AcharyaChanakya/simple-wikipedia huggingface dataset:
Martin Erat (born August 28, 1981 in Třebíč, Czechoslovakia) is a former Czech ice hockey right winger that played for the Arizona Coyotes of the National Hockey League (NHL). He has also played for the Nashville Predators and the Washington Capitals. Martin also has an older brother named Roman who plays in the Czech Extraliga.
Before playing in the NHL, Erat played 3 seasons in the WHL 2 for the Saskatoon Blades and 1 for the Red Deer Rebels. Erat has also played 10 seasons with the Nashville Predators and 9 games with the Washington Capitals.
On March 4th, 2014, the Capitals traded Erat along with prospect John Mitchell to the Phoenix Coyotes for a 2015 4th round draft pick, Rostislav Klesla and Chris Brown.
Portal 2 is a first-person shooter puzzle video game made by Valve Corporation. It is the sequel to the video game "Portal". The gameplay is similar to the first game, but it adds new stories, puzzles, and characters. Unlike the first game, it also has a co-op campaign, where two players play as robots built by GLaDOS to solve puzzles that could never be solved by humans.
After killing GLaDOS and escaping Aperture Science Laboratories, Chell, the protagonist of "Portal", is taken back to the labs and placed in suspended animation for many years. While she sleeps, the laboratories become more and more run down, because no one is there to take care of them. Once she wakes up, a small, dim-witted robot named Wheatley tries to help her escape the building. In the process, he accidentally reactivates GLaDOS, who, still angry with Chell for killing her, forces Chell to perform tests similar to the ones she performed in "Portal".
While Chell solves the puzzles and GLaDOS repairs the building, Wheatley works behind the scenes to free Chell. Once he does, they try to sabotage GLaDOS's weapons, including her turrets and neurotoxin. In a confrontation with GLaDOS, Chell presses a button that removes GLaDOS from controlling the laboratory and puts Wheatley in her place. In anger, GLaDOS reveals that Wheatley is an intelligence-dampening sphere, created by scientists to distract GLaDOS from evil by distracting her with a constant stream of stupid ideas. Wheatley is outraged and becomes power-mad. He puts GLaDOS's AI into a potato and turns on Chell, sending them both deep underground to an abandoned part of the facility.
Underground is the first Aperture Science Laboratories, started in the 1950s. While exploring the area, recorded messages by Aperture Science founder Cave Johnson and his secretary Caroline tell the history of the company and explain the many dangerous tests performed there. As Chell moves further up in the labs, time moves forward as well, into the 1970s. Cave reveals that the company is bankrupt and must use homeless people as test subjects rather than the astronauts and Olympic athletes they had used before. Here Chell reunites with GLaDOS, whom she places on her portal gun and carries with her.
As they move forward, GLaDOS begins to repeat things that Caroline says and becomes confused. When they move into part of the lab that was used during the 1980s, a message from Cave says he has gotten cancer from working with moon dust and he is dying. After a rant about the unfairness of life, he says that he wants Caroline to run the company after he dies. GLaDOS comes up with a plan to destroy Wheatley once they find him.
Chell and GLaDOS make it to the modern-day lab near the surface and find Wheatley. GLaDOS attempts to short-circuit him by telling him a paradox. Unfortunately, Wheatley is not smart enough to understand it and the plan fails. Wheatley has discovered his new body gives him a feeling of euphoria when a subject solves a test. He tried to make cubes with legs to solve puzzles, but they were not good at it. Instead, he forces Chell to solve puzzles. As she solves more tests, Wheatley's feelings of euphoria become weaker, so he builds more and more complicated tests by smashing together test chambers that GLaDOS built.
When Wheatley cannot get the result he wants from the tests, he decides to kill Chell and GLaDOS. They escape and eventually find him, leading to the final fight. GLaDOS helps Chell attach broken personality cores to Wheatley to weaken him and she tries to press the button that switched GLaDOS and Wheatley in the first place. When she is unable to, she shoots a portal on the floor below Wheatley and another on the moon, which can be seen through a hole in the roof. Wheatley is pulled from GLaDOS's body and released into space. Chell is almost pulled out too, but GLaDOS saves her and closes the portals.
After saving Chell, GLaDOS speaks kindly to her, explaining that when she was created, she was given part of Caroline's personality. She thanks Chell for helping her find where Caroline's personality is in her "brain", then deletes it. Returning to her former self, GLaDOS tells Chell that she is too difficult to kill so she will stop trying and release her instead. Chell is sent to the surface by an elevator while the turrets sing opera. Once she makes it out, the Companion Cube is thrown at her, and she is free to go. As the credits roll, GLaDOS sings the song "Want You Gone".
Thriller (genre)
Over the Limit (2011)
Over the Limit (2011) is a future professional wrestling pay-per-view (PPV) event to be made by WWE, which will happen on May 22, 2011 at the KeyArena in Seattle, Washington. It will be the second Over the Limit event.
The main event for the Raw side of the PPV was determined on the May 9 edition of Raw. The Miz, Alberto Del Rio and Rey Mysterio faced off in a triple threat match where the winner would face John Cena for the WWE Championship at Over the Limit. The Miz won the match by rolling up Mysterio. After the match was over, as had been announced, Cena come out to announce what type of match he had chosen. He tole the Miz, if he wants his title back, it's simple, you only "have to make me say two words", thus he announced the match would be an "I Quit" match.
Also on Raw, carrying over from their WrestleMania and Extreme Rules matches, Jerry Lawler challenged Michael Cole to one final match at Over the Limit, where if he lost he would personally induct Cole in to the WWE Hall of Fame and give him his Hall of Fame ring. Cole initially said no and started bragging about his Mothers Day with his mother the day before in front of Lawler, whose mother died in February. This prompted King to try and attack Cole who was in his "Cole Mine" (a Plexiglas box meant to protect Cole from Lawler). As King went to attack, he was attacked from behind by Cole's mentor Jack Swagger. A little later in the show, Lawler came back out and attacked Cole through the holes cut in the "Cole Mine" by yanking Cole's head repeatedly against the plexiglas by his tie. After he was saved, Swagger accepted the match against Lawler on behalf of Cole, much to Cole's displeasure.
Balkan Wars
The Balkan Wars were a series of wars fought in the Balkan Peninsula in 1912 (First Balkan War) and 1913 (Second Balkan War).
The First Balkan War was fought by Greece, Serbia, Montenegro and Bulgaria (the Balkan League) against the Ottoman Empire. The main objective of the Balkan League was to annex the European territories of the Ottoman Empire, because large numbers of the people of the Balkan League lived under Ottoman rule. The war was a success and the Ottoman Empire lost almost its entire European territories.
The Second Balkan War was fought by Greece, Serbia, the Ottoman Empire and Romania against Bulgaria. Because Bulgaria felt that Greece and Serbia got more lands than they deserved, Bulgaria declared war on Greece and Serbia, which repelled the attacks. The Ottoman Empire and Romania declared war on Bulgaria, because they wanted to gain Bulgarian territories, and by the end of the Second Balkan War Bulgaria had lost almost all its gains from the First Balkan War.
Derecho and tornado outbreak of April 4–5, 2011
The April 2011 derecho and tornado outbreak was a large scale event where tornadoes and derechoes, or widespread straight-line winds, damaged parts of 3 states resulting in 9 fatalities. The event happened from April 4 to April 5th.
On April 3, supercells formed in Illinois, and a squall line of severe thunderstorms formed in Iowa. The severe thunderstorms produced large hail, and strong wind, and potentially tornadoes. Then, heavy rain formed west of the severe thunderstorms but the line kept producing severe weather. On April 4, the supercells also turned into a squall line of severe thunderstorms. The storms produced tornadoes. Then, supercells formed in Tennessee and produced tornadoes. By the night of April 4, the 2 lines of storms collided and moved East. By April 5, the severe thunderstorms were in New Jersey, Maryland, Delaware, Virginia, North Carolina, and Florida and moved out to sea. The storm produced a lot of tornadoes. Plenty of severe thunderstorm and tornado watches and warningss were issued
Supercells impacted Illinois with large hail and strong winds, and possible tornadoes. Hail up to 4-5" in diameter fell and made damage as well as the winds. Tornadoes were als possible.
A squall line of severe thunderstorms impacted the area also with large hail and strong winds. Hail up to 3-4" in diameter fell there along with strong winds. Tornadoes were unlikely but possible.
supercells and squall lines impacted Indiana with numerous reports of large hail and strong winds. An EF0 tornado dropped down in Indiana along with hail up to 2-3" in diameter and damaging winds.
An EF1 tornado in a supercell dropped down in Ohio and did some damage. In that severe thunderstorm with the tornado, strong winds were a problem along with hail up to 1-2" in diameter.
An EF2 tornado in a supercell dropped down in south-central PA. The tornado did damage along with hail up to 1/2 to 1" in diameter.
An EF3 tornado destroyed much of the area where the tornado dropped down. Along with the tornado there were strong winds and 1/4 to 1/2" in diameter hail
Severe thunderstorms impacted the state. the severe thunderstorms produced 1/10 to 1/4 inch in diameter hail and strong winds. Tornadoes were unlikely but possible.
A possible tornado did some damage to an area where the tornado possibly dropped down. Otherwise hail and wind were a problem.
Snow fell acros much of New York State to even NYC and Northern New Jersey! New York City and Northern New Jersey just saw a few snowflakes and sleet flakes, while places north of NYC saw heavy sleet, and New York State saw a general 1-2" of snow. Some places saw as much as 4-5" of snow.
36 Crazyfists
WWE Over the Limit
Over the Limit was a professional wrestling event that was held yearly by WWE, and aired live only on pay-per-view (PPV). The first one was held in 2010, taking the place of Judgment Day in the May slot of WWE's pay-per-view calendar. The last event took place on May 20, 2012 at the PNC Arena in Raleigh, North Carolina. It was replaced by WWE Battleground in 2013.
As is the case with most lower level PPV's made by WWE, the event was held only in arenas in the United States. Championship bouts were scheduled on every card, with the lower level title matches on the undercard and the top level featured on the main card. Under the Brand Extension, WWE assigns its performers to either Raw or SmackDown which cause matches to be set up between wrestlers on the same show.
Osamu Tezuka
Osamu Tezuka (, Tezuka Osamu, November 3, 1928 – February 9, 1989) was a famous Japanese cartoonist, manga artist, animator, producer and Doctor of Medicine, although he never practiced medicine. He was born in Osaka Prefecture. He created "Astro Boy", "Kimba the White Lion" and "Black Jack". He is often credited as the "Father of Anime", and is often considered the Japanese equivalent to Walt Disney, who was a major inspiration for Tezuka.
Tezuka began what was known as the manga revolution in Japan with his New Treasure Island published in 1947. His legendary output would spawn some of the most influential, successful, and well received manga series including the children mangas Astro Boy, Princess Knight and Kimba the White Lion, and the adult oriented series Black Jack, Phoenix, and Buddha, all of which won several awards.
Tezuka died of stomach cancer in 1989. His death had an immediate impact on the Japanese public and other cartoonists. A museum was constructed in Takarazuka dedicated to his memory and life works, and Tezuka received many posthumous awards. Several animations were in production at the time of his death along with the final chapters of Phoenix, which were never released.
Osamu Tezuka:
,"Manga is virtual. Manga is sentiment. Manga is resistance. Manga is bizarre. Manga is pathos. Manga is destruction. Manga is arrogance. Manga is love. Manga is kitsch. Manga is sense of wonder. Manga is … there is no conclusion yet."
Shrek 2 is a 2004 animated comedy movie and is the second movie in the "Shrek" movie series. It was directed by Andrew Adamson, Kelly Asbury and Conrad and stars Mike Myers as Shrek, Eddie Murphy as the donkey, Cameron Diaz as Fiona, Antonio Banderas as Puss in Boots, Julie Andrews as Fiona's mother, Rupert Everett as Prince Charming, John Cleese as Fiona's father and Jennifer Saunders as Fairy Godmother. Like the first movie, this one is a parody of fairy tales. It was followed by "Shrek the Third".
Singer and songwriter Adam Duritz from Counting Crows said that his band's song, "Accidentally in Love", "fits into the movie because it's the story of people who fall in love who weren't supposed to fall in love." Composer James Horner operated the sound of the score on different levels which James said as "Fun". His score came out as an Eels song into a romantic scene with Shrek and Fiona, or a funny scene with Donkey. George Bruns did not compose the film score with Horner, due to a conflict.
Automobili Turismo e Sport
ATS (Automobili Turismo e Sport, which roughly translates in English to "Tourism and Sports Cars") was an Italian car maker and briefly, a constructor in Formula One. The team ran in F1 in 1963, and made cars from 1963 to 1965. The company was founded by Carlo Chiti and Giotto Bizzarrini, intended to compete directly with Ferrari.
The two most well-known cars were the ATS 2500 GT, a sports car, and The Tipo 100, a Formula One car, which was a virtual copy of the Ferrari 156, which was a Formula One car in 1961. Unfortunately, with the cars being frequently withdrawn and technical problems through the season, the F1 team was shut down after 1963. In fact, out of the 10 entries ATS qualified for (Five races, two cars per race), only two cars were classified at the end of the race, albeit very slow, with Giancarlo Baghetti being classified at 23 laps down (23 laps behind the eventual race winner, Jim Clark). By contract, Phil Hill (with no relation to Graham Hill) finished seven laps down.
Alan Douglas Borges de Carvalho
Alan Douglas Borges de Carvalho (born 10 July 1989 in Barbosa, São Paulo, Brazil) is a Brazilian footballer who plays for the Red Bull Salzburg in the Austrian Bundesliga. His name as a player is simply Alan. He plays as a striker.
He started his career for Guaraní FC in Campinas, his hometown. At the age of 16 he joined Londrina EC and in 2008 he went to Fluminense Rio de Janeiro. From Fluminense he went to Europe and signed with F.C. Red Bull Salzburg in the Austrian Bundesliga.
Under coach Huub Stevens he played only a few matches. In the era of Ricardo Moniz he became a regular player of the starting team. During the match versus Rapid Vienna in September 2011 he suffered a severe injury. He healed in April 2012.
Framlingham
Framlingham is a small town in the Suffolk Coastal local government district of Suffolk, England.
Framlingham Castle is a large hill-top castle found in the town. It has a population of 3,114 at the 2001 census. There used to be a railway station there but it is now closed.
Westerfield
Westerfield is a small village near Ipswich in Suffolk. It is about two miles north of the centre of Iswich. The village is served by Westerfield railway station on the Ipswich-Lowestoft East Suffolk Line. The village is home to two pubs, as well as the church, shown adjacent.
The area of the Village south of the railway is inside the borough of Ipswich, although the area North of the railway is inside Suffolk coastal. The railway is around 500 metres from the centre of the village The railway service provides Ipswich, Felixstowe and Woodbridge, and further afield.
The village holds a Scout fete, and a church fete, each year. These fetes include traditional games, incorporating many locals from in and around the local area.
The Village used to be home to a local primary school, as well as a small post office. Despite this the village is still home to a nice village hall, that is home to the 1st Westerfield scout group, as well as a Beaver and Cub group.
Despite this there are speeding issues along Westerfield road, driving through the centre of the village.
Cocculus carolinus
Cocculus carolinus otherwise known as "Carolina Coralbead", "Redberry Moonseed" or the "Carolina snailseed". It is indigenous to several states along the South to Midwest. It gets its name from the bright red color of the marble like berry that protrudes from the leaves of the plant.
The Carolina Coralbead is a deciduous, woody vine that can twines along the trunks of several trees or along the ground. It occurs in timberline areas, rocky woods, glades, fence rows and ponds. Carolina Coralbead can grow 10–12 ft (3–3.6 m) and usually spaced within 3–4 ft (90–120 cm) of one another. If ingested in large amounts, the berry on Cocculus carolinus can be poisonous, but the overall toxicity of its berries do not prove to be fatal. In areas in Little Rock, Arkansas, the Carolina Coralbead is referred to as an invasive weed system which seedlings have been spread by birds. Once a root system has been established, it is hard to remove the plant, so planting in new areas has been a point of concern for this plant. The best ornamental features of the plant are its foliage and its attractive red berries in fall. "Cocculus carolinus" can grow in temperatures between from -3.8 °C (25 °F) to -28.8 °C (-20 °F). Its leaves are covered in short hairs and should not be confused with the species "Smilax bona-nox",which has tendrils and prickles.
The Carolina Coralbead has been reported in the following states of Alabama, Arkansas, Kansas, Mississippi, North Carolina, Oklahoma, Tennessee and Texas. Locations of the plant range from opening of forests, to the beginning of streams.
The flowers are small and plentiful. At a young age, Carolina Coralbead appear greenish. Bloom time for the plant is in late spring and mature by late summer. They grow in tight abundant amounts of bright red berries. By using its scarlet fruits for aesthetic effects, landscapers allow it to be grown on trellises, fences or let naturally flourish through other weeds and shrubs. The berries should not be eaten by people but are eaten by a large number of birds. Each fruit has a single seed that resembles a small snail shell which is protected by the hard endocarp, also known as the inner section of the ovary wall.
Solar time
Solar time relates to the amount of time which has passed according to orbit of the sun. A solar day is the amount of time it takes an object to go around the sun.
Mark St. John
Mark Leslie Norton (February 7, 1956 – April 5, 2007), better known as Mark St. John, was a guitarist known for his brief work with the rock band Kiss. He was only with Kiss a short time, but he was featured on the album "Animalize", the second album of the "unmasked" period. St. John's only video appearance with Kiss is in the video for the hit single "Heaven's on Fire". After leaving Kiss, he formed a band called White Tiger. Mark St. John died on the morning of April 5, 2007, of a cerebral hemorrhage.
Bruce Kulick
Bruce Howard Kulick (born December 12, 1953 in New York) is an American musician. He is best known as lead guitarist for the rock band Kiss from September 1984 to August 1996.
The ragdoll is a cat breed that is large, with blue eyes, and a semi-longhair soft and silky coat of fur. It is usually mostly white, with light to dark marks.
The ragdoll was first bred by an American breeder named Ann Baker from a Persian-like cat (without a pedigree) and a Birman cat with the Siamese colorpoint gene. It is similar in appearance to the Himalayan, which was bred directly from the Persian and Siamese.
The Ragdoll is gentle, easy going, and affectionate. The breed was named "Ragdoll" because they often go limp and relax like a rag or cloth doll when it is picked up. The original mother cat that the breed was created from was involved in a car accident, but contrary to popular belief, this is not why the breed goes limp when picked up (injuries from an accident are not passed on to offspring genetically).
Ragdoll is a breed that enjoys being around humans and it may follow its owner around the house. Due to its soft nature, it is strictly recommended to be an indoor only cat.
In addition to the colorpoint pattern, Ragdolls may also have mittens (white paws).
Srinivasa Ramanujan Aiyangar (December 22, 1887 – April 26, 1920) was an Indian mathematician. He is considered to be one of the most talented mathematicians in recent history. His father's name was Kuppuswami and mother's name was Komalatammal. On 1st October 1892 Ramanujan was enrolled at local school. He did not like school so he tried to avoid attending. He had no formal training in mathematics. However, he has made a large contribution to number theory, infinite series and continued fractions.
He was mentored by G. H. Hardy in the early 1910s. After getting his degree at Cambridge, Ramanujan did his own work. He compiled over 3500 identities and equations in his life. Some of the identities were found in his "lost notebook". When the notebook was discovered, mathematicians proved almost all of Ramanujan's work. His discoveries have led to many advancements in mathematics. His formulas are now being used in crystallography and string theory.
In 2011, Ramanujan's birthday was made an annual "National Mathematics Day" by Prime Minister Manmohan Singh.
North South MRT line
The North South MRT line is the first Mass Rapid Transit (MRT) line in Singapore to be built. It is 45 km long with 26 stations, and it is being operated by SMRT Trains. It would usually take one hour to travel from one end of the MRT line to the other. This line is coloured red on the MRT Rail map.
This line joins the Central area of Singapore to the Northern and Southern areas of Singapore. To transfer to the East West MRT line, a commuter can transfer at Jurong East, Raffles Place or City Hall. Transferring to the North East MRT Line is done at Dhoby Ghaut with a linkway. Bishan MRT Station, Dhoby Ghaut MRT Station and Marina Bay MRT Station can transfer a commuter to the Circle MRT Line. Transfer to the Downtown line is provided at Newton MRT Station.
The first section of the north south line opened on 7 November 1987 between Toa Payoh and Yio Chu Kang. Afterwards, the section to Outram Park (now on the East West MRT line) opened. Following that, the rest of the line opened stage by stage.
The Woodlands Extension was planned to close the gap between Yishun and Choa Chu Kang. It consists of 6 stations, and opened on 10 February 1996.
A 1-kilometre extension of the line to Marina South Pier MRT Station was opened in 2014.
On 7 October, services on the line was stopped between Ang Mo Kio and Marina South Pier around 6pm, after the tunnels between Bishan and Braddell flooded following heavy rain, and a fire was seen near Raffles Place. Services between Newton and Marina South Pier was resumed at around 9.30pm but the section between Newton and Ang Mo Kio remained closed overnight. It opened at 2pm the following day after staff and the SCDF worked overnight to clear the water from the tunnel. SMRT reported that a faulty water pump was the cause of the flooding. This was the worst train incident in SMRT's history.
Shrek the Third (also known as Shrek 3) is a 2007 animated movie and is the third movie in the "Shrek" movie series.
It was directed by Chris Miller and Raman Hui and stars Mike Myers as Shrek, Cameron Diaz as Fiona, Eddie Murphy as the donkey, Antonio Banderas as Puss in Boots, Julie Andrews as Fiona's mother, John Cleese as Fiona's father, Rupert Everett as Prince Charming, Eric Idle as Merlin and Justin Timberlake as Arthur. It is about Shrek trying to get a new king for far far away because the other King died. Like the first two movies, this movie is parody of fairy tales.
SMRT Trains
Symphony X are an American progressive metal band from Middletown, New Jersey.
Founded in 1994 by guitarist Michael Romeo, their albums "The Divine Wings of Tragedy" and "V: The New Mythology Suite" have given the band considerable attention within the progressive metal community.
Major League Baseball Rookie of the Year Award
In Major League Baseball, the Rookie of the Year Award is given each year to one player from each league as voted on by the Baseball Writers Association of America (BBWAA). The award was start in 1940 by the Chicago chapter of the BBWAA. They selected a winner every year from 1940 through 1946. The award became national in 1947; Jackie Robinson, the Brooklyn Dodgers' first baseman, won the first award. One award was presented for both leagues in 1947 and 1948; since 1949, the honor has been given to one player each in the National and American League. At first, the award was known as the J. Louis Comiskey Memorial Award, named after the Chicago White Sox owner of the 1930s. The award was renamed the Jackie Robinson Award in July 1987, 40 years after Jackie Robinson broke the baseball color line.
Of the 128 players named Rookie of the Year, 14 have been selected for the National Baseball Hall of Fame—Jackie Robinson, five American League players, and eight others from the National League. The award has been shared twice: once by Butch Metzger and Pat Zachry of the National League in 1976; and once by John Castino and Alfredo Griffin of the American League in 1979. Members of the Brooklyn and Los Angeles Dodgers have won the most awards of any team (with 16). This is twice the total of the New York Yankees (eight), who have won the most in the American League. Fred Lynn and Ichiro Suzuki are the only two players who have been named Rookie of the Year and Most Valuable Player in the same year. Fernando Valenzuela is the only player to have won Rookie of the Year and the Cy Young Award in the same year. Sam Jethroe is the oldest player to have won the award, at age 32, 33 days older than 2000 winner Kazuhiro Sasaki (also 32). Buster Posey of the San Francisco Giants and Neftali Feliz of the Texas Rangers are the 2010 winners.
From 1947 through 1956, each BBWAA voter had their own rules for decide who was a rookie. In 1957, the BBWAA first defined the term as someone with fewer than 75 at bats or 45 innings pitched in any Major League season before the current season. This guideline was later changed to 90 at bats, 45 innings pitched, or 45 days on a Major League roster before September 1 of the last year. The current rule is 130 at bats, 50 innings pitched or 45 days on the active roster of a Major League club (except for time in military service or on the disabled list) before September 1 was first used in 1971. Since 1980, each voter names three rookies: a first-place choice is given five points, a second-place choice three points, and a third-place choice one point. The award goes to the player who receives the most total points. Edinson Volquez received three second-place votes in 2008 even though he was not a rookie under the award's definition.
Some baseball writers have criticized the voting in recent years because several players who played in Nippon Professional Baseball (NPB) have won the award. These winners include Hideo Nomo in 1995, Kazuhiro Sasaki in 2000, and Ichiro Suzuki in 2001. The current definition of rookie for the award is based only on Major League playing. Some writers feel that past NPB players are not true rookies because of their past professional playing. This issue came up in 2003 when Hideki Matsui lost the AL award to Ángel Berroa in a close vote. Jim Souhan of the "Minneapolis Star Tribune" said he did not think Matsui was a rookie in 2003 because "it would be an insult to the Japanese league to pretend that experience didn't count." "The Japan Times" had a story in 2007 on calling Daisuke Matsuzaka, Kei Igawa, and Hideki Okajima as rookies, saying "[t]hese guys aren't rookies." Past winners such as Jackie Robinson, Don Newcombe, and Sam Jethroe had professional experience in the Negro Leagues.
Testament (band)
Demonic (album)
Demonic is the seventh studio album by American heavy metal band Testament. It was released in 1997. The lyrics deal with occult themes more like their 1980s efforts instead of the political topics covered on more recent releases.
Musically, Testament takes a slower, almost death metal oriented approach with grinding guitar riffs and Chuck Billy's vocal work consisting primarily of death growls.
This album also marked the first time, as Testament, that the band used the old Legacy pentagram graphic.
Bonus Track: Rapid Fire
Rainbow (band)
Rainbow (also known as Ritchie Blackmore's Rainbow or Blackmore's Rainbow) were an English hard rock band, controlled by guitarist Ritchie Blackmore from 1975 to 1984 and 1994 to 1997. It was originally established with former Elf members, though over the years Rainbow went through many line-up changes with no two studio albums featuring the same line-up. In addition to lead singers Ronnie James Dio, Graham Bonnet, Joe Lynn Turner and Doogie White, the project consisted of numerous backing musicians. The band started out combining mystical lyric themes with neo-classical metal, but went in a more streamlined commercial style following Dio's departure from the group.
Rainbow was ranked #90 on VH1's "100 Greatest Artists of Hard Rock".
New Taiwan dollar
Crown of thorns
The crown of thorns (also known as Christ plant, or Christ thorn, called Corona de Cristo in Latin America) is a woody, succulent species of Euphorbia native to Madagascar. The species name commemorates Baron Milius, once governor of Réunion, who introduced the species to France in 1821. It is suspected that the species was introduced to the Middle East in ancient times, and legend associates it with the crown of thorns worn by Jesus.
Joseph Romm
Joseph J. Romm (born June 27, 1960) is an American physicist, writer and environmentalist. He has an interest in reducing greenhouse gas emissions and global warming. He is also interested in energy security through energy efficiency and green energy technologies.
Romm's 2006 book was "".
In December 2008, Romm was elected a Fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science. In March 2009, "Rolling Stone" magazine named Romm as one of "100 People Who Are Changing America". In September 2009, "Time" magazine named him one of its "Heroes of the Environment".
A Child of Our Time
A Child of Our Time is an oratorio by Michael Tippett. It was composed between 1939 and 1941.
Tippett composed this oratorio at the beginning of World War II. He had already lived through World War I and he was very upset about all the evil in this world. He wanted to write a musical work about it. He did it by taking the story of the beginning of World War II as a basis of the oratorio, but he also made the work speak in general about the evil of this world.
In 1938 a 17 year old Jewish boy Hershel Grynspan, who lived in Paris, desperately wanted to attack the Nazis because of the cruel way his parents in Germany had been treated. He therefore murdered a Nazi diplomat in France. The Nazi’s in Germany were so furious that they attacked and murdered lots of Jews in Germany. This terrible attack became known as the "Kristallnacht". This series of events can be found in the words of Tippett’s oratorio. Tippett wrote the words himself.
The title comes from Ödön von Horváth’s novel, "Ein Kind unserer Zeit" (A Child of Our Time), written in 1938 and published in English in 1939. Tippett began composing it on 5 September 1939, two days after Britain declared war against Germany.
In 1958 Tippett arranged the five negro spirituals so that they could be sung by unaccompanied chorus. They are often performed like that, separately from the oratorio.
Tippett uses a similar structure to the Passions of Bach. This meant that he used a narrator (like the evangelist in Bach’s Passions) who tells the story. Instead of Bach’s Lutheran chorales he adds five negro spirituals which add an emotional comment to the events. The music of these spirituals blend very cleverly into the style of Tippett’s music. The whole oratorio, which lasts a little over one hour, has three parts. This idea is based on the three parts of Handel's "Messiah". Tippett calls the three parts: 1) Prophecy; 2) Narrative; 3) Meditation.
Part one opens with a picture of the world in darkness. The alto solo shows what the person’s soul is feeling. The bass (narrator) tells of the purges in Russia, the lynching in the USA, the terrible poverty in Britain. The chorus tell of their despair.
The chorus describes an atmosphere of icy stillness. They talk of “The Scape-Goat, The Child of Our Time” (a “scape-goat” is someone who gets the blame for something they have not done). There is a chorus of the Persecutors and the Persecuted. The choir are split into two like the crowd scenes in Bach’s Passions. In the “Chorus of the Self-Righteous” we hear about the attitude of countries who refuse to accept more than just a few of the persecuted Jews (this includes Britain). The boy tries to save his mother. We are told of the murder of the Nazi diplomat. There is a chorus of terror. We see the boy in prison and the grieving of the mother.
This is about the descent through evil and the discovery of rebirth and liberation. The bass suggests that, if we have patience, we shall be healed. The chorus finish by singing of the universal nature of the problem.
“Tippett, the composer and his music”; Ian Kemp;
Spiritual (music)
Spirituals (or Negro spirituals) are the songs which were sung by the black slaves in the United States in the 18th and 19th centuries. The words to many Negro spirituals have Christian themes. This is because Black slaves in the United States turned to religion, as a way to cope with the pain of slavery. Negro spirituals combine traditional West African musical style with the style of Christian hymns from Europe.
Stamford, Lincolnshire
Stamford is a town and civil parish in Southern Lincolnshire, a county in England. It is on the River Welland and is located in the borough of South Kesteven. The town centre is 92 miles (148 km) north of London, the capital city.
The town is located very close to the borders with Cambridgeshire, Rutland and Northamptonshire. The town is in Lincolnshire, but has a Peterborough post code, a city in Cambridgeshire.
It is a very old town. Many 17th and 18th-century buildings and old timber-framed buildings still stand in the town. It also has five medieval churches.
There are over 600 listed buildings in the town and surrounding area.
The Sunday Times rated the town the best place to live in a survey in 2013.
University of Concepción
The University of Concepción is a university in Concepción, Chile. It is the oldest university in the south of Chile.
This university was founded by Enrique Molina Garmendia in 1919.
Jotunheimen
Jotunheimen is a large mountain range in Norway. It is named after Jötunheimr. Its highest peak, Galdhøpiggen (2469 metres) is the highest mountain in Scandinavia.
Catholic University of the Most Holy Conception
The Catholic University of the Most Holy Conception is a university located in Concepción, Chile. It is one of the universities in the south of Chile.
This university was created and founded on 1991 by the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Concepción.
Illinois Senate
The Illinois Senate is the upper chamber in the Illinois General Assembly, the legislative branch of the government of the state of Illinois. Created in 1818 by the constitution of the first state, the Illinois senate is comprised 59 senators elected from individual legislative districts determined by population. According to Illinois' 1970 constitution, senators are divided into three groups, each group having a two-year term at a different part of the decade between censuses, with the rest of the decade being taken up by two four-year terms. Depending on the election year, roughly one-third, two-thirds, or all Senate seats may be contested. In contrast, the Illinois House of Representatives is made up of 118 members with its entire membership elected to two-year terms. House districts are formed by dividing each Senate district in half.
Star anise
Star anise ("Illicium verum") is a spice plant which tastes like anise. The star shaped fruits are harvested before they start getting ripe.
Japanese star anise ("Illicium anisatum"), a similar tree, is not edible because it is "highly toxic"; instead, it may be burned as incense in Japan.
Star anise has been used in a tea, and the seeds are sometimes chewed after meals for digestion.
Star anise is grown in four places in China and harvested between March and May. It is also found in the south of New South Wales.
Thubten Zopa Rinpoche
Thubten Zopa Rinpoche (born 1946) is a lama from Nepal. He took his monks vows at Dungkar Monastery in Tibet and has received teachings from many high lamas. Lama Zopa is the co-founder, with Lama Yeshe, of Kopan Monastery and the FPMT. Since the 1984 death of Lama Yeshe, Lama Zopa has served as the FPMT's spiritual director. Zopa's books are published by Wisdom Publications. Free books and a vast online collection of his teachings are available from the Lama Yeshe Wisdom Archive. There is an extensive biography of him in the book 'The Lawudo Lama' , by Jamyang Wangmo.
Simon Cziommer
Simon Cziommer (born 6 November 1980 in Nordhorn) is a German footballer. He plays for the Dutch club Vitesse.
He started his career in his local football club FC Schüttdorf 09. Soon he went to the Netherlands where he played for Twente Enschede, AZ Alkmaar, and FC Utrecht. 2003- 2006 he played for Schalke 04 in the German Bundesliga. Since 2009 he plays for F. C. Red Bull Salzburg in the Austrian Bundesliga. He also played for the German U20-team.
Kopan Monastery
Kopan Monastery is a Tibetan Buddhist monastery near Boudhanath, on the outskirts of Kathmandu, Nepal. It belongs to the FPMT, an international network of Gelugpa dharma centers, and once served as its headquarters.
The monastery was established by the FPMT founders, Lamas Thubten Yeshe and Thubten Zopa Rinpoche, who bought the property from Nepal's royal astrologer in 1969. Its name comes from the name of the hill on which it was built.
Kopan has become famous for teaching Buddhism to visiting Western foreigners. The first of what would become annual month-long (November-December) meditation courses was held in 1971. These courses generally combine traditional Lam Rim teachings with informal discussion, several periods of guided meditation, and a vegetarian diet.
Las Condes
Volkswagen Crafter
The Volkswagen Crafter is a series of vans and buses which is a rebadged Mercedes Sprinter. It replaced the Volkswagen LT in 2006. In 2016, a new Crafter was unveiled but now it's Volkswagen's own van and no longer a rebadged Sprinter.
Red Bull Brasil
Red Bull Brasil, also known as RB Brasil, is a Brazilian association football club from Campinas, São Paulo. The club was founded in 2007 by initiative of energy drink-maker Red Bull GmbH. Red Bull Brasil plays in the top tier of Campeonato Paulista, the São Paulo state league. In 2017, Red Bull Brasil makes their second appearance in the fourth tier of Campeonato Brasileiro (the first was in 2015).
The Great American Interchange was an important zoogeographic event about three million years ago. Land and freshwater fauna migrated between North America and South America.
The migration happened during the Pliocene, 3.6–2.6 million years ago (mya). The volcanic Isthmus of Panama rose from the seafloor and bridged the two continents.
The land bridge in what is now Panama joined the Neotropic (roughly South America) and Nearctic (roughly North America) ecozones to form the Americas.
The interchange is visible from both stratigraphy and nature. Its most dramatic effect is on the distribution of mammals, but weak-flying or flightless birds, reptiles, amphibians, arthropods and even freshwater fish also migrated.
The differences in the fauna of North and South America had been known for some time. Both Humboldt and Darwin discussed it. The interchange as a concept was first fully laid out in 1876 by the "father of biogeography", Alfred Russel Wallace. Wallace had spent 1848–1852 exploring and collecting specimens in the Amazon Basin. Others who made significant contributions to understanding the event in the century that followed include Florentino Ameghino and George Gaylord Simpson.
Similar interchanges occurred earlier in the Cainozoic, when the former Gondwana continents of India and Africa made contact with Eurasia, about 50 and 30 mya respectively.
When the global continent Pangaea broke up early in the Jurassic period, the great southern supercontinent Gondwana was formed. It separated from Laurasia 200–180 mya.
In stages, Gondwana also broke up, eventually into half-a-dozen continents we recognise today. They were Australasia, Indian subcontinent, Africa, Madagascar, Antarctica and South America.
South America drifted west from Africa, starting about 130 mya in the Lower Cretaceous. There was open sea between them by 110 mya. The last connection of South America with any part of Gondwana was a link with West Antarctica, which broke in the Oligocene, only 30 mya.
When Gondwana was separated from Laurasia, evolution of most animals and plants went on separately in the two great supercontinents. Later, as Gondwana broke up, most of its fauna and flora also evolved separately.
This is also in Africa and India when they moved north and joined the Eurasian continent long ago. However, this happened so many millions of years ago, that the original pattern is now hard to see. In Australasia and South America, the pattern is clear.
The mammals are a good example. Eutherian mammals evolved in Laurasia but few got to Gondwana before it was separated. Earlier groups of mammals did get to Gondwana. They were the marsupials, the monotremes and other (now extinct) therian mammals.
Thus, when South America was completely separated, it had only the earlier types of mammals, including some early eutherians such as the Xenarthra. The groups which evolved later, and which dominate the northern continents, only got to South America by the Great American Interchange.
After the late Mesozoic breakup of Gondwana, South America spent most of the Cainozoic era as an island continent.
Its "splendid isolation" allowed the fauna to evolve into many forms found nowhere else on earth, most of which are now extinct.
The endemic mammals initially consisted of metatherians (including marsupials, xenarthrans, and a diverse group of South American ungulates.
Marsupials appear to have travelled from South America through Antarctica to Australasia in the late Cretaceous or early Tertiary.
Ratites (relatives of South American tinamous) probably migrated by this route about the same time, in the direction from South America towards Australia/New Zealand.
Other taxa that may have dispersed by the same route (if not by flying or rafting) are parrots, chelid turtles and (extinct) meiolaniid turtles.
One living South American marsupial, the tiny Monito del Monte, is more closely related to Australian marsupials than to other South American marsupials. Since it is the most 'basal' (= primitive) australidelphian we know, its group probably evolved in South America and then colonized Australia.
A 61 mya old platypus-like monotreme fossil from Patagonia may be an Australian immigrant.
Marsupials in South America included didelphimorphs (opossums), shrew opossums and several other small groups.
The borhyaenids and the sabertooth "Thylacosmilus" were once considered to be marsupials. They are sparassodont metatherians, the sister group of the marsupials. Sparassodonts were the only South American mammals to specialize as carnivores. Their relative inefficiency left opportunites for nonmammalian predators to be more prominent than usual (similar to the ).
Sparassodonts shared the ecological niches for large predators with fearsome flightless "terror birds" (phorusrhacids), whose closest extant (living) relatives are the seriemas. Terrestrial ziphodont crocodilians were also present at least through the middle Miocene. Some of South America's aquatic crocodilians reached monstrous sizes, with lengths up to 12 m.
Through the skies over late Miocene South America (6 Ma ago) soared the largest flying bird known, the teratorn "Argentavis", with a wingspan of 6 m or more, which may have lived in part on the leftovers of "Thylacosmilus" kills.
Xenarthrans are a curious group of mammals that developed morphological adaptations for specialized diets very early in their history.
In addition to those extant today (armadillos, anteaters and tree sloths), a great diversity of larger types were present, including pampatheres, the ankylosaur-like glyptodonts, various ground sloths, some of which reached the size of elephants (e.g. "Megatherium"), and even semiaquatic sloths.
The notoungulates and litopterns had many strange forms, some examples of convergent evolution.
Both groups started evolving in the Lower Paleocene, possibly from condylarth stock, diversified, dwindled before the great interchange, and went extinct at the end of the Pleistocene. The pyrotheres and astrapotheres were also strange but were less diverse and disappeared earlier, well before the interchange.
The North American fauna was typical northern eutheria (supplemented with Afrotherian proboscids).
Once the continents were joined, invasions from the north to the south were numerous and significant in their effect. Invasions from south to north were much less significant. This is most clearly seen in the mammals.
Reasons for this have been suggested. Wetland tropical species going north encountered desert or, at any rate, dry conditions in Mexico, where the Trans-Mexican Volcanic Belt, also known as the Sierra Nevada (Mexico) or the Snowy Mountain Range, extends 900  km from west to east across central-southern Mexico.
However, by far the most common theory is that North American fauna were 'topped up' from time to time whenever Eurasian species could get over the Bering Strait.
This applies with force to mammals, because the eutherian mammals originated in Asia and had undergone a great deal of evolution before they got to South America. Marsupials originally in Eurasia had long before been out-competed and gone extinct. It is not surprising the eutherians did well in South America.
Marsupials in both South America and Australasia were weak in predators. The borhyaenids and "Thylacosmilus" (the 'marsupial' sabretooth) were not marsupials; they were the related group, the sparassodonts. Instead, in South America, the terror birds ("Phorusrhacos" were for a long time the top predators.
All these native forms were wiped out as short-faced bears, wolves, nine species of small cats, cougars, jaguars, lions, sabretooths ("Smilodon" and "Homotherium") established themselves.
The successes in the opposite direction are interesting. Opossums, as the Virginia Opossum, are well established over a wide range. They are the only surviving marsupial in North America, though there were others before mankind arrived in the Americas.
The top native South American mammal success for a long time was the superorder Xenarthra, which had two different groups with large representatives in North America. One group was the giant ground sloths, such as the megalonychid "Megalonyx". This group lived in North America for over 10 million years, well before the Great Interchange. How they got there is not known. They got as far north as Alaska and the Yukon.
The other group was the glyptodonts, such such as "Glyptotherium texanum". They were large, heavily armoured relatives of the armadillo.