closed system matter is neither created nor destroyed. The chemical equation needs to be balanced so that it follows the law of conservation of mass. A balanced chemical equation happens when the number of the different atoms of elements on the reactants side is equal to that of the products side.

Balancing chemical equations is a process of trial and error. To balance the equation, the amounts of the reactants and products must be changed. As necessary, by adding coefficients in front of the appropriate formulas. When balancing an equation, never change the subscripts, because that changes the substance. To determine the number of atoms of each element, the coefficient is multiplied times the subscripts in each formula.
Methods of balancing chemical equations 
A chemical equation is a written symbolic representation of a chemical reaction. The reactant chemicals are given on the left-hand side and the product chemical on the right-hand side. The law of conservation of mass says that no atoms can be made in a chemical reaction. Also, it cannot be destroyed. So the number of atoms that are present in the reactants has to balance the number of atoms that are present in the reaction.
There are two practices of balancing a chemical equation. The first one is balancing by Inspection. Balancing by inspection is the most basic method used. It works best for simple problems. More complicated ones require experience. The second one is Balancing by Numerical Method. The most important parts of the numerical methotrexate, contrary to the inspection method, it gives the answer. If the reaction can be balanced, coefficients can be seen. If the reaction can't be balanced, it means that there are more unidentified than independent statements, or that statements are opposite. With inspection method, it won't prove that the equation can't be balanced.

why do we need to balance a chemical equation?

we need to balance a chemical equation because "law of conservation of mass" state that mass can neither be created nor destroyed in a chemical reaction.

So number of elements involved in a chemical reaction should remain same at reactant and product side.

(reactant = product)

References
References

Other websites
 Master of Chemical Equations - Real chemical equation balancer.
 Chemical Equation Balancer - An open source chemical equation balancer.
 Classic Chembalancer - Play Chembalancer, a free online game at FunBasedLearning.com, to learn how to balance equations
 Online calculator, determines of the coefficients of a chemical equation
 Online Chemical Equation Balancer Balances equation of any chemical reaction (full or half-cell) in one click.
 Balance chemical equations  Teaches how to balance chemical equations
 Stoichiometry Add-In for Microsoft Excel  for calculation of molecular weights, reaction coëfficients and stoichiometry.

Chemical reactions
Equations
Lucifer is another name for Satan. This is because people interpret a passage in the Book of Isaiah of the Bible in a certain way. Lucifer is Latin. It is made of two parts, lux-lucis (light) and ferre (to bring).
There are two mentions of Lucifer in the Latin Vulgate. is used to refer to the morning star, the planet Venus that appears at dawn: once in  to translate the Greek word "Φωσφόρος" (Phosphoros), which has exactly the same literal meaning of "Light-Bringer" that "Lucifer" has in Latin; and once in  to translate "הילל" (Hêlēl), which also means "Morning Star".

Latin name for the Morning Star

Lucifer is the Latin name for the "Morning Star", both in prose and poetry, as seen in works by Marcus Terentius Varro (116–27 BC), Cicero (106-43 BC) and other early Latin writers

Cicero wrote:
Stella Veneris, quae Φωσφόρος Graece, Latine dicitur Lucifer, cum antegreditur solem, cum subsequitur autem Hesperos
The star of Venus, called Φωσφόρος in Greek and Lucifer in Latin when it precedes, Hesperos when it follows the sun.

And Pliny the Elder:
sidus appellatum Veneris … ante matutinum exoriens Luciferi nomen accipit … contra ab occasu refulgens nuncupatur Vesper

The star called Venus … when it rises in the morning is given the name Lucifer … but when it shines at sunset it is called Vesper

Poets also used the word "Lucifer". Ovid has at least eleven mentions of the Morning Star in his poetry.  Virgil wrote: 
Luciferi primo cum sidere frigida rura 
carpamus, dum mane novum, dum gramina canent

Let us hasten, when first the Morning Star appears, 
To the cool pastures, while the day is new, while the grass is dewy
And Statius:
et iam Mygdoniis elata cubilibus altoimpulerat caelo gelidas Aurora tenebras, 
rorantes excussa comas multumque sequentisole rubens; illi roseus per nubila seras
aduertit flammas alienumque aethera tardoLucifer exit equo, donec pater igneus orbem
impleat atque ipsi radios uetet esse sorori

And now Aurora rising from her Mygdonian couch had driven the cold darkness on from high in the heavens, shaking out her dewy hair, her face blushing red at the pursuing sun – from him roseate Lucifer averts his fires lingering in the clouds and with reluctant horse leaves the heavens no longer his, until the blazing father make full his orb and forbid even his sister her beams
Lucifer as Devil character of the Bible
Lucifer is the epitome of evil in the Christian religion. Lucifer is believed by some to be Satan's name when he was still an angel, but it is Latin for 'light bringer' and not originally in the Bible. 
The word Lucifer was also used in Latin to mean the "morningstar", the planet Venus, and this word was used in the Latin version of Isaiah 14, where the Hebrew version was speaking to a king of Babylonia.

References

Demons
Astrobiology is the study of life in outer space. The field of astrobiology looks for conditions necessary for life, such as liquid water or a similar substitute, a good temperature, or the presence of oxygen.

Some possible places to find life in the solar system are Europa, Ganymede, moons of Jupiter, or Titan and Enceladus, both moons of Saturn. Some of these places may have liquid water, or, in the case of Titan, hydrocarbons that could support a different type of life. They may be too cold to support life on their surfaces, but if they have liquid water, the water must be warm enough to support life. Astrobiologists suggest that there may be a liquid water ocean under their surfaces.

Related pages

 Abiogenesis
 Astronomy
 Earliest known life forms
 Extraterrestrial life
 Extraterrestrial sky
 Panspermia

References
References

Other websites 
 Astrobiology.nasa.gov
 Spanish Centro de Astrobiología
 UK Centre for Astrobiology
 Astrobiology Research at The Library of Congress
 Astrobiology Survey – An introductory course on astrobiology

Branches of biology
Astrobiology
Castles are medieval buildings which were defensive homes for powerful people. They could be made from wood, stone, or brick, and some were used for hundreds of years. Thousands of castles were built across Europe, the Middle East, and Japan with different designs. Today, most castles are ruins and many are popular tourist attractions.

In England and Wales castles were first used by the invading Normans led by Duke William in 1066.  They provided a base for lord of the castle to control the surrounding area and govern their land.  Castles were designed to be imposing: their massive defenses deterred attackers and showed the owner's strength.

A few troops in a castle could defend themselves against a much larger army.  The most common method for taking a castle would be to besiege or storm it.  Each had problems.  Storming a castle would kill many of the attackers, but a siege would take a long time.  Both methods sometimes failed.
Time of building 
Castles were first built in the 9th century and the practice continued up to the 16th century.  A castle was both a home for someone important like a king or noble, and a fort.  Castles were designed to keep people out and show how powerful the people inside were.  They were sometimes used in war, with many famous sieges like the siege of Kenilworth in 1266 which lasted for six months, or Stirling Castle which was besieged eight times.

Castles could look very strong, but sometimes the defences were mostly for show. The moat around Bodiam Castle is not very deep and could be drained by an attacking army, so was not very practical as a defence. But it made the castle look very impressive, and look bigger than it really is. If the owner of a castle rebelled against their ruler they might be punished by having their castle demolished, known as slighting.
Where to find them
Castles were built in Europe and the Middle East, with similar buildings developing separately in Japan in the 15th century. Castles were usually built from either wood or stone, and sometimes brick. Some castles started off as wooden and were then rebuilt in stone, which was more expensive and a stronger so that the castles could be bigger. They could be built on hills or low areas like the edge of towns or at river crossings. There is the widely held idea that castles were always built on high hills; while there are some castles which make dramatic use of the landscape and are highly visible, there were a lot of factors in choosing where to build castles and only a minority were on hills. For example, many castles were built along the Rhine River so they could stop people using the river without permission.
Depending on the exact definition, the number of castles varies and more castles are still being discovered. The numbers below are rough, and it is difficult to find estimates for some countries like Italy and Spain though they have many castles. Imitation castles have been built in the 19th and 20th century, like Neuschwanstein or some places in the United States but these are not considered genuine castles as they were not meant to be defensive.

Austria: 160
Czech Republic: 60
Denmark: 20
England: about 2,700
Finland: 6
Germany: 6,300
Hungary: 80
Japan: 5,000
Latvia: 30
Netherlands: 140
Scotland: 3,000
Slovakia: 50
Switzerland: 4,000
Wales: 700
Life in a castle
The powerful people who built castles also lived in them with their families. They would have servants and a group of people to make sure the castle worked: people fetching water, cooking,  clearing the stables, looking after animals, cooking, lighting fires, and checking who was coming into the castle. In peacetime, most castles only had a few soldiers who would guard the place.

Today, most castles have bare stone walls inside but in the Middle Ages they looked very different. Important rooms had colourful tapestries hanging on the walls, and paintings on the ceiling. Other rooms like kitchens or cupboards had plain white walls. Fireplaces kept rooms warm, and candles were used for light at night or in dark rooms. Glass was used later in the Middle Ages, but windows had shutters to keep out the cold and the weather. Religion was an important of the Middle Ages, and castles usually had chapels so that the people who lived there could pray.

Rooms and features in a castle
Medieval castles had many different features and spaces

 Great hall - The main living room and dining room in a castle, where people ate, worked, were entertained, and in smaller castles in early medieval times, slept and prayed.

 Solar - a smaller living room or parlour, usually on an upper floor within a tower.

 Bedchamber - a medieval bedroom

 Keep (also called a great tower or donjon) - the main tower or living quarters in a castle.

 Dungeon - a basement or cellar that occasionally doubled as a prison.

 Chapel - in bigger castles, a small church or large prayer room.

 Moat - a wide, usually water filled ditch for keeping siege engines away from the castle.

 Crenellations or battlements - the tooth shaped vertical protrusions atop castle walls.

 Curtain wall - the outer defensive wall.
The end of castles 
Later in the Middle Ages, important people wanted more privacy and larger homes. It was easier to build new homes instead of trying to make the castles bigger, so some people moved out of castles into new homes. The use of gunpowder weapons also changed warfare and made castles less effective. Guns were introduced in the 14th century, and by the 15th and 16th centuries they were powerful enough to break castle walls. New types of fortification were invested, with shorter thicker walls, and using earth to absorb hits from cannonballs.

Though cannons were powerful, castles were still used in war. In the 17th century, lots of castles were used in the English Civil War, though many of them had not been lived in for decades and needed repairs.
Castles today
As castles were built hundreds of years ago, most of them are ruins. Some are still lived in by wealthy families, or are still used by governments or armies. Because of this they might have changed and look different to old castles which were abandoned. Many castles have been turned into museums so the public can visit and learn about the past. Some castles are owned by the state, and others are owned by private people. Castles are expensive to run, so many are falling down. Every so often lightning strikes, flooding, or earthquakes damage castles.
People have been interested in castle for centuries. Historians and archaeologists have searched old documents and dug into castles to find out more about them. Because of this, for some castles we know who owned them, when they were used, when bits were built, what people ate, and what kind of things happened at castles. But there are lots of places where we know very little, not even when they were built. This is because a lot of medieval documents do not survive.

Some castle ruins have been rebuilt to look like they did originally. Also, many "mock" castles have been built, mostly in Europe and North America during the 19th and 20th centuries. These castles have no serious defensive function and the architectural elements are mainly for show.

Other famous castles include
Warwick Castle,
Bran Castle,
Neuschwanstein Castle, and
Boldt Castle.