AcharyaChanakya/simple-wikipedia huggingface dataset:
The island's weather is normally cool. The highest temperature ever registered is 28.9 °C, in Ronaldsway. The Isle of Man is not very sunny, but it is less cloudy than other parts of the British Isles; strong winds around the island help keep clouds in constant movement.
The geology of Man is notable for the Iapetus Suture, which runs almost unseen right through the rocks of the island. The suture is the remnant of a once huge ocean, the Iapetus Ocean, which was lost about 420 million years ago as three continents came together.
The Isle of Man became separated from Ireland and the British Isles about 8500 years ago. The short period of time between the melting of glaciers and the rise of sea level allowed a small number of species to colonize the island by land. The island was heavily deforested in the Middle Ages, which weakened its environment. Some land is now protected by the government to help preserve its wildlife. Curraghs Wildlife Park, in the wetlands, is home to many species of animals and plants. Many bird species live on the island.
A lot of the Isle of Man's plant life, or flora, is composed of shrubs (bushes) and other short plants. Several species of grass and moss also live there. Mosses on the island contribute to the formation of peat. There is peat in the island's wet areas. The island has heavily deforested in the Middle Ages. Common trees on the island include ashes, elms, pines, willows, and hawthorns. There are also other trees on the island, as well as many species of flowering plants. Bogs are home to ferns and orchids.
The Isle of Man is home to many bird and insect species. Many species live in "curraghs" (wetlands in the northeast of the island). Curraghs are protected by the Government of the Isle of Man. Curraghs Wildlife Park is in these wetlands, it is both a zoo and a protected area. During the winter, curraghs are the second largest nesting ground of the Hen Herrier in Europe. The Peregrine Falcon, Merlin, European Robin, Willow Warbler, Song Thrush, Dunnock, Swan and a subspecies of Winter Wren possibly native to the island also nest in the curraghs. The Chough is also in the Isle of Man, it is more common than in other parts of Europe. Some farming methods have decreased the bird population of the island. The Northern Lapwing is now rarely found, and the Yellowhammer is now extinct on the island.
18 species of butterfly and 250 species of moth also live on the Isle of Man. Most of them live in the wetlands during different seasons.
The French Revolution was a revolution in France from 1789 to 1799. A result of the French Revolution was the end of the French monarchy. The revolution began with a meeting of the in Versailles, and ended when Napoleon Bonaparte took power in November 1799.
Before 1789, France was ruled by the nobles and the Catholic Church. The ideas of the Enlightenment were beginning to make the ordinary people want more power. They could see that the American Revolution had created a country in which the people had power, instead of a king. The government before the revolution was called the "".
Many problems in France led up to the Revolution:
Before the Revolution, France was divided into three Estates. The First Estate was the Clergy (the church). It made up 1% of the population. The Second Estate was the Nobles, which also made up 1% of the population. The other nearly 98% of the population was in the Third Estate. Representatives of the people from all three estates together made up the Estates-General.
In May 1789, the Estates-General was called by King Louis in order to deal with the money problems of the country. They met at the royal Palace of Versailles. However, the members of the Third Estate were angry. They had made lists of problems they wanted to fix called the Cahiers de Doléance
The members of the Third Estate (The commoners) were angry that they were being taxed the most when they were the poorest group of people. They, and the Director-General of Finances, Jacques Necker, thought the Church and the Nobility ought to be taxed more.
They also wanted votes in the Estates-General to be more fair. Even though the Third Estate had many more members than the other two Estates, each Estate only had one vote in the Estates-General. The Third Estate thought this could be improved by giving members of the Estates-General a vote each. However, when they talked to the other Estates, they could not agree.
Since the First and Second Estates would not listen, The Third Estate decided to break away and start their own assembly where every member would get a vote. On 10 June 1789, they started the National Assembly. The king tried to stop them by closing the Salle des États meeting room, but they met in an indoor tennis court instead. On June 20, they took the Tennis Court Oath, where they promised to work until they had created a new constitution for France.
In July 1789, after the National Assembly was formed, the nobility and the king was angry with Jacques Necker, the Director-General of Finances, and they fired him. Many Parisians thought that the King was going to shut down the National Assembly. Soon, Paris was filled with riots and looting.
On 14 July 1789, the people decided to attack the Bastille prison. The Bastille contained weapons, as well as being a symbol of the power of the nobility and the rule of the king. By the afternoon, the people had broken into the Bastille and released the seven prisoners being held there.
The Members of the Third Estate took over Paris. The president of the National Assembly at the time of the Tennis Court Oath, Jean-Sylvain Bailly, became mayor of the city. Jacques Necker was given back his job as Director-General of Finances. Soon, the King visited Paris and wore the red, white and blue (tricolor) ribbons (cockade) that the revolutionaries were wearing. By the end of July, the revolution had spread all over France.
The National Assembly began to make lots of changes. On 4 August, the National Assembly ended the special taxes the Church was collecting, and put a stop to the rights of the Nobility over their people, ending feudalism. On 26 August, the National Assembly published the Declaration of the Rights of Man and of the Citizen, which was written by the nobleman Marquis de Lafayette.
The National Assembly began to decide how it would be under the new constitution. Many members, especially the nobles, wanted a senate or a second upper house. However, more people voted to keep having just one assembly. The King was given a "suspensive veto" over laws, which meant he would only have the power to delay laws being made, not stop them. In October 1789, after being attacked at the Palace of Versailles by a mob of 7,000 women, the King was convinced by Lafayette to move from Paris to the palace in Tuileries.
The Assembly began to divide into different political parties. One was made up of those against the revolution, led by the nobleman Jacques Antoine Marie de Cazales and the churchman Jean-Sifrien Maury. This party sat on the right side. A second party was the Royalist democrats (monarchists) which wanted to create a system like the constitutional monarchy of Britain, where the king would still be a part of the government. Jacques Necker was in this party. The third party was the National Party which was centre or centre-left. This included Honoré Mirabeau and Lafayette.
Under the new government, the Roman Catholic Church would have much less power than they had before. In 1790, all special taxes and powers of the Church were cancelled. All the Church’s property was taken over by the state. On 12 July 1790, the Civil Constitution of the Clergy made all clergy employees of the state and made them take an oath to the new constitution. Many clergy, as well as the Pope, Pius VI, did not like these changes. Revolutionaries killed hundreds for refusing the oath.
On 14 July 1790, a year since the storming of the Bastille, thousands of people gathered in the Champs de Mars to celebrate. Charles Maurice de Talleyrand led the crowd in a religious mass. The crowd, including the King and the royal family, took an oath of loyalty to “the nation, the law, and the king.” However, many nobles were unhappy with the revolution and were leaving the country. They were called émigrés (emigrants).
Although the members of the Estates-General had only been elected for a year, the members of the Assembly had all taken the Tennis Court Oath. They had promised to keep working until they had a constitution and no constitution had been made. It was decided that the members would keep working until they had a constitution.
The Assembly continued to work on a constitution and make changes. Nobles could no longer pass their titles to their children. Only the king was allowed to do this. For the first time, trials with juries were held. All trade barriers inside France were ended along with unions, guilds, and workers' groups. Strikes were banned.
Many people with radical ideas began to form political clubs. The most famous of these was the Jacobin Club, which had left-wing ideas. A right-wing club was the Club Monarchique. In 1791, a law was suggested to prevent noble "émigrés" from leaving the country. Mirabeau had been against this law, but he died on 2 April, and by the end of the year, the law was passed.
Louis XVI did not like the revolution, but did not want to get help from other countries or run away from France like the émigrés. General Bouille held the same views and wanted to help the king leave Paris. He said that he would give the King and his family help and support in his camp at Montmédy. The escape was planned for June 20, 1791.
Dressed as servants, the royal family left Paris. However, their escape was not well planned, and they were arrested at Varennes on the evening of June 21. The royal family was brought back to Paris. The Assembly imprisoned Louis and his wife Marie Antoinette, and suspended the king from his duty.
Although the king had tried to escape, most members of the Assembly still wanted to include the king in their government rather than to have a Republic with no king at all. They agreed to make the king a figurehead, with very little power. The king would have to take an oath to the state. If he did not, or if he created an army to attack France, he would no longer be king.
Some people, including Jacques Pierre Brissot, did not like this. They thought the king should be completely removed from the throne and the constitution. Brissot made a petition and a huge crowd came to the Champs de Mars to sign it. Republican leaders Georges Danton and Camille Desmoulins came and gave speeches.
The National Guard, led by Lafayette, was called in to control the crowd. The mob threw stones at the soldiers who first fired their guns over the heads of the crowd. When the crowd kept throwing stones, Lafayette ordered them to fire at the people. Up to 50 people were killed. After this, the government closed many of the political clubs and newspapers. Many radical left-wing leaders, including Danton and Desmoulins, ran away to England or hid in France.
Finally the constitution was completed. Louis XVI was put back on the throne and came to take his oath to it. He wrote, “I engage to maintain it at home, to defend it from all attacks from abroad, and to cause its execution by all the means it places at my disposal.” The National Assembly decided that it would stop governing France on 29 September 1791. After that date, the Legislative Assembly would take over.
The new Legislative Assembly met for the first time in October 1791. Under the Constitution of 1791, France was a Constitutional Monarchy. The King shared his rule with the Legislative Assembly, but had the power to stop (veto) laws he did not like. He also had the power to choose ministers.
The Legislative Assembly had about 745 members. 260 of them were “Feuillants”, or Constitutional Monarchists. 136 were Girondins and Jacobins, left-wing liberal republicans who did not want a king. The other 345 members were independent, but they voted most often with the left wing.
The Legislative Assembly did not agree very well. The King used his veto to stop laws that would sentence émigrés to death. Because so many of the members of the Assembly were left-wing, they did not like this.
The people were turning against King Louis XVI. On 10 August 1792, the members of a revolutionary group called the Paris Commune attacked the Tuileries, where the King and Queen were living. The King and Queen were taken prisoner. The Legislative Assembly held an emergency meeting. Even though only a third of the members were there and most of them were Jacobins, they suspended the King from duty.
The kings and emperors of many foreign countries were worried by the French Revolution. They did not want revolutions in their own countries. On 27 August 1791, Leopold II of the Holy Roman Empire/Austria, Frederick William II of Prussia, and Louis XVI’s brother-in-law, Charles-Philippe wrote the Declaration of Pillnitz. The Declaration asked for Louis XVI to be set free and the National Assembly to be ended. They promised that they would invade France if their requests were ignored. The Declaration was taken very seriously among the revolutionaries.
With the Legislative Assembly in place, the problems did not go away. The Girondins wanted war because they wanted to take the revolution to other countries. The King and many of his supporters, the Feuillants, wanted war because they thought it would make the King more popular. Many French were worried that the émigrés would cause trouble in foreign countries against France.
On 20 April 1792, the Assembly voted to declare war on Austria (Holy Roman Empire). They planned to invade the Austrian Netherlands, but the revolution had made the army weak. Many soldiers deserted. Soon, Prussia joined on the Austrian side. They both planned to invade. Together, on 25 July, they wrote the Brunswick Manifesto, promising that if the royal family was not hurt, no civilians would be hurt in the invasion. The French believed that this meant the king, Louis XVI, was working with the foreign kings. Prussia invaded France on 1 August, 1792. This first stage of the French Revolutionary Wars continued until 1797.
In September, things got worse. The Legislative Assembly had almost no power. No single group was controlling Paris or France. The country was being invaded by the Prussian Army. The revolutionaries were very angry and violent. They began to go into prisons and kill people they thought were traitors to France. They hated the priests of the Roman Catholic Church the most, but they also killed many nobles and ordinary people. By 7 September, 1,400 people were dead.
The Legislative Assembly had lost all its power. France needed a new government. On 20 September 1792, the National Convention was formed. The Convention had both Girondins and radical Jacobins.
The Brunswick Manifesto had made many people suspicious of the king. They thought he was plotting with the Prussian and Austrian rulers to invade France. In January 1793, the National Convention voted and found Louis XVI guilty of “conspiracy against the public liberty and the general safety.” On the twenty-first of January, the King was executed using the guillotine. Marie Antoinette, the Queen, was also executed on the sixteenth of October.
People in the area of Vendée did not like the revolutionary government. They did not like the rules about the church in the Civil Constitution of the Church (1790) and new taxes put in place in 1793. They also disliked being forced to join the French army. In March, they rose up against the government in a revolt. The war lasted until 1796. Hundreds of thousands of people from Vendée (Vendeans) were killed by the Revolutionary French army.
Now that the king was dead, the National Convention made a new republican constitution that began on 24 June. It was the first one that did not include the king and gave every man in France a vote. However, it never came into power because of the trouble between the Jacobins and Girondins. The war with Austria and Prussia was causing the state to have money problems. Bread was very expensive and many people wanted things to change. In June 1793, the Jacobins began to take power. They wanted to arrest many Girondin members of the National Convention. In July, they became angrier when Charlotte Corday, a Girondin, killed Jean-Paul Marat, a Jacobin.
By July, the coup was complete. The Jacobins had taken power. They put in new, radical laws including a new Republican Calendar with new months and new ten-day weeks. They made the army bigger and changed the officers to people who were better soldiers. Over the next few years, this helped the Republican army push back the attacking Austrians, Prussians, British, and Spanish.
In July 1793, a Jacobin called Maximilien de Robespierre and eight other leading Jacobins set up the Committee of Public Safety. It was the most powerful group in France. This group and Robespierre were responsible for the Reign of Terror. Robespierre believed that if people were afraid, the revolution would go better. The Reign of Terror lasted from the spring of 1793 to the spring of 1794.
It was not only the nobility who died in the Reign of Terror. Anyone who broke the Jacobins' laws, or was even suspected of breaking their laws or working against them, could be arrested and sent to the guillotine, most without a trial. Even powerful people who had been involved in the Jacobin coup were executed. Prisoners were taken from the prisons to “Madame Guillotine” (a nickname for the guillotine) in an open wooden cart called the tumbrel.
According to records, 16,594 people were executed with the guillotine. It is possible that up to 40,000 people died in prison or were killed during the Reign of Terror.
By July 1794, people began to turn against Maximilien de Robespierre. He and his Revolutionary Tribunal had killed 1,300 people in six weeks. On 27 July, the National Convention and the Committee of Public Safety turned against him. Robespierre tried to get help from the Convention’s right-wing members, but he failed.
A day later, Robespierre and many of his supporters in the Paris Commune were sentenced to death by guillotine without any kind of trial. This reaction against Robespierre is called the Thermidorian Reaction.
Now that the terror was over, the National Convention started to make a new Constitution, called the Constitution of the Year III. On 27 September 1794, the constitution came into effect.
The new constitution had created the Directoire (Directory), which was the first government of France to be bicameral (split into two houses). The lower house, the parliament, had 500 members. It was called the "Conseil de Cinq-Cent" (Council of Five Hundred). The upper house, the senate, had 250 members and was called the "Conseil des Anciens" (Council of Elders). There were five directors chosen every year by the "Conseil des Anciens" from a list made up by the "Conseil de Cinq-Cent". This group was in charge and was called the Directory.
Although the constitution of 1793 had given all men in France a vote, in this constitution only people with a certain amount of property could vote.
The Directory was much more conservative than the governments in France since 1789. The people were tired of radical changes and the unstable governments. Things were much more stable under the Directory than they had been before.
However, the Directors were disliked by the people - especially the Jacobins, who wanted a republic, and the royalists, who wanted a new King. France’s money problems did not go away. The Directors ignored elections that did not go the way they wanted. They ignored the constitution in order to do things to control the people. They used the ongoing war and the army to keep their power.
The Coup of 18 Brumaire brought General Napoleon Bonaparte to power as First Consul of France and in the view of most historians ended the French Revolution. This bloodless coup d'état overthrew the Directory, replacing it with the French Consulate.
The 18 Brumaire marks the end of the Republican part of the French Revolution when Napoleon Bonaparte took the reign.
Daffy Duck is a cartoon duck from the Warner Bros. cartoons. He stands on two legs, has a black body, a white ring about his neck, and an orange beak. He first appeared in "Porky´s Duck Hunt" in 1937. In 1946, Daffy had started to change, and Daffy became less looney. Over the years, Daffy Duck had changed from screwball and heckling character to greedy and a jealous character.
1650s
The guillotine is a machine used to execute people by decapitation (chopping off their heads).
A guillotine is made of a heavy blade attached to a rack, which moves up and down on a vertical frame. When the rack is let go, it will fall down and the blade will cut the convict's head off.
Machines like the guillotine were first invented in the Middle Ages, and were used throughout Europe. For example, Scotland used a machine called the "Scottish Maiden".
The first time the guillotine was commonly used was in France, in the French Revolution of 1789. The guillotine became the only legal way to execute someone in France. The guillotine was used because it caused a quick death. Everyone died the same way, no matter what social class you were in, whether you were wealthy or poor.
The guillotine was commonly used in France (including France's colonies), Switzerland, Italy, Belgium, Germany, and Austria. It was also used in Sweden. Today, all of these countries have abolished (legally stopped) the death penalty. The guillotine is no longer used.
The guillotine is named after a French medical doctor, Joseph-Ignace Guillotin. Guillotin was against the death penalty. Realising he could not stop the death penalty, Guillotin instead tried to think of a quicker, less painful way of executing people. On October 10, 1789, he suggested using a machine to do all the executions.
The actual guillotine was designed by another doctor, Antoine Louis. Guillotin did not help much with the design, but his name went down in history. Against Guillotin's wishes, the new machine quickly became known as the "Guillotine". Guillotin regretted this until death in 1814.
The design for a quick, painless, decapitation machine was given to Tobias Schmidt, a German engineer. Schmidt built the first guillotine and tested it, on animals at first, but later on dead humans. It was made of two fourteen-foot uprights joined by a crossbar, whose inside edges were grooved and greased with tallow; the weighted blade was either straight, or curved like an axe. The system was started by a rope and pulley, while the whole construction was set up on a platform. The first execution was in 1792.
The guillotine was still the only legal way to execute a person in France until 1979, when France stopped using the death penalty. In Nazi Germany, the guillotine was used to kill prisoners sentenced for serious crimes like murder, treason, or conspiracy against the government.
A guillotine was last used in West Germany in 1949 and East Germany in 1961. The last person guillotined was the Tunisian murderer Hamida Djandoubi in 1977.
School uniform
A school uniform is a standard set of clothing students wear when they go to some schools. It might have a particular color of trousers or skirt, plus a matching shirt and perhaps a jacket or necktie, with matching shoes.
In some countries, like Germany, students can wear anything they like when they go to school. In other countries, like England, there is usually a standard dress code in school, usually a set of dressing for girls and one for boys. Boys and girls need to wear "school uniforms" when they go to school. In many countries, such as the United States, some schools require wearing a uniform, and some do not.
Originally, school uniforms were introduced to hide the social differences between students, but uniforms can also help with safety. Using standard uniforms can also save the money needed to buy extra clothes as fashion to impress other people at school. Uniforms are also thought to improve discipline and school spirit.
However, school uniforms can also help with health and safety by having clothes which have been tested to be safer when worn. Some fabrics can cause skin rashes in some people, while a uniform can be made of comfortable fabrics. Also, loose-fitting clothes can get caught in machinery or playground equipment, which limits what activities children can do safely.
There are several types of economic bullying which can be lessened by use of school uniforms. When many students are from families with less money, sometimes students with more money have stood out because they wore newer shoes, where neither shoe was in poor shape. In schools where more students are rich, poorer students have been insulted for the old-style or tattered clothes they wore.
Primate
Primates are a group of mammals that contains all lemurs, monkeys and apes, including humans.
There are about 400 species of primates. All primates are similar to humans in some ways, but language is an important difference. Primates have hands with five fingers and flat fingernails (most other animals have claws). Most also have Breasts containing the Mammary gland. Primates are split into two groups: Strepsirrhini and Haplorhini. Haplorrhini includes monkeys, tarsiers and apes including humans. Strepsirrhini includes lemurs, lorises, galagos (also called bush babies) and the Aye-Aye.
Primates are one of the few eutherian groups which re-evolved full colour vision.
The Tropic of Cancer ("cancer" (♋) is Latin for crab) is one of the five major circles of latitude (imaginary lines around the Earth) that are often marked on maps of the Earth. This is the parallel of latitude that is 23° 26' 22" north of the Equator. At every June Solstice the Sun passes straight overhead on the tropic. This never happens anywhere north of the Tropic of Cancer.
An equinox is when the sun passes directly over the equator. There are two equinoxes each year. Equinox can also mean either of the two days when this happens. On these days, the nights are equal in length at latitudes L° North and L° South. The word "equinox" comes from two Latin words meaning "equal" and "night".
Around the day of the equinox, the length of the day is a little over twelve hours and the length of the night is a little under twelve hours. They are not exactly equal because the sun is not a point in the sky and because the sunlight bends as it comes to earth. The exact day and time when this happens depend on how far away from the equator it is being measured. They occur on or around March 21 and September 21. Solstices fall around June 21st and December 21st at odd intervals.
The equinoxes are the beginning of spring, and autumn (or "fall" in the US).
The time of daylight is quite easy to measure. This was done in many cultures where festivals were celebrated at the equinoxes.
Teufelsbrücke
The Teufelsbrücke (bridge of the devil) is a bridge over the river Reuss in the Swiss canton of Uri.
The valley called "Schöllenenschlucht" is an important access route to the St.Gotthard alpine pass. However, the valley is very narrow, featuring a dangerous river Reuss.
The first bridge across the river was built in 1230. This was a wooden bridge. This meant that due to bad weather it had to be replaced often.
In the 16th century, it was replaced by a bridge of stone. That stone bridge was heavily damaged in the Napoleonic wars in 1799. Nobody could use the bridge because of the damage. Trade with Italy was done over the alpine pass at Splügen.
The first bridge was completely destroyed in a stormy night in 1888.
Only in 1820 could the order to build a new bridge be given. The construction of the bridge took 10 years.
In the middle of the 20th century, the second bridge was no longer able to handle the traffic. A third bridge, featuring two lanes, one for each direction, was built in 1958.
Building the first bridge was very hard. According to a local myth, the first bridge was built by the devil himself. The condition attached was that the devil should get the soul of the first to pass over the bridge. So, when the bridge was finished, people chased a goat over the bridge. Of course, the devil was furious, so he went to pick up a large stone (called "Teufelsstein", the devil's stone). He wanted to smash the bridge he just built to pieces. On his way to the ridge however, he encountered an old believing woman with a cross. Scared of the cross, he left the stone, and fled.
The devil's stone weighs 2000 tons. 300.000 Swiss Francs were used in 1977 to shift the stone 127 meters to make way for the motorway passing over the St.Gotthard pass.
Popular belief has it that the moving of the stone was the cause of an increased number of accidents on kilometre 16 on the St. Gotthard road tunnel.
The term grandparent means the parents of a person's father or mother. s have always been important members of a family. The role of a parent is often very different from the role of a grandparent. Parents are the providers and disciplinarians of their children. Grandparents are often much freer to enjoy and have fun with their grandchildren. A grandparent-grandchild relationship is usually much simpler than that of a parent and child.
The term 'grandparent' is used for both male and female genders. The male grandparent is called a grandfather. The female grandparent is a grandmother. When looking at the relationship from the point of view of the grandparent, the term grandchild is used. A grandchild is the child of a person's child. It can also be used based on gender. Grandchild is correct for either gender. Grandson is male. Granddaughter is female.
For example: Bob has a son named Rick. Rick, in turn, has 2 children; a boy (Bill) and a girl (Mary). Bob is the grandfather (male grandparent) of both Bill and Mary. Bill is the grandson (male grandchild) of Bob, and Mary is the granddaughter (female grandchild) of Bob. Rick's mother would be the grandmother (female grandparent) of both Mary and Bill.
There are a number of nicknames for a person's grandparents. These include 'grandpa', 'grandpapa', 'papa' and 'pawpa' for a grandfather. Nicknames for grandmothers include 'grandma', 'grammy', 'granny', and 'nanna'. There are also many unique nicknames. An example is American actress Goldie Hawn who did not want to be called 'grandma', instead came up with the nickname 'Glamma.'
Traditionally, grandparents were highly respected in most cultures. Today many grandparent-grandchild relationships are declining. Much of the modern world does not value older people the way societies did in the past. Also, popular entertainment, especially programs and movies aimed at 'tweens' (children 10 to 12 years old) portray adults as being foolish. This makes the involvement of grandparents more important than ever.
A person's great-grandparent's "parents" would be that person's "great-great-grandparents". Commonly the prefix "great-" is added, one for each additional generation. To avoid having to add several "greats" when discussing a direct ancestors, ordinals are commonly used instead. For example, a "great-great-grandfather" would be a "second great-grandfather". A "great-great-great-grandfather" would be a third great-grandfather, and so on. Some sources also use cardinal numbers for numbering greats. For example, a great-great-great-great-great-great-grandmother becomes "six times great grandmother". However, sixth great-grandmother would be most commonly used.
Not counting the individual person in the relationship, a parent is the first generation of the person's ancestors. A grandparent is the second generation (from the individual). A great-grandparent would be the third generation and so a great-great grandparent would be in the fourth generation of ancestors, and so on. Another way of putting it is a person's second great-grandparent is a grandparent's grandparent.
In the past, many great-grandparents died long before their great-grandchildren were born. Today, people in many societies are living longer. This means many children get to know at least one of their great-grandparents.
The word 'family' is often used to mean the same as the term Nuclear family. Strictly speaking, a nuclear family is made up of a husband, a wife, and their children. It may also be used to include a stepparent, stepchildren or adopted children. However, the latter family unit is more commonly called a blended family. Close kin however extends the family unit. For example, second cousins are all descendants of one or both great-grandparents. Family units extending to second cousins are considered close kin. So the term includes great-grandparents as well. Third cousins (all those descended from second great-grandparents) are not considered close kin, but just family.
A person's ancestor tree is a binary tree. It is formed by the person, the parents (2), the grandparents (4), great-grandparents (8), and so on. With each increasing generation of great-grandparents the number doubles. In other words, a person's sixth great grandparents (great-great-great-great-great-great-grandparents) would number 256 or formula_1 (2 to the 8th power). However, the number of individuals in such a tree grows exponentially and will eventually become impossibly high. For example, a single individual alive today would, over 30 generations going back to the High Middle Ages, have about formula_2 generations or just over a billion ancestors. That would be far more than the total world population at the time.
This paradox or impossible situation, is explained by having shared ancestors, which is called pedigree collapse. Instead of every person today having a family tree of all unique ancestors, many of these ancestors occupy more than one position in the pedigree. In other words, one's 15th great-grandfather may have been their 15th great-grandfather more than once if the person today is descended from children of both or all of his marriages. So in a typical family tree, the same ancestor may pop up in more than one place in the pedigree. Pedigree collapse is generally caused by close relatives marrying in the past, which was common in many societies. Even today, because most people do not know their ancestry beyond their grandparents, they are inadvertently marrying their own distant cousins. On average, a typical European marriage today is between sixth cousins (those descended from a common sixth great-grandparent). In closed societies the relationship is usually much closer.
1630s
Leptons are elementary particles with spin 1/2 (a fermion) that are not affected by strong nuclear force. They are a family of particles that are different from the other known family of fermions, the quarks.
Electrons are a well-known example that are found in ordinary matter. There are six leptons: the electron, muon, and tau particles and their associated neutrinos. The different varieties of the elementary particles are commonly called "flavors", and the neutrinos here are considered to have distinctly different flavor. Of the six leptons, three have electric charge and three do not. The best known charged lepton is the electron (e). The other two charged leptons are the muon (µ) and the tau (τ), which are like electrons but much bigger. The charged leptons are all negative particles, their "antiparticles" are positively charged (for example, the antiparticle of the electron, e, is a positron, e).
The superparticle of a lepton is called a "slepton."
1620s
Jersey is an island in the English Channel off the northwest coast of France. It is a crown dependency of the British monarchy. Jersey is called a "bailiwick" because the person who is the head of law for the island is called the "Bailiff". The Bailiwick of Jersey also includes the islands of the Minquiers and Ecréhous, where nobody lives. The other islands of the Channel Islands belong to the Bailiwick of Guernsey. The country code (also used for internet) is JE.
Over 106 000 people live on the main island. Thirty per cent of them live in its only town, Saint Helier.
Along with English and French, more than two thousand people speak Jèrriais, a local variation of the Norman language.
Jersey is not a part of the United Kingdom or of the European Union, but the Queen of the UK is the Queen of Jersey as well. It has its own parliament called the "States of Jersey" which passes laws for the island.
The "Chief Minister" of Jersey is in charge of the government. His name is John Le Fondré.
Jersey is divided into 12 parishes which elect their own politicians and have control over some roads and the "Honorary" (volunteer) police.
People lived in Jersey before the sea rose and made it an island. There are many pre-historic (very old) buildings in Jersey, like La Hougue Bie.
The island was part of Normandy, and in 1066, Normandy became part of England. In 1259, the King of England lost Normandy but kept Jersey and Guernsey.
Jersey was invaded by the French in the Battle of Jersey in 1781.
During World War 2, Jersey was controlled by the Nazis. It was freed on 9 May 1945, which is called Liberation Day and is the national day of Jersey.
Jersey is an island. It is in the English Channel, a sea in between France and England. It is 22 kilometres (14 miles) from France and 160 kilometres (100 miles) from England. It is the biggest of the "Channel Islands", a group of islands. The other big Channel Island is called Guernsey.
The island is around 9 miles from east to west and 5 miles from north to south, so it is often called "nine-by-five".
The island can have a hot weather in summer and normally has mild weather in winter but sometimes is as cold as -10.3 degrees Celcius. It is sunnier than England, but it rains more as well.
Jersey's culture is a mixture of French and British culture. The people speak English, but the old language is called Jèrriais, which is like French.
Because Jersey is an island, fish is a popular food in the island. There is a fish market in the middle of St Helier which sells fresh fish. Jersey is famous for its milk (from Jersey Cows) and its potatoes (called "Jersey Royals").
Jersey's newspaper is called the "Jersey Evening Post" which has been printed since 1890.
There is a musical festival every year called "the Weekender" which happens in Trinity.
The "Jersey Eisteddfod" is a big art, music, drama, language and dance compeition that happens every year. Many islanders take part and are given certificates.
Jersey takes part in the Commonwealth Games and the Island Games (which happened in Jersey in 1997 and 2015). Jersey does not have famous sports teams, so islanders who can play sports really well often play for England or other countries in the UK.
Jersey has a lot of finance companies who manage people's money. Some call it a tax haven because it has low taxes and many people that use its businesses to pay lower taxes.
Jersey also has a lot of hotels and farms.
There are 12 parishes on the island.
Saint Helier is the capital and main town of Jersey. There are many shops, offices, parks and important buildings.
Saint Saviour is on the east of Saint Helier. There are lots of houses and many people who live here work in Saint Helier.
Saint Clement is in the south east of the island. It is the smallest parish in area.
Grouville is next to Saint Clement. It has a large golf course.
Saint Martin is north of Grouville. It has a large castle in the village of Gorey called "Mont Orgeuil Castle".
Trinity has lots of farms. Jersey's zoo is in Trinity.
Saint John is in the north of the island.
Saint Mary has the smallest number of people than any other parish.
Saint Ouen is the biggest parish in area. It has Saint Ouen's Bay, a large beach which is good for surfing.
Saint Peter has the island's airport.
Saint Brelade has a lovely beach called "St Brelade's Bay" and a lighthouse called "Corbiere Lighthouse".
Saint Lawrence is in the middle of the island.
East Timor
The Democratic Republic of East Timor or Timor Leste is a country in Southeast Asia. It is on the eastern side of the island of Timor. It also includes the smaller islands of Atauro and Jaco Island, and a small area, named Oecusse, inside the west side of Timor. Oecusse is an exclave, which means it is separated from the main part of the country by part of another country. That other country is Indonesia.
The capital and largest city, Dili, is home to one hundred and fifty thousand people. The next largest city is Baucau. (see List of settlements in East Timor).
East Timor gets its name from the Malay word for "east", "timur".
It is a member of the United Nations the Association of Southeast Asian Nations and the Community of Portuguese Language Countries.
For a long time, Portugal controlled the East Timor and called it the Colony of Portuguese Timor. In 1975, the Portuguese army left, and East Timor was invaded (taken over) by the Indonesian army in 1975. The invasion was very violent. The army stayed there until 1999, when they gave up control of the territory with the help of the United Nations.
At the time, the United States government said it did not know Indonesia was going to invade East Timor. But secret documents, released from 2002 to 2005, show that Henry Kissinger, the Secretary of State of the United States, did know, and supported the invasion.
When it got its independence on 20 May 2002, it became the first country to become independent in the twenty-first century (since the year 2001). In 2006, when Montenegro became independent, East Timor was no longer the newest one.
Since then, East Timor has not been given much attention in the news. Recently, the Colombian music artist Shakira made a song named "Timor", which talks about the country. The attention is because there has been fighting in East Timor between gangs (groups of criminals with guns), security forces (the country's army). Australia, a large nearby country, sent troops in to make peace.
East Timor is a small country located between Australia and Indonesia, 3,000 years ago, East Timor was a mountainous island composed of migrant indigenous people from New Guinea, Australia and Melanesia.
There were some migrants from Austronesia searching for a new life on this island. Some of the people arrived from South China and North Indochina looking for trade because East Timor had resources which could be exported, like sandalwood, honey, slaves and wax.
During the Second World War, the Japanese occupied the region, encountered strong resistance to their attempts to force the population to grow foods for their troops and export. At the time 30% of the population died.
On 25 April 1974, the Portuguese Armed Forces headed by General António de Spínola organized a Military Coup against Salazar’s regime called the Revolution of Carnations. After this revolution, Portugal decided to give freedom to the colonized countries.
East Timor is the largest of the Lesser Sunda Islands. To the north of the island are the Ombai Strait, Wetar Strait, and the greater Banda Sea. To the south the Timor Sea separates the island from Australia.
The country has many mountains. Its highest point is Tatamailau (also known as Mount Ramelau) at . The climate is tropical and generally hot and humid.
The Nino Konis Santana National Park is on the eastern tip of the island. The park includes coral reefs, coastal area, and mountains.
East Timor is divided into 13 municipalites. These were formerly named districts. The municipalities are divided into administrative posts (former subdistricts), and further subdivided into sucos. The 13 municipalities are:
Country music (sometimes called Country & Western) is a form of music that has been enjoyed by people all over the United States for decades. Famous singers from this genre include Johnny Cash, Patsy Cline, the Judds, Dolly Parton, Glen Campbell, George Jones and Tammy Wynette, George Strait, Kenny Rogers, Loretta Lynn, Randy Travis, Tanya Tucker, Willie Nelson, Reba McEntire, Garth Brooks, Toby Keith and Hank 3
Country music's strongest appeal is with American rural and small-town populations, but many American cities have a large audience. The music also has listeners in Canada, in England, and worldwide. The popularity of Country comes and goes with each decade. Sometimes a new movie (like "Midnight Cowboy" or "Urban Cowboy"), hit record (like "She Believes In Me" by Kenny Rogers), or new performer (like Randy Travis in the 1980s) raises new interest.
Country music has its roots and beginnings in folk music. The old cowboy and pioneer songs of the American frontier were popular in the early twentieth century, and so were arrangements of pop music songs by rural (or rural-sounding) performers. Country musicians also adapted new musical instruments, like the Hawaiian steel guitar.
Modern-day Country music started in the years after World War II. The Sons of the Pioneers and The Carter Family performed old and new songs, in a way that reminded people of singalongs and jamborees of the past. Hank Williams is often called the first songwriter of country music. His songs were easy to learn and remember, and their lyrics said things felt by many people. His music is still performed today. Some of the early rock and roll musicians, like Buddy Holly, Jerry Lee Lewis, and Elvis Presley, began their career as country performers.
Nashville, Tennessee became the center of Country music, much like New Orleans became the center of Jazz. The Grand Ole Opry broadcast performances by The Carter Family and others, and became an important breaking ground in Country music. A television series, "Hee-Haw", was a long-running showcase for Country performers, and was hosted by musicians Buck Owens and Roy Clark. When cable television became popular in the United States, The Nashville Network (TNN) and Country Music Television (CMT) brought Country music videos and related programming to nationwide audiences. (In later years, as interests changed, TNN changed its programming. It also changed names, first to "The National Network", then to Spike TV, which is its name today.) Country music began in the Southern United States at 1920. And Bob Wills had developed the Western Swing.
Country-styled comedy is also popular, with writers and performers like Jeff Foxworthy, Bill Engvall, Larry the Cable Guy, and others. Many comedians have appeared with Country acts, including Andy Griffith, Ray Stevens, and George Lindsey. Lindsey, Lulu Roman and Junior Samples were cast members of "Hee-Haw", and so were Grandpa Jones and Minnie Pearl. Homer and Jethro and Pinkard & Bowden were duos of musicians who made parodies of Country and pop songs.
"The Beverly Hillbillies", a CBS television series, included music by Flatt and Scruggs. Members of the cast appeared in character at Country concerts, and on other television shows, to entertain audiences.
1690s
Tootsie is a 1982 American romantic comedy-drama movie from Columbia Pictures. It stars Dustin Hoffman as a struggling actor, who dresses as a woman and soon has a role in a soap opera.
In 1998 the United States Library of Congress chose the movie to keep in the National Film Registry.
The theme song to the movie, "It Might Be You", was a Top 40 hit in the U.S., and also hit #1 on the U.S. adult contemporary chart. Stephen Bishop sang the song and the music was by Dave Grusin / Marilyn and Alan Bergman.
The movie was nominated for ten Academy Awards. Lange was the only winner, for Best Actress in a Supporting Role.
The nominations were:
The movie was number two in the AFI's 100 Years... 100 Laughs list in 2000.
It was nominated for the BAFTA Award for Best Adapted Screenplay.
Lynyrd Skynyrd is an American southern rock band from Jacksonville, Florida. Their name comes from one of their school teachers who was named Leonard Skinner. They wrote songs including: "Sweet Home, Alabama", "Simple Man" and "Freebird." The lead singer's name was Ronnie Van Zant. After Ronnie died, his brother Johnny Van Zant became lead singer.
On October 20, 1977, the band was on tour flying to Baton Rouge, Louisiana for their next gig, when their 1977 Convair 240 plane ran out of fuel and crashed in a heavily wooded area. Ronnie Van Zant, Steve Gaines, backup singer Cassie Gaines, assistant road manager Dean Kilpatrick and the pilots were killed in the crash. The rest of the band and crew were injured and temporarily split up. They reunited in 1987 with Van Zant's younger brother Johnny as their new singer.
Peter Handke
Peter Handke (born December 6, 1942 in Griffen (Carinthia)) is an Austrian author and translator of books.