AcharyaChanakya/simple-wikipedia huggingface dataset:
Even though World War II was going on, "Dumbo" was still the most financially successful Disney movie of the 1940s. This was one of the first of Disney's animated movies to be broadcast, albeit severely edited, on television, as part of Disney's anthology series. The movie then received another distinction of note in 1981, when it was the first of Disney's canon of animated movies to be released on home video and also was released in the "Walt Disney Classics" Video Collection in 1985. That release was followed by remastered versions in: 1986, 1989, 1991 (Classics), and 1994 (Masterpiece). In 2001, a 60th Anniversary Special Edition was released that has original RKO titles. In 2006, a "Big Top Edition" of the movie was released on DVD that also has original RKO titles. A UK Special Edition was released in May 2007 and was a successful Disney release.
The movie received very good reviews and did well at the box office despite being released less than 2 months before "World War II".
It also has been known as both a classic and a masterpiece, and has received a Special Edition 60th Anniversary Disney DVD on October 23, 2001, exatly 60 years after its first release. That release featured a sneak peek of a direct-to-video sequel called Dumbo II. The preview showed a lot of sketches and storyboard ideas. The main story has to do with Dumbo and his new friends getting separated from the rest of the circus as they wonder into the big city. Dumbo's new friends are Claude and Lolly the twin bears who leave chaos everywhere they go, Dot the curious zebra, Godfrey the hippo who is older and wants to do things for himself, and Penny the adventurous ostrich. Timothy returns as well. The story was supposed to be as if the first Dumbo ended and this one started the next day. The project seems to have been canceled,as no further announcements have been made since, plus the fact that The Little Mermaid: Ariel's Beginning, Tinker Bell, and its sequels, were to be the last projests for DisneyToon Studios.
The crow characters in the movie are often seen as African-American stereotypes.
The leader crow voiced by Cliff Edwards was originally named "Jim Crow" for script purposes. The other crows are all voiced by African-American actors and singers, all members of the Hall Johnson Choir: Nick Stewart, James Baskett, Jim Carmichael and Hall Johnson. The late famous duo of African-American dancers Freddie and Eugene Jackson were invited and hired by Disney to work as live-action reference and models for the animators of the characters, like the chief-animator and Disney Legend Ward Kimball, improvising dances and movements then used in the iconic musical sequence "When I See An Elephant Fly". Despite suggestions of racism by writers like Richard Schickel, many historians, critics, writers, pundits and personalities such as John Grant, Leonard Maltin, John Canemaker, Floyd Norman, Eric Goldberg, Alex Wainer, Michael Wilmington, Whoopi Goldberg and Neal Gabler reject these claims. For instance, the crows are noted as forming the majority of the characters in the movie who are empathetic and sympathetic to Dumbo's plight (the others are Timothy Q. Mouse and Mrs Jumbo), they are free spirits who serve nobody, and intelligent characters aware of the power of self-confidence and of what means being ostracized and marginalized, unlike the Stepin Fetchit stereotype common at that time and in the previous decade. Furthermore, their song "When I See An Elephant Fly" is more orientated to mocking Timothy Mouse than Dumbo's large ears.
"Dumbo's Circus" was a live-action puppet television programme for preschool audiences that aired on The Disney Channel in the 1980s. Unlike in the movie, Dumbo spoke on the show. Each character would perform a special act, which ranged from dancing and singing to telling knock knock jokes.
Dumbo the Flying Elephant is a popular ride that appears in Walt Disney World's Magic Kingdom, Disneyland, Tokyo Disneyland, Disneyland Park (Paris), and Hong Kong Disneyland.
Dumbo appears as a hero in the game Kingdom Hearts. Sora, the main character, flies on him and Dumbo splashes enemies with water from his trunk.
(NOTE: Most of the above titles were later renamed simply "Dumbo".)
Bertolt Brecht
Brecht went to school in Augsburg, where his father was the director of a paper factory.
He completed his degree in 1917.
Afterwards he studied sciences, medicine and literature at the Ludwig-Maximilians-University in Munich. He had to take a break in his studies because he had to join the army.
In the 1920s, Brecht went to Berlin and became a part of the cultural scene. He met his second wife Helene Weigel in Berlin and married her, after divorcing his first wife. It was with his second wife that Brecht had another son.
In Berlin he met a lot of artists and intellectuals of the Weimar Republic.
His works became very critical about the capitalistic society (e.g. "Aufstieg und Fall der Stadt Mahagonny" (1930)). Many of his friends were communists, but he never joined the KPD.
His most famous work was from that time, the "Dreigroschenoper".
In 1933 the Nazis prohibited playing some of his works and arrested some of his friends.
After the Reichstag fire, he travelled from Germany to Prague, Vienna, Switzerland and Denmark.
For the next five years he lived in Denmark. In 1938 he wrote "Das Leben des Galilei" (The Life of Galilei) about Galileo Galilei, who was hunted by the Holy Inquisition because he wanted to tell the scientific truth.
When Germany occupied Denmark he had to flee once again.
He went to Sweden, then to Finland and finally to Moscow in the Soviet Union.
Even under Stalin he was not safe. He therefore flew through China to the United States.
He lived and worked in California and translated a lot of text.
In 1947, in the McCarthy era, the House Un-American Activities Committee (HUAC) investigated him, because they suspected him of being a communist.
He gave a statement and said that he had never been a member of the communist party.
He then flew back to Switzerland - the only place he could go to at the time.
In 1948 he was allowed to return to Berlin, East Berlin.
He was an important writer and director for the young East Germany.
After the workers' protest on June 17 1953, Brecht complained about the Eastern German government which landed him into some trouble. From that point on he got more and more isolated.
Brecht died of a heart attack in 1956 at the age of 58 years in Berlin.
Dramas (chronological)
One act dramas
Lyric cycles
Lyirics and songs (not complete)
Prosa
Beresford, South Dakota
Beresford is a city in the southeastern part of the U.S. state of South Dakota. Most of the city is located in Union County, but a small part of it is in Lincoln County. Beresford became a city in 1884, and 2,005 people lived there at the 2010 census.
Gotthold Ephraim Lessing
Gotthold Ephraim Lessing (22 January 1729 in Kamenz (Saxony) – 15 February 1781 in Braunschweig) was a German poet and philosopher in the time of the enlightenment.
Lessing was one of twelve children. His father was a Protestant priest. He went to school in Kamenz and got a stipendium for the Higher School in Meißen. From 1746 to 1748, he studied medicine and theology in Leipzig. In 1750, he moved to Berlin, where he met Voltaire. In 1752 he got the Magister (Master) degree from the university in Wittenberg.
He moved back to Leipzig in 1755, but returned later to Berlin. He traveled around in Europe and studied. He worked as a reporter. From 1760 to 1765, he worked as secretary for a general in "Breslau" (today: Wroclaw). Later he worked at the theater and became a librarian. Lessing got married in 1776. But 1778 his wife died.
In 1781, Lessing died.
Heinrich Böll
Heinrich Böll (December 21, 1917 in Cologne – July 16, 1985 in Langenbroich the Eifel, south of Bonn) was a German writer. He was the winner of the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1972.
Böll was born in Cologne. His family were strong Catholics and pacifists.
He went to school from 1922 to 1937. After his abitur, he started a training to become a bookseller. He did not go to the Hitler Youth, but he had to join the German army in the World War II. In 1939, he started to study German literature in Cologne, but he had to break for his army service.
In 1945 he became prisoner of war by the Americans. The Americans wanted to educate the German people to became a democracy. So they encouraged prisoners with talent to write. Böll and some other young writers founded the group 47.
Böll wrote a lot of social critical literature. His main themes were the repression in the way of life by conservative catholic forces and the unsolved problem of old Nazis in the society.
In the 1970s, he criticized the losing of civil laws by the fight against terrorism (of the RAF, Red Army Faction, a left-winged political terror group in the 1970s in West Germany). For that reason, the Bild-Zeitung, an very conservative yellow press newspaper, started a campaign against him.
In the late 1970s, he started to look for Human Rights in the Eastern Blok, where some friends of his lived, too. He helped the Soviet dissidents Alexander Solshenizyn and Lev Kopelev.
In the 1980s, he worked for the peace movement. He protested against the nuclear armament in West Germany.
He went back to the Roman Catholic Church, which he left 1976 by protests, before he died.
The Green Party of Germany gave its foundation the name of Böll, Heinrich-Böll-Stiftung. The goals of the foundation are for countries to work together, civil laws and democratic and ecological thinking.
More than seventy translations of Annemarie and Heinrich Böll are listed in the bibliography published in 1995 by Werner Bellmann: poetical works of , , , , , , et al.
Anna Seghers
Anna Seghers (November 19, 1900 in Mainz – June 1, 1983 in East Berlin) was an (East) German writer.
Seghers was born as Netty Reiling.
Her parents were orthodox Jews, but also interested in Christians belief.
Nelly made her abitur in 1920. Before she served as nurse in the World War I.
She studied in Cologne and Heidelberg history, arts history and Chinese.
By marrying the Hungarian Communist Laszlo Radvanyi in 1925, she obtained also the Hungarian nationality. She joined later the Communist Party of Germany (KPD). They had three children.
After the Nazis took over government in Germany, she was arrested for a short while, her books were burned.
After she got free again, she had the chance to flee into Switzerland. Then she went to Paris and worked for unions of exilised writers.
After German troups occupied Paris she could flee to Marseille, which was not occupied. But her husband was arrested. She tried to get him free.
In 1941 the complete family flew about Martinique and New York City to Mexico City.
She founded new unions for exiled writers.
In 1947 she returned to Berlin, Eastern Berlin.
She joined the Socialist Party of the later GDR and worked for the Writers Union of the GDR.
She got a lot of prizes and awards.
She tried to make silent interventions for colleges, who had trouble with the government, but she was unsuccessful.
She died in 1983 in Berlin.
Clement Attlee
Clement Richard Attlee, 1st Earl Attlee (3 January 1883 – 8 October 1967) was a British politician. Prime Minister from 1945 to 1951, he was the first Labour prime minister with a majority in government, and was very important in the setting up of the welfare state. He was made a member of the House of Lords after he retired, and became the first Earl Attlee.
Attlee died of pneumonia in 1967. He is buried in Westminster Abbey.
Attlee was born in Putney. Attlee was educated at Haileybury College. He graduated from University College, Oxford with a Second Class Honours BA in Modern History in 1904.
Attlee began a career as a barrister after graduating from Oxford. This lasted for two years. He then worked as manager of Haileybury House in East London. Attlee's work at the House inspired him to become a socialist. In 1907 he joined the Fabian Society. In 1908 he joined the Independent Labour Party. In 1911, he was employed by the UK Government. In 1919 Attlee became Mayor of Stepney. He was elected to Parliament in 1922 as the MP for Limehouse., In 1935 he was elected leader of the Labour Party. From 1942 to 1945 he was deputy prime minister. Attlee resigned as party leader after Labour lost the 1955 election. He was made a member of the Order of Merit in 1951 and a Knight of the Garter in 1956. In 1958 he started the Homosexual Reform Society with Bertrand Russell.
The bassoon is the lowest of the four main instrument of the woodwind family. Like the oboe, it has a double reed. The reed is attached to a curved metal mouthpiece called a "crook" or "bocal" which is joined to the main part of the instrument. This consists of two parts called ‘bass joint’ and ‘wing joint’ (or ‘tenor joint’). These two are joined at the bottom by a U-shaped piece called the ‘boot’. At the top of the instrument is the ‘bell joint’. The instrument is quite heavy. Some players have a neckstrap around their neck to support the weight, but usually they use a seat strap that connects at the bottom of the boot and goes across the floor. The bassoonist, a person who plays a bassoon, then sits on that strap. The bassoon is held to the right side of the bassoonist and the top of the boot joint is usually level with the players hip. The bassoon, when played right, can sound very beautiful. The bassoon has one of the largest note ranges, going from low B flat to a high F on the top line of the treble clef. The bassoon can also play in tenor clef, but usually plays bass clef.
Some bassoons have a white, ivory ring round the top of the bell joint. These are German bassoons (called ‘Heckel’). French bassoons (called ‘Buffet’) do not have this ring, and also sound quite different to German bassoons. Bassoons have keys to help the player to cover all the holes, but these keys do not use the Boehm fingering system like the other woodwind instruments. German bassoons use a system called the Heckel system, and French bassoons use the Buffet system..
The Bassoon is usually seen as a comical instrument, however it provides a very important role in the orchestra.In fact, the Saxophone was invented to replace the Bassoon and Oboe, however, was rejected because it didn't sound the same in the orchestra.
To play the bassoon, it is very important to have lots of breathing support. Like with the oboe, fast passages can be played using double tonguing (single tonguing is like saying “tu-tu-tu-tu-tu”, double tonguing is like saying “te-ke-te-ke-te-ke”). In most music, the bassoon will spend a lot of time playing a bass line, perhaps the same notes as the cello or tuba. It can sometimes sound quite amusing when playing an “um-cha-um-cha” accompaniment like in the “Dance of the Cygnets” from Tchaikovsky’s "Swan Lake". It can sound very tuneful and sad as in the second movement of Rimsky Korsakov’s "Sheherazade". Listen to the opening of Stravinsky’s "Rite of Spring" where it plays some quite high notes to fool people that it is the Cor anglais or the English Horn. Even a famous composer, Saint Saëns, did not know what the instrument was. Prokofiev uses the bassoon for grandfather’s tune in "Peter and the Wolf". Also, to play the bassoon, a player needs big hands because the bassoon's keys and holes are quite wide.
The holes are drilled in at an angle so that the upper register is not overblown and produces an unpleasant sound. Whisper keys were also invented to prevent overblowing. The bassoon is known for its reedy sound. Its upper register is shrill and sometimes scary. Middle register could be used for lullabies because of its majestic and soothing tone. Its lower register is deep, dark, and could be used for scary movies and such.
The bassoon developed from a renaissance instrument called the "curtal" or "dulcian". These were double reed instruments which often played with shawms. In the Baroque period the bassoon became popular as an instrument to play the bass line, perhaps playing the same as the cello. A man named Hotteterre made many parts of the modern bassoon. In the late Baroque period composers like Antonio Vivaldi wrote concertos for bassoon and orchestra. Some more famous bassoon concertos include one by Mozart, and in more recent times by Peter Maxwell Davies. The bassoon was a very important instrument in the orchestra. Mozart and Beethoven gave the bassoon important parts in the music.
In some pieces with a large orchestra a contrabassoon is used. This plays an octave lower than a bassoon, taking it right down to bottom B flat or C on the piano. Some contrabassoons are made to play a note lower, i.e. the very lowest note of the piano (A). One might expect to see the contrabassoon sticking up high above all the other instruments in the orchestra, but in fact the tube keeps doing U-turns, making four parallel rows of tubing. They are usually made with the bell pointing downwards. The weight is supported by a peg to the floor. The contrabassoon used to be shaped like a bassoon.
The contrabassoon adds richness to the sound of a full orchestra. Listen carefully for the contrabassoon in the hymn-like introduction to the last movement of "Symphony no 1" by Brahms. It can be clearly heard, growling away, in the opening of the "Piano Concerto for the Left Hand" by Ravel.
An octave is the distance between two musical notes that have the same letter name.
If a musician sings or plays a scale (‘do-re-mi-fa-sol-la-si-do’) the first and last ‘do’ are an octave apart. It is called an ‘octave’ because there are eight notes in a scale (‘octo’ is Latin for ‘eight’).
If a musician sings or plays the first two notes of the song “Somewhere over the rainbow” (i.e. the word ‘Somewhere’) these two notes are an octave apart.
Two notes that are an octave apart sound very similar, almost like the same note. The scientific reason for this is that the top note vibrates twice as fast. For example: if someone plays Middle C on a piano, a hammer hits the Middle C strings inside and makes them vibrate 256 times a second. The C an octave higher will vibrate 512 times a second.
Young children who learn the piano will not be able to stretch an octave with one hand, if their hands are too small. Most adults can stretch an octave easily (playing one note with the thumb, and the other with the little finger). Advanced pianists can practice scales in octaves. Violinists can play scales in octaves, too, playing on two strings at once, but this is very hard.
Tinder is a material that is used to start fires easily when lit with a match.
Some materials commonly used as tinder are:
Stephen Joseph Harper (born April 30, 1959) is a Canadian economist, entrepreneur, and retired politician. He was the 22nd Prime Minister of Canada from 2006 to 2015. He is a member and the former leader of the Conservative Party, after being elected in 2004. He was elected in February 2006 and replaced Paul Martin as Prime Minister.
Harper was born in 1959 in Toronto, Ontario and lives in Calgary, Alberta. He is married to Laureen Teskey and has two children. He is the third Prime Minister, after Pierre Trudeau and John Turner, to send their children to Rockcliffe Park Public School, in Ottawa. Stephen Harper was Prime Minister for nine years, during which Canada hosted both the Vancouver 2010 Olympics and Paralympic Winter Games. Harper also hosted the G8 and G20 meetings.
Harper is a conservative and supports cutting government spending and taxes. As Prime Minister, he has cut the goods and services tax and approved a budget that would cut funding to several government programs. He has also shown support for the military and a bigger Canadian military presence in the northern part of Canada.
Even though Harper did win the seat in the riding of Calgary Heritage during the October 19, 2015 federal election, the Conservative Party was defeated by the Liberal Party of Canada, which was led by Justin Trudeau and who succeeded Harper as Prime Minister. It was thereafter announced Harper would resign as party leader and had requested an interim leader be chosen to serve until a leadership election can be held.
A tadpole or polliwog is a young frog that breathes and lives in the water. They hatch from small eggs laid in a pond or lake by their mother.
Frog eggs are round and toad eggs are laid in long strings. There is enough food in each egg to last 21 days.
After a few weeks, they begin to grow back legs, then front legs. Soon after, the froglets begin to breathe air and lose their tails. They will grow larger, and in a few months, become adults.
Most types of tadpole eat only plants. Some types of tadpole eat plants and animals, even other smaller tadpoles.
During the tadpole stage of the amphibian life cycle, most breathe by means of external or internal gills. They usually do not have arms or legs until the change to adulthood. They have a large, flattened tail with which they swim by 'lateral undulation' (side to side), similar to most fish.
As a tadpole matures, it changes by gradually growing limbs, usually the back legs first. Then it gradually loses its tail by programmed cell death (apoptosis). Lungs develop at the time of leg development: tadpoles late in development are often near the surface of the water, where they breathe air. During the final stages, the tadpole's mouth changes from a small mouth at the front of the head to a large mouth the same width as the head. The intestines shorten to accommodate the new diet. Most tadpoles are herbivorous, living on algae and plants. Some species are omnivorous, eating detritus and, when available, smaller tadpoles.
Zeulenroda-Triebes
Zeulenroda-Triebes is a German town in the rural district of Greiz in Thuringia.
It has about 18,000 inhabitants. Most famous sight of the town is the beautiful town hall.
Harry Nilsson
Harry Edward Nilsson III (June 15, 1941 - January 15, 1994) was an American singer-songwriter.
Nilsson was born in Bushwick, Brooklyn, New York City. His paternal grandparents were Swedish.
"Without her" is one of his early hits. This number is nowadays considered one of his standards as Blood, Sweat & Tears did later an jazzy cover on their album. His biggest hits were during the late 1960s and the 1970s. His songs include "Me And My Arrow", "Coconut", "Cuddly Toy", "Spaceman", and "One". "One" was also a hit for the band Three Dog Night. Nilsson's two most famous songs were "Without You" and "Everybody's Talkin'". These songs were written by other people. "Without You" has been re-recorded many times by other singers. It was written by Peter Ham and Tom Evans of Badfinger. "Everybody's Talkin'" was used in the 1969 movie "Midnight Cowboy". The song was written by Fred Neil.
Nilsson recorded a tribute to The Beatles on his first album. He used lines from fifteen of their songs in one cover version of "You Can't Do That". Derek Taylor, who worked for the Beatles, sent them copies of the album, and Nilsson became a friend of the band. He later shared a house with John Lennon and Ringo Starr. They worked together on each other's music.
Nilsson also wrote a cartoon movie named "The Point!". It was broadcast on ABC. It was about tolerance and diversity. "The Point!" was later turned into a musical. One production of the musical starred former Monkees Micky Dolenz and Davy Jones. The Monkees had recorded two of Nilsson's songs, "Cuddly Toy" and "Daddy's Song", after they met him through producer Chip Douglas.
Nilsson died of heart failure in Agoura Hills, California.
The movie "You've Got Mail" uses several of Nilsson's songs in its soundtrack.
Acoustic guitar
An acoustic guitar is a string instrument. It has six strings which pass from tuning pegs over the instrument's neck which is marked with lines called frets. These marks show where to press a string with the fingers of the left hand, to change the note that string plays. The right hand plucks or strums the strings, either with the fingers or using a plectrum ("pick"), to make them sound. Acoustic guitars are used in types of music ranging from classical to rock and roll, to bluegrass and folk. The six strings can be steel or nylon. Nylon strings are typically used for classical and related styles of music. Steel strings are typically used for most other styles.
The acoustic guitar came from Spain (an instrument with six strings), created by Antonio Torres Jurado. But at the beginning, the guitar was different with what we see the guitar now. In the 16th to 17th centuries, the guitar became popular in Europe. In the 18th century, the guitar changed to be similar to how it is now. But before the 19th century, many people thought the guitar could not be same as a piano or violin. They thought it could not play classical music. But at the beginning of 19th century, a famous guitar player, Fernando Sor, made the guitar become more popular and he made more people like playing the guitar. Before the 20th century, people played the acoustic guitar. In the 20th century, a musician in United States, Leo Fender, invented the electric guitar.
The guitar and the ukulele are similar in shape and other ways, but they are also different. The ukulele looking like a small guitar. But the guitar has six strings, and the ukulele has just four strings. The six strings in a guitar are tuned: E, B, G, D, A, and E; the four strings in a ukulele are tuned: G, C, E, and A. Also, the ukulele comes from Hawaii, and the guitar comes from Spain.
A flipper is a special kind of limb that is flattened like a paddle for moving through water. Many animals that live in water, such as whales and seals have flippers. The flipper of a fish is called a fin.
It can also be an item worn on the foot to help people swim more easily.
Coral fungi
Coral fungi or clavarioid fungi, are mushrooms that are usually shaped like coral, but can also be shaped like forks, worms or clubs.
They are rubbery and at times are brightly coloured.
Originally, such fungi were put in the genus "Clavaria", and called "clavarioid", which means "Clavaria"-like. It is now known that clavarioid species are not all closely related. Since they are often studied as a group, we keep the informal (non-taxonomic) name of "clavarioid fungi", and it is frequently used in research papers.
Most coral fungi grow on the ground, but some grow on well decayed logs and stumps.
They are usually found in forests but some can also be found in fields. They are decomposers.
Although they are not poisonous, some kinds are a laxative and some can cause stomach pain.
Stone fruit
A stone fruit, also called a drupe, is a fruit with a large "stone" inside. The stone is sometimes called the seed, but that is a mistake, as the seed is inside the stone. The stones can also be called a pit. These fruits are edible and used frequently in cooking.
A fruit is the matured ovary of a flower. Fruits consist of two main parts: the pericarp, or ovary wall, and the seed(s).
The pericarp has three layers: the exocarp (skin/rind), the mesocarp (bulk of the pericarp), and the endocarp (innermost layer).
The two main classes of fleshy fruits are berries and drupes, or stone fruits.
Berries have a fleshy mesocarp and endocarp, and may have multiple seeds.
Drupes have a fleshy mesocarp, but a tough endocarp, and of course, a "stone" or "pit" at its center. Drupes typically have only a single seed.
Humpback whale
A humpback whale ("Megaptera novaeangliae") is a large baleen whale with long flippers and a knobbly head. They can be found in every ocean.
They can grow to 15–16 m (49–52 ft) long and weigh up to 40 metric tons.
Humpback whales can live up to 45 years. They migrate between the places they feed in the winter and the places they give birth in the summer. They usually live alone.
Humpback whales eat krill and small fish, for example herring, capelin, and sand lance. They scoop up their food in their large mouths. Sometimes they round up their prey by swimming in tight circles and blowing curtains of bubbles around them. They often hunt in small groups, called pods.
The male whale is known to sing for up to 22 hours at a time. Because whales do not have vocal chords, they make songs by forcing air through their nasal passages. Every male has a different song. We don't yet know why they sing, it might be to call a female or scare away other males. The songs are made up of a pattern of low notes repeated over a period of hours or days. The whales slowly change their songs over a period of years.
Both the male and female humpback whales make other sounds, such as moans and grunts, to communicate with each other.
Slovak is the language spoken in Slovakia, a country in Central Europe. It is a language from Slavic language family. It is very similar to Czech, and Czechs and Slovaks understand each other quite well when they speak their own language. Polish and Sorbian are also quite similar. All of them belong to the western branch of Slavic languages. Slovak is spoken by more than 5 million people.
Slovak is written using the Latin alphabet, but some letters have special signs (called diacritics).
The letters č, š, ž and dž are like the English sounds in "ch"in, "sh"in, vi"s"ion and "j"uice.
The letters ď, ľ, ň, and ť are called “soft consonants” and are pronounced with the blade of the tongue at the roof of the mouth.
The letters c, dz and j are also soft, like "ts" in ba"ts", "ds" in ro"ds", and "y" in "y"es.
Signs over a vowel show that the vowel is pronounced long: á, é, í, ó, ý ú. A long vowel is never followed in the next syllable by a short vowel.
The letter ô is like English "wo"man, and ä is the same as the letter e.
The letter ch is like "ch" in Scottish lo"ch". V is more like English "w".
The letters b, d, ď, dz, dž, g, h, z, ž are voiceless when they are at the end of a word (for example, 'd' will sound like 't').
The accent is always on the first syllable of the word. That is different from Russian, for example, in which the stress can be anywhere.
Like other Slavic languages, Slovak is difficult for English-speakers to pronounce., especially because several consonants often come together. In the sentence: “Strč prst skrz krk!” there is not one single vowel (it means: “Stick a finger through your neck!”)!
The grammar is similar to Russian, but there are some differences. Slovak, unlike Russian, has the words for “to have” and “to be”:
Unlike English, Slovak does not have articles (such as “the” and “a”).
There are three genders in Slovak, therefore it is important to know whether a noun is masculine, feminine or neuter. There is no article to make it obvious (unlike in German), but it changes the adjective's ending.
Like many other European languages, Slovak verbs agree with the person, and there are different forms for 'I', 'you', 'he', etc. Verbs have different aspects to show whether or not the action is complete. There are also different cases that show how a word is used in a sentence. Different prepositions use different cases. All of that makes grammar quite complicated for English-speakers.
The numbers from 1 to 10 are .
Use the familiar form when talking to a child, and the polite form when talking to an adult.
Electronic Arts, Inc. (EA) is a large company which makes computer and video games all over the world. They made famous games such as The Sims, Madden NFL and Medal of Honor. They also made the Need for Speed series. EAs most popular products are the games which are sold under the EA Sports label.
The company was started in February 1982 by Trip Hawkins. They first shipped their games in May 1983.
They have since then produced video games every year.
EA owns other smaller game companies which they call 'studios'.
A few of these include Maxis (creators of The Sims), Bullfrog (creators of Theme Park and Theme Hospital), and BioWare (makers of Mass Effect).
Tap (valve)
A tap, faucet, or spigot is something that a liquid or gas comes out of. Taps usually have a handle that can be turned to start or stop the liquid coming out.
Many taps give water and are used in homes. They are found in kitchens and bathrooms.
Water that comes out of a tap is called "tap water". At many restaurants, a person can ask for tap water instead of bottled water.
A competition or contest is an event where people get together to see who is the best at something. Someone who takes part in a competition ("enters for a competition") is called a competitor. The competitors compete against one another. The person who wins may get a prize. The prize might be a trophy or money.
Competitions can be for lots of different things, for example, sport, writing, music, dancing, science, or chess.
Some competitions need a referee. The referee will make sure that the game is played fairly and that the competitors obey the rules. In events like music competitions there will often be an adjudicator who will decide which person they think is the best.
The adjective of 'competition' is competitive.
There are a lot of different kinds of competitions, for example:
or see the gallery of images below:
SimCity is a computer game where the player has to build a city. They can do whatever they want to their city. It can be built from the ground up or it can be destroyed by a hurricane or a UFO.
"Sim City" was made by game maker Will Wright and first released by the company Maxis. They are now owned by Electronic Arts. The game was first officially released in 1989.
It was very popular because the game had no end. A player could not win or lose. This was the start of all simulation games.
At the start, the player has to build power plants. Power plants make power so the city can have electricity. By building power lines, power is connected to the different areas of the city. Water needs to be pumped in from a river using pipes to connect them to the city.
Smaller areas are marked out. These are made either residential, commercial, or industrial zones. Zones are the only places where buildings can develop. Every city needs the right amount of each zone otherwise the city will not grow.
Roads, schools and hospitals must all be built for the city to get better. Parks and libraries make more people want to move to the city. Railways and highways provide ways to connect to other neighborhoods.
After the first game, many more were created. These were made up of three games, with spin-offs and expansion packs. These were:
Doorstop
A doorstop (or door stop or doorstopper) is a tool.
There are two types. One holds a door open (or "stops" it from closing), and the other stops the door from hitting a wall.
Doorstops that keep the door from hitting a wall can be put on the door, or on the wall, or on the floor in front of the wall.
Doorstops that are used to keep a door open come in two varieties:
Digital rights management
Digital rights management (DRM) is a way to make it difficult to copy music, movies, and computer programs. It is used to make people follow copyright laws. It works by using computer technologies.
Many companies use DRM to protect their properties from copyright infringement, such as Sony, Microsoft and the BBC. Other companies also use DRM.
Some people do not like digital rights management. They think that DRM makes copying harder than copyright laws allow. The Free Software Foundation suggested that 'digital restrictions management' is a better name.
People can break DRM. If someone breaks a DRM technology then copying is possible. All common DRM technologies have been broken. Making a DRM technology that can not be broken is very hard. Some people say that all DRM technologies can be broken. In the United States it is illegal to break a DRM.
DRM is a way for companies to keep their profits while sharing their content online. A good example of this is BBC iPlayer. They do this by keeping their content online for a certain amount of time.
Cement is a material that hardens and sticks to other materials to hold them together. Portland cement is a common kind, and made from quicklime (heated limestone) and clay. Cement is used to make concrete and mortar.
Brown algae
Brown algae are a large group of multicellular algae. All the brown algae are multicellular. Most brown algae have fucoxanthin, a chemical that gives them a brown color. They inlude many seaweeds in colder waters of the Northern Hemisphere. Most brown algae live in marine environments, where they play an important role both as food and as a potential habitat.
There are 2000 species of brown algae. Most species live in the ocean. They are important as food and as homes for many animals and marine life. Some brown algae are gathered by humans for food. The giant kelp "Macrocystis" is a brown alga that forms underwater forests, and it may grow to 60 meters. The Sargasso Sea gets its name from the "Sargassum" seaweed that floats on the surface. Many brown algae grow on rocks at the seashore.
Brown algae are unique among heterokonts in developing into multicellular forms with differentiated tissues. But they reproduce by means of flagellated spores and gametes that look like the cells of other heterokonts. Genetic studies show their closest relatives to be the yellow-green algae (Xanthophyceae).
This is a list of the orders in the class Phaeophyceae:
Bacillus
Bacillus is a genus of rod shaped bacteria. They are Gram-positive, meaning they have an extra outside cell layer.
Bacilli are partly or wholly aerobic. They do aerobic respiration. They are everywhere in nature. "Bacillus" includes both free-living (non-parasitic) and parasitic pathogenic species.
Under stressful conditions, they produce endospores. These are not true spores, but like survival pods they can stay in a dormant state for long periods.
Some species of "Bacillus" are worth noting:
Milk powder
Vaccinium vitis-idaea
Vaccinium vitis-idaea (also called the lingonberry, partridgeberry, mountain cranberry or cowberry) is a small evergreen shrub that produces edible fruits.
Dehydration (hypohydration) means less water in something. The word comes from the ancient Greek word for water, "hydor".
People get dehydrated when they lose more water than they take in. The human body needs water to survive. If a person gets badly dehydrated, their body will be unable to work the right way. Bad dehydration can cause organ damage and even death.
A living organism will get dehydrated if their body is losing water in some way and they do not drink enough to replace the water. The most common causes of dehydration are:
Any living being can get dehydrated. Some people are more at risk of dehydration. Elderly people, very young children, and people with chronic illnesses are at the highest risk for dehydration.
Dehydrated people may have different symptoms depending on how dehydrated they are. If dehydration is not treated, it will get worse. As dehydration gets worse, the symptoms get more dangerous.
When people start to get dehydrated, they may have these symptoms:
When dehydration gets severe (very bad), its symptoms include:
Severe dehydration is a medical emergency. If a person with severe dehydration does not get medical treatment soon enough, they can die.
Bad dehydration can cause serious health problems. Some of these problems are:
To fix dehydration, a person has to replace the fluids and electrolytes that they have lost.
When dehydration is not too bad, people can usually treat themselves by drinking. This is called oral rehydration therapy. Stores sell special drinks like Pedialyte and Gatorade, which have both water and electrolytes in them. People can also make their own oral rehydration solution (a drink which treats dehydration) by mixing water with sugar and salt.
People with very bad dehydration need emergency medical treatment. They may need to get fluids intravenously (through a needle placed into a vein). This replaces lost fluids and electrolytes much more quickly than drinking. It is also helpful for people who are unable to drink because of nausea and vomiting from dehydration.
Square Enix
Square Enix is a Japanese company that makes video games and manga. It was created on April 1, 2003. Two companies called Square Co., Ltd. and Enix combined to form Square Enix.
Square Enix is famous for its role-playing games. This includes the "Final Fantasy series", the "Dragon Quest series" and the "Kingdom Hearts series".They are one of the biggest videogame companies in the world.
Game designer
Shigeru Miyamoto
He is one of the most famous game designers in the world and is often called the father of modern video gaming. His games give players many ways to play and explore. This was unique in video games when his games were first released.
Miyamoto started working with Nintendo in 1977 as an artist when it was still a toy and playing-card company. In 1980, he designed "Donkey Kong", which was a big success. Miyamoto became Nintendo's leading producer, and he continues to create many popular games for Nintendo today Such as entries in the Super Mario and the Zelda series.
Miyamoto was born on November 16, 1952 in the Japanese town of Sonobe, which is a rural town that is northwest of Kyoto. His father taught English language.
Miyamoto graduated from Kanazawa Municipal College of Industrial Arts with a degree in industrial design. However, he could not find a job. He also loved manga. Before he thought about starting a career in video games, he wanted to become a professional manga artist. Manga's classical kishōtenketsu narrative structure influenced him. Western genre television shows also influenced him. The game that made him want to enter the video game industry was the 1978 arcade game "Space Invaders".
Nintendo was a small Japanese company in the late 1970s. They had traditionally sold playing cards and other novelties. However, they started making toys and games in the mid-1960s. Through a mutual friend, Miyamoto's father set up an interview with Nintendo president Hiroshi Yamauchi. After showing some of his toy creations, Miyamoto was hired in 1977 as an apprentice in the planning department.
Miyamoto became Nintendo's first artist. He helped create the art for Nintendo's first original coin-operated arcade video game, "Sheriff". He first helped the company develop a game with the 1980 release "Radar Scope". The game had some success in Japan. However, by 1981, Nintendo's efforts to sell it in the North American video game market failed. This left the company with a lot of arcade machines that were not sold. Nintendo was also facing financial ruin. In order to try to keep Nintendo going, Nintendo president Hiroshi Yamauchi decided to change unsold "Radar Scope" machines into a new arcade game. He asked Miyamoto to do this. Miyamoto said self-deprecatingly that "no one else was available" to do the work. Nintendo's head engineer, Gunpei Yokoi, oversaw the project.
Miyamoto thought of many characters and story ideas, but eventually decided on a love triangle between a gorilla, a carpenter, and a girl. He wanted to create something like what was with comic characters Bluto and Popeye for the woman Olive Oyl. Although, Nintendo tried to get the rights to "Popeye", but they failed. Bluto became an ape, a form Miyamoto said was "nothing too evil or disgusting". This ape would be the pet of the main character, "a funny, hang-loose kind of guy." Miyamoto also said "Beauty and the Beast" and the 1933 film "King Kong" influenced him. "Donkey Kong" was the first time that the creation of a video game's story came before the actual programming. Usually, the story was added without much care. Miyamoto had high hopes for his new project. However, he did not actually know how to program it himself; instead, he thought of the game's concepts, then asked technicians on whether they were possible. He wanted to make the characters different sizes, move in different ways, and react in various ways. However, Yokoi thought Miyamoto's original design was too difficult. Yokoi suggested using see-saws to catapult the character across the screen; however, this was also too difficult to do. Miyamoto next thought of using sloped platforms and ladders to move the character. He thought of using barrels for obstacles. When he asked that the game have multiple stages, the four-man programming team complained that he was basically asking them to make the game repeat, but the team eventually programmed the game. When the game was sent to Nintendo of America for testing, the sales manager did not like how it was different from the maze and shooter games common at the time. When American staffers started naming the characters, they decided on "Pauline" for the woman. She was named after Polly James, wife of Nintendo's Redmond, Washington, warehouse manager, Don James. The playable character was first called "Jumpman". They changed the name to Mario. He was named after Mario Segale, the warehouse landlord. These character names were written on the American cabinet art and used in advertising. The staff also got an English name for the game. The title was "Donkey Kong".
"Donkey Kong" was successful. Miyamoto started to work on sequels "Donkey Kong Jr." in 1982 and "Donkey Kong 3" in 1983. In the next game, he changed the "Donkey Kong" character Jumpman into Mario. He gave him a brother: Luigi. He named the new game "Mario Bros." Yokoi convinced Miyamoto to give Mario some special powers, namely being able to fall from any height without getting hurt. Mario's look in "Donkey Kong"—overalls, a hat, and a thick mustache—led Miyamoto to change parts of the game. He changed it to make Mario look like a plumber instead of a carpenter. Miyamoto thought that New York City would be the best setting for the game. He thought it was the best place because it has a "maze of subterranean sewage pipes". The two-player mode and other parts of gameplay were influenced by an earlier video game called "Joust". To date, games in the "Mario Bros." series have been released for many consoles. Shortly after, Miyamoto also drew the character sprites and game design for the "Baseball", "Tennis", and "Golf" games on the NES.
Nintendo released its first home video game console, the Family Computer (released in North America as the Nintendo Entertainment System). While this happened, Miyamoto created two of the most famous games for the console and in the history of video games as a whole: "Super Mario Bros." (a sequel to "Mario Bros.") and "The Legend of Zelda" (an entirely original title).
In both games, Miyamoto decided to focus more on gameplay than on high scores. This was different from most games at the time. "Super Mario Bros." was a linear game. The player moved the stage by running, jumping, and dodging or defeating enemies. Miyamoto used nonlinear gameplay in "The Legend of Zelda". This requires the player to think their way through riddles and puzzles. The world was big and and it seemed to never end. It had a lot of different choices and depth never seen before in a video game. With "The Legend of Zelda", Miyamoto wanted to make an in-game world that players could relate to. He said it was like a "small garden that they can put inside their drawer." He was influenced from his time as a boy around Kyoto. When he was a boy, he explored nearby fields, woods, and caves; each "Zelda" title has this feeling of exploration. "When I was a child," Miyamoto said, "I went hiking and found a lake. It was quite a surprise for me to find it. When I traveled around the country without a map, trying to find my way, finding amazing things as I went, I realized how it felt to go on an adventure like this." He recreated his memories of becoming lost in the maze of sliding doors in his family home in "Zelda"s maze-like dungeons. In February 1986, Nintendo released the game as the first game for the Nintendo Entertainment System's new Disk System.
Miyamoto worked on different games for the Nintendo Entertainment System. These games included "Ice Climber", "Kid Icarus", "Excitebike", and "Devil World". He also worked on sequels to "Super Mario Bros" and "The Legend of Zelda".
'Super Mario Bros. 3" was developed by Nintendo Entertainment Analysis & Development; the game took more than two years to make.