AcharyaChanakya/simple-wikipedia huggingface dataset:
League of Nations mandated territories, were run by member countries on behalf of the League. But Danzig and the Saargebiet were run by the League of Nations itself, with representatives of various countries taking on the role of High Commissioner:
The Free City's population was 357,000 in (1919). 98% were German-speakers, with the rest mainly speaking either Kashubian or Polish.
The Treaty of Versailles, split Danzig from Germany. The treaty made the people living in the city citizens of the Free City. German inhabitants lost their German nationality, if they wanted to stay German they had to go and live outside the Free City's territory.
Heads of State of the Free City of Danzig
In May 1933, the Nazi Party won the local elections in the city. But they had less than the two-thirds majority that would let them change the Constitution of the Free City of Danzig. The government introduced anti-Semitic and also anti-Catholic laws against the Poles and Kashubian inhabitants.
Poland always refused to allow the status of Danzig to change. In April 1939 the Polish Commissioner-General said that Poland was willing to fight if there was a change..
The Nazi government voted for re-unification with Germany on September 2, 1939, the day after the German invasion of Poland began.
Around 90% of the city was reduced to ruins towards the end of the Second World War. On March 30, 1945 the city was taken by the USSR. It is thought that more than 90% of the pre-war population were either dead or had fled by 1945.
The Allied Powers were told at the Potsdam conference that the former Free State was now part of Poland. (The Yalta conference was unclear whether the Free City would be recreated or not).
Surf's Up (movie)
Surf's Up is a 2007 American computer-animated movie made by Sony Pictures Animation. It stars Shia LaBeouf, Jeff Bridges, Zooey Deschanel, Jon Heder, Mario Cantone, James Woods, Rebecca Honig, Diedrich Bader, Rob Machado, Kelly Slater and Sal Masekela. The movie is a parody of surfing documentaries, like "The Endless Summer" and "Riding Giants".
"Baby Boy" is a Middle Eastern-influenced R&B and dancehall song written by Beyoncé Knowles, Scott Storch, Sean Paul, Robert Waller, and Shawn "Jay-Z" Carter for Knowles' first solo album, "Dangerously in Love" (2003).
It was produced by Knowles and Storch and was released to positive reception as the album's second single in July 2003. The song (which features dancehall singer Sean Paul) reached number one in the U.S., becoming Beyoncé's second solo number-one single and Sean Paul's second; it also reached number two in the UK. It was also recognized at the ASCAP awards by the label companies receiving the Publisher of the Year from EMI and Most Performed Songs award in 2003. It was certified Platinum in the US for sales and shipments of over one million copies there. "Baby Boy" finished at number 12 on the "Billboard" Year-End Hot 100 of 2003.
List of heads of state of the Free City of Danzig
The Free City of Danzig (German: "Freie Stadt Danzig"; Polish: "Wolne Miasto Gdańsk") existed between 1920 and 1939.
The City had its own post office, currency and citizenship, but it was not independent: it was administered directly by the League of Nations, represented by a High Commissioner. The city was governed by the Senate. The head of state was the President of the Senate. The Free City was represented abroad by Poland's ambassadors.
League of Nations mandated territories, were run by member countries on behalf of the League. But Danzig and the Saargebiet were run by the League of Nations itself, with representatives of various countries being the High Commissioner:
Main-Franconian dialects
Main-Franconian is group of German dialects that are spoken in the centre of Germany, in the area known as Franconia near the river Main.
In Germany most people call these dialects simply “Fränkisch”. Although they have a lot in common there are many variations from one small region to another.
Historically Franconia (German: “Franken”) was a very large area covering a lot of Germany including parts of the Rhine as far as the Netherlands. Today Franconia is the north part of Bavaria (German: “Bayern”) including what is known as Lower Franconia, Upper Franconia, Mid-Franconia and parts of Upper Bavaria.
Typical for Franconian dialects is the voiceless consonants becoming voiced, i.e. “k” pronounced like “g”, “t” like “d”, “p” like “b” and “s” like English “z”. In pubs one often hears on the public address system a request for a member of staff
The pronunciation of vowels may be different from normal German, e.g.
Franconia is often described as the place where:
An angry Franconian might say:
Port Arthur, Texas
Port Arthur is a Texan city that was hit by Hurricane Alicia on August 18, 1983. There was 57,755 people at the 2000 census.
Moisture mostly means the presence of water, often in trace amounts (small quantities).
Moisture exists in the atmosphere in all three forms solid, liquid and gas.
Marta Colvin
Marta Colvin Andrade, (born 22 June 1907 in Chillán, Chile, died 27 October 1995 in Santiago, Chile) was a sculptor.
Colvin began sculpting in Chillán years after marrying and forming a family. After the 1939 earthquake, Marta Colvin lived in Santiago. While there, she went to the Belle Arts School of the University of Chile. Her teachers were Julio Antonio Vásquez and Lorenzo Domínguez. In 1943, she worked as an instructor at the Vasquez Factory. She became a professor there in 1950. In 1948, she traveled to France to study at the Academy Grand Chaumiere with the sculptors Ossip Zadkine and Henri Laurens. In 1951, she was invited by the British Council to study in the Slade School of the University of London, England. Colvin spent the next thirty years working and studying in France. Her talent was known world-wide. In 1970, she was awarded the National Prize of Art.
Bárbara of Portugal
Bárbara of Portugal (Pronunciation , December 4, 1711 – August 27, 1758) was a Portuguese princess, daughter of King John V of Portugal, of the House of Braganza, and his wife, Maria Anna of Austria.
She was born on 4 December 1711 in Lisbon, Portugal and given the name "Maria Madalena Bárbara Xavier Leonor Teresa Antónia Josefa de Bragança" but she was usually called just "Bárbara" or "Maria Bárbara", in honour of Saint Barbara, the saint of her birthday.
She had a fine education and loved music. She could speak six languages and studied music for several years with Domenico Scarlatti, the famous Italian harpsichordist and composer.
In 1729, when she was 18 years old, she married the future King Ferdinand VI of Spain, in Badajoz, Spain. They had no children. She died on 27 August 1758 in Aranjuez, Spain.
The city of Santa Bárbara de Samaná in the Dominican Republic was named after her when it was founded in 1756.
List of Arizona hurricanes
An Arizona hurricane is a tropical cyclone forming in the eastern Pacific Ocean that affects the state of Arizona in the United States. Usually, the storm makes landfall in the Mexican states of Baja California or Sonora, with the remaining moisture normally having mild rainfall effects on the state. However, a few storms have crossed into Arizona while they still had tropical storm strength.
It is extremely difficult for a hurricane to form in Arizona because the normal storms that form in the eastern Pacific Ocean move either parallel or away from the Pacific coast of Northwestern Mexico. As a result, most storms that could affect Arizona, are carried away from the United States, and only 6% of all Pacific hurricanes enter US territory. In average, Arizona experiences the effects of tropical cyclones once every five years. Many, but not all, of these systems also affected California.
Tropical storms are one of Arizona's main sources of rainfall, and they infuse the monsoon over the southwestern United States. However, all of the storms that have impacted Arizona have formed in the latter parts of the Pacific hurricane season, and no storm has affected the state before August.
Some of these tropical cyclones have caused deaths or a lot of property damage, usually because of flooding created by rain.
In August of 1935, the remnants of an unnamed tropical storm that landed on southern California causing heavy rains and flooding across Arizona, especially along the Santa Cruz River and Rillito Creek on Southern Arizona. The rainfall due to the storm still holds the record rainfall at the National Weather Service office in Tucson.
In September of 1970, the remnants of Tropical Storm Norma became Arizona's deadliest storm when they contributed to the disaster known as the "Labor Day storm of 1970". As Norma dissipated, moisture from the cyclone was captured in a large extratropical low. The resulting rainfall created deadly floods that killed 23 people and caused huge damages. Two years later, the remnants of Hurricane Joanne caused flooding that created damages up to $10 million (1972 USD) and eight deaths.
On September 11, 1976, Hurricane Kathleen killed a man when a gust of wind blew a palm tree down onto his mobile home. Strong flooding and hailstorms also resulted.
A weather system, including moisture from Tropical Storm Octave, caused heavy rains over a ten-day period. Fourteen people drowned, 975 were injured, and roughly 10,000 people were left homeless when the flooding ended. The amount of damage from the disaster was put at 370 million (year unknown) USD.
The mallard ("Anas platyrhynchos") is the best-known and most recognizable of all ducks. It can be found throughout most of North America, Europe, Asia, New Zealand and Australia. It is the most common and widespread duck. It can be found in almost any area with a wetland habitat, even in urban areas.
The mallard is a large and heavy looking duck. It has a body and a long and a broad bill. The male has a dark green head, a yellow bill, is mainly purple-brown on the breast and grey on the body. The female is mainly brown with an orange bill.
It breeds in all parts of the Europe in summer and winter, wherever there are suitable wetland habitats. It is scarcer in upland areas.
Naughty Girl is an R&B/disco song written by Beyoncé Knowles, Scott Storch, Robert Waller, and Angela Beyincé for Knowles' debut solo album, "Dangerously in Love" (2003). It was released as the fourth single. It was also recognized at the American Society of Composers, Authors, and Publishers 2005 Pop Music Awards by receiving the "Songwriter of the Year" —sharing with Scott Storch, Robert Walker, Angela Beyincé, and Donna Summer—and "Most Performed Songs" awards. The remixes feature Lil' Flip, Lil' Kim, Grafh, and Redman.
The video for this song was directed by Jake Nava, who had risen to popularity after directing Beyoncé's first two videos, "Crazy In Love" and "Baby Boy." The video pays tribute to Hollywood's Golden Era, as Beyoncé and the cast of the video are dressed in old fashioned, glamorous clothing and hairstyles. As the title of the song suggest, Beyoncé plays the role of the naughty girl in several sexy sequences, as she can be seen dancing seductively with Usher emulating Cyd Charisse and Fred Astaire in "The Band Wagon".
Yankee Stadium (1923)
The original Yankee Stadium was a baseball stadium in New York City, New York in the United States. It was opened in 1923. The MLB team New York Yankees played there until 2008. The Yankees moved to the new Yankee Stadium starting with the 2009 season. The Stadium was also the home field of the New York Giants football team from the mid-1950s into the early 1970s. It was also used for college football, soccer, boxing matches, musical events, and even a mass conducted by the Pope. The Stadium was also called the "House that Ruth Built" by many to honor Babe Ruth, a Yankee who hit many home runs during the stadium's first years. The Stadium was torn down in early 2009.
British occupation zone
The Allied powers who defeated Nazi Germany in World War II divided the country into four occupation zones from 1945 to 1949.
The British zone consisted of Schleswig-Holstein, Hamburg, Lower Saxony and the present-day state of North Rhine-Westphalia. The British military government was based in Bad Oeynhausen.
Bremen and Bremerhaven were surrounded by the British Zone, but were given to the United States, so that the Americans had a port. What is now Rhineland-Palatinate was to be a part of the British Zone. It was given up to form part of the French occupation zone.
In May 1949 the British, French, and American zones were joined to form the Federal Republic of Germany. The military governors were replaced by civilian high commissioners. The high commissioners were part-governor and part-ambassador. The occupation officially continued until 1955. This is when the Federal Republic became a fully sovereign state, the western occupation zones ceased to exist, and the high commissioners were replaced by normal ambassadors. But the four allied powers still had special rights and responsibilities in Germany until the Final Settlement of 1990.
The city of Berlin, however, was not part of either state and continued to be under Allied occupation until 1990.
Greater Hesse
Greater Hesse () was a part of the American Occupation Zone of Germany after World War II
The German Empire broke up after World War I. The Grand Duchy of Hesse-Darmstadt () became the People's State of Hesse () on 2 March 1919.
After World War II, on 19 September 1945, the American Military Government joined Hesse-Darmstadt (except for Rheinhessen) with parts of the Prussian provinces of Kurhessen and Nassau to form Greater-Hesse.
On 18 December 1946 the state was renamed Hesse, and in 1949 became a part of the Federal Republic of Germany.
Mioriţa
Mioriţa "(The Little Ewe)" is a Romanian traditional ballad.
Muzio Clementi was an Italian composer who lived from 1752 to 1832. He was born in Rome, Italy. He was the first composer to write music for the pianoforte which made use of the instrument's special features. He was also the first virtuoso performer on the instrument. As a composer, performer, and maker of pianos, he is known as the "father of the pianoforte.
Clementi was born in Rome on January 23, 1752. He was the eldest child of Nicolo Clementi, a silversmith, and Magdalena Kaiser. Clementi began to learn music from Antonio Baroni (1738-1792), who was a relative. Baroni was in charge of the choir at St. Peter's Basilica. He also had lessons from the organist, Cordicelli, Giuseppe Santarelli (1710-1790) and Gaetano Carpani.
When he was 13, he became the church organist at San Lorenzo in Damaso (Saint Lawrence in the House of Damascus), a parish church in Rome. He had also started writing music including an oratorio, "Martirio de' gloriosi Santi Giuliano" and a mass. In 1766, Sir Peter Beckford, heard him playing the harpsichord. He took Clementi back to England with him, so that he could provide the musical entertainment at Beckford's house in Dorset. He died in Evesham, Worcestershire, after a short illness.
Chromatography is a method using mixed substances that depends on the speed at which they move through special "media", or chemical substances. It consists of a "stationary phase" (a solid) and a "mobile phase" (a liquid or a gas). The mobile phase flows through the stationary phase. Chromatography is much used in biochemistry and analytical chemistry.
The stationary phase is a flat plane, such as paper, or a substance on glass.
"Paper chromatography" is a technique for separating and identifying mixtures that are (or can be) coloured. It has been largely replaced by "thin layer chromatography", but is still a powerful teaching tool. "Double-way paper chromatography", also called 'two-dimensional chromatography', uses two solvents and rotates the paper 90° in between. It is useful for separating complex mixtures of compounds having similar polarity, for example, amino acids. The compounds used initially ensures you to know whether the colour is pure, (one substance only) or mixtures (multiple substances.)
Thin layer chromatography (TLCC) is a common laboratory technique similar to paper chromatography. Instead of a stationary phase of paper, it uses a thin layer of adsorbent like silica gel, alumina, or cellulose on a flat substrate. Compared to paper, it has the advantage of faster runs, better separations, and the choice between different adsorbents. For even better resolution and to allow for quantification, high-performance TLC can be used.
"Column chromatography" separates compounds using many chemical actions between the chemical being tested and the chromatography column (a rod with a blending of special chemicals). The column is run using either gravity or a pump.
The mixed substance to be tested is added in a small amount and is slowed by certain chemical or physical activity with the chemicals in the chromatography column. The amount of slowing depends on the type of chemicals in the substance being tested and the different phases. The time at which a certain chemical elutes (comes out of the end of the column) is called the "retention time" and there is thought to be only one for one chemical.
The most common stationary phase for column chromatography is silica gel, followed by alumina. Cellulose powder has been used in the past. The mobile phase is either a pure solvent or a mixture of solvents. It is chosen to
make the time and amount of solvent used as little as possible, while still clearly separating the chemicals being tested.
"High-performance liquid chromatography (HPLC)" is also sometimes referred to as high-pressure liquid chromatography. It is column chromatography run under pressure to raise the speed of the process.
Common solvents used in HPLC are mixes of water or various organic liquids (the most common are methanol, ethanol or acetonitrile).
The iPhone is a series of smartphones made by Apple Inc since 2007. It does many things that a computer can do, but is small enough to fit in someone's hand. It is a mobile phone, meaning that it makes calls and sends text messages but without wires. There're many types of iPhones, such as the model iPhone X.
The iPhone can access the Internet as well, either using a cellular network or over Wi-Fi. Like an iPod, it plays music and videos that have been downloaded from the Internet directly, or which have been put on it by connecting it to a personal computer, which is called syncing. It also has a calendar and 1, 2 or 3 built-in cameras. A user can make it do many other things, such as run video games, by downloading apps from the App Store.
The iPhone doesn't have as many buttons as other well-known phones in the early days, such as those made by companies like Motorola and Nokia. Instead, it had a touch screen that covers much of the front of the phone. People control the phone by touching things that appear on the screen with a finger or two. This technology is called multi-touch, and involves tapping, dragging, and even typing on a keyboard picture shown on the screen.
All iPhones run on a mobile operating system which Apple calls "iOS". A new version of iOS comes out every year, each having more features than the one before. Each new iPhone comes with the latest version of iOS, and older iPhones usually also get a software update to the latest version. The more-recent iPhones, such as the iPhone 11 and variants of it, use iOS 13 and came out in September 2019.
As of November 1, 2018, more than 2.2 billion iPhones had been sold.
There have been ten types of iPhone models.
The original iPhone was released on June 29, 2007. In the first month on sale (Jul 2007), it sold 2.315 million units. On July 11, 2008, the iPhone 3G was released which, hence the name, got upgraded with 3G wireless internet. On June 17, 2009, Apple released the iPhone 3GS which featured a compass and a 3.2-megapixel video camera. On June 24, 2010, a new version of the iPhone, the iPhone 4, was released. It has the Face Time-camera included, which is placed on the screen side and allows taking self-portraits while looking at the viewfinder. The Face Time-camera is less advanced than the back camera, but can be used for video-telephony, where the members of the talking can see each other on the screen. Additionally, it has an updated operating system that allows quicker navigation of all the features. This operating system is called IOS. The iPhone 4 also has more pixels (326 ppi; 960×640) on the screen than previous version of the iPhone, which makes all features such as pictures and videos look sharper. A minor upgrade to the iPhone 4 was the iPhone 4S. It came on October 14, 2011, and had a new feature called Siri, which is a voice activation system. Additionally, it is able to record videos in 1080p-FullHD-resolution, which is 2.25× times higher than 720p, so that each still frame from the video contains more details. This makes it possible to see smaller items on the footage in a sharper, clearer way. Additionally, it allows zooming into the video to see more details.
The iPhone 5 was released on September 21, 2012. The most noticeable change is its bigger 4 inch screen, which had the same pixel density and the same width on the short axis, but it was taller (1136×640 pixels). On September 10, 2013, two new iPhones called the 5C and 5S were announced. They were released on September 20, 2013. The iPhone 5S has a new unlocking system called Touch ID which reads your fingerprint. The iPhone 5C is a cheaper model of the iPhone 5S which is also the first iPhone available in different colors that aren't black and white. The internal hardware specifications (which means, capabilities) of the iPhone 5C are identical to the iPhone 5. Only the size of the battery has increased by 51 mAh, (1456→1507 mAh), and the design, which deviant from the Apple standard design language, which means, that it looks and feels distinguishable (different) than the other iPhones. Like iPhone 6, the design does not allow the iPhone 5C to stand like a domino stone.
The iPhone 6 and iPhone 6 Plus were released on September 19, 2014. They both have bigger screens than the iPhone 5, measuring at 4.7 inches and 5.5 inches, respectively. The iPhone 6S and iPhone 6S Plus were released on September 25, 2015. They both come in a new color, Rose Gold.
The iPhone 7 and iPhone 7 Plus were released on September 16, 2016.
iPhone 8, 8 Plus, X, XR, XS, XS Max, 11, 11 Pro, 11 Pro Max, SE (2nd gen), 12, 12 Pro and 12 Pro Max were released in 2017, 2017, 2017, 2018, 2018, 2018, 2019, 2019, 2019, 2020, 2020, 2020, 2020 and 2020 respectively.
In most places, the iPhone is only allowed with carriers (cellphone service providers) that Apple has an agreement with. Someone who buys an iPhone also signs a contract with the carrier, which is an agreement to pay for their services. A mobile phone contract usually lasts for one or two years, and the person buying the phone pays the carrier every month. At first, they pay less than the iPhone is worth because they will pay the rest later through fees as part of their contract. The contract also says the iPhone may only be used on their network. However, some people do not like that, so they unlock their iPhone so it can be used with other carriers.
Other people "jailbreak" their iPhones to allow it to do more things. Apple does not allow many of these changes. In hopes of discouraging this, Apple voids the warranty when an iPhone is "unlocked" or "jailbroken." Though in August 2011 jailbreaking was declared legal.
Apple made a Software Development Kit for the iPhone, which lets people make their own software for it. However, the software cannot be sold without Apple's permission. The software that is made is sold at the App Store. More than a million of apps are available to buy.
Concert hall
A concert hall is a place where concerts of classical music take place. “Concert hall” can either mean the actual room where the concerts takes place, or the whole building. The hall where the concerts are held may have a “stage” (where the performers are) and there will be an “auditorium” where the audience sits.
Some concert halls are purpose-built. That means they were built to be concert halls. Other concert halls may have been something else many years ago, e.g. a Corn Exchange (a place where farmers used to sell their corn) and the building has later been changed into a concert hall. Purpose-built concert halls started about the beginning of the 20th century. At that time scientists began to understand the importance of good acoustics (somewhere where the sound was good).
Concert halls that are purpose-built usually have fixed seating (seats that cannot be moved). Some halls may have seats that can be moved, either by stacking them in small piles, or tiered seating that can fold up. This allows the hall to be used for other things, e.g. dancing.
A concert hall is usually a big hall: big enough for an orchestra to be on the stage. A small concert hall, designed for just a few performers (as in chamber music) may be called a “recital hall”.
Some concert halls are especially famous. In London there is the Royal Festival Hall on the banks of the river Thames, the Barbican Centre in the City (near St Paul’s Cathedral) and the Royal Albert Hall in Kensington which is used for other events as well. There is also a famous recital hall called the Wigmore Hall. New York has the Carnegie Hall, Vienna has the Vienna Musikverein with a beautiful hall called the Golden Hall where the famous New Year’s Day concerts are given. In Germany there is the Berliner Philharmonie in Berlin and the Gewandhaus in Leipzig. In Amsterdam there is the Concertgebouw (which means: "concert hall").
A madrigal is a special kind of song for a small group of people to sing. Madrigals were popular in the 16th and 17th centuries. This was the end of the Renaissance music and beginning of the Baroque periods. They started in Italy and became very popular for a short time in England as well as in France. The words of madrigals are always about secular (non-religious) things, e.g. about love.
When Italian composers started writing madrigals the kinds of songs they knew were the frottola, the motet and the French chanson (song). The first madrigals were for 2 or 3 voices, but later many madrigals were written for 4 or 5 voices. These voices might be single voices (one person to each part) or several people. Sometimes the lines would also be played by an instrument, but the madrigal is usually sung unaccompanied.
The madrigal was the most important secular form of music of its time. In Italy it was very popular between about 1550 and 1630. In England the madrigal period was about 1588 to 1620.
In 1533 a book called "Primo libro di Madrigali" (First Book of Madrigals) was collected and published by Philippe Verdelot in Venice. It made madrigals very popular. Jacob Arcadelt published several volumes of madrigals which were very important for their development. In 1588 in England Nicholas Yonge published a collected called "Musica Transalpina" (Music from over the Alps). These were Italian madrigals with translated texts. The madrigal suddenly became extremely popular in England and remained so until after 1620 when it gradually became less important.
People liked madrigals because they were fun. Whenever possible the composer made the music sound like the word being sung. A word like “smile” would have quick music, “sigh” would have a note followed by a short rest, as if the singer were sighing, “rise so high” would be sung to music which rose very high. This kind of thing was called “word-painting”. It can be found in religious music as well, but the way it was used in madrigals was new and exciting. Very often there would be a verse and a refrain which was often just sung to words such as “fa la la la la”. The songs were often about shepherds and shepherdesses falling in love.
The most important composers of madrigals in Italy were Giovanni da Palestrina, Luca Marenzio, Jacques Arcadelt, Adrian Willaert, Cipriano de Rore, Carlo Gesualdo, Giaches de Wert and Claudio Monteverdi. In England they were William Byrd, Thomas Morley, John Wilbye, Thomas Weelkes, John Dowland, Orlando Gibbons and Thomas Tomkins. About the franco-flemish , Orlando di Lasso, Josquin des Prez . About the spanish, Tomás Luis de Victoria, Mateo Flecha.
In the Renaissance, madrigals were performed either as entertainment at important feasts, or for relaxed enjoyment by groups of amateurs in their homes, as madrigals were a secular style of song.
Nowadays, madrigals are often sung by high school or college madrigal choirs often as an after-dinner entertainment. Sometimes the singers wear Renaissance costumes.
Saxe-Coburg-Saalfeld
The Duchy of Saxe-Coburg-Saalfeld was one of the "Ernestine duchies". Ernest, who became elector of Saxony in 1464, divided his territory between his sons, andover the years more and more small duchies existed.
Saxe-Coburg-Saalfeld was reformed on 29 July 1735, although Coburg and Saalfeld had had the same ruler since 1699. As only men could be the rulers of the duchies, Saxe-Coburg-Saalfeld ceased to exist in 1825, when the last male descendant of the dukes of Saxe-Gotha-Altenburg died. The various dukes reorganised their territories. Saalfeld went the dukes of Saxe-Meiningen, Altenburg went to the Duke of Saxe-Hildburgausen, who gave Hildburghausen to the Duke of Saxe-Meiningen. Gotha and Coburg were combined into the new duchy of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha.
Halo: Combat Evolved
Halo: Combat Evolved is a first-person shooter video game. It starts the game series called "Halo". It came out in 2001 for Xbox and was released on the personal computer later. It became very popular and has made a lot of money. Many people say it is the Xbox's "killer app", which means the best program for a system. Because it was liked by so many people, there have even been 6 books and a Graphic Novel written about it. Halo is rated M for mature.
The game setting is on or around a giant ring-shaped structure in space. The ring has plants and animals that live on it. It is very old and was made long ago by a civilization called the "Forerunners." In the game, the year is 2552. In the storyline, humans have created faster than light travel, and now live on many planets and moons in and out of the Solar System, both fictional and real. In the year 2525, humans living on a planet around another star met several alien species. They are grouped together and known as the "Covenant". The Covenant declared religious war on the humans.
The game starts with a ship, The Pillar of Autumn. It arrives at Halo, surrounded by many Covenant Ships.
Master Chief is the last super soldier who is able to fight on the Pillar of Autumn. The Pillar of Autumn jumped (teleported) from the planet Reach. Reach was being destroyed, so they escaped. The ship is piloted by Captain Keyes. The ship arrives in front of Halo. Halo is surrounded by many Covenant ships. The Covenant board the Pillar of Autumn to kill the humans. Keyes orders the Master Chief (who is sleeping while frozen) to be awakened. After putting Cortana (an Artificial Intelligence) in his head, the Master Chief escapes in a lifepod with other Marines. He did this on order by Captain Keyes, who knew they could not win. Captain Keyes decides to crash his ship onto Halo, before it is completely destroyed by the Covenant. The Master Chief rescues as many Marines as he can. Cortana discovers Captain Keyes is still alive. Master Chief goes to rescue him from a Covenant Ship. They escape with the Captain and more Marines. They find a map-room to find the control room for Halo. They want to stop the Covenant from using Halo, because it is a weapon. The Master Chief fights through many aliens to the Control Room. He puts Cortana into the data. She discovers something terrible and tells the Master Chief to find Captain Keyes. Captain Keyes went with several Marines to destroy a take or destroy a supply of Covenant Weapons. The Master Chief discovers the Captain was attacked by a different enemy. They are called the Flood. The Flood are a species of parasite, which can infect bodies and turn them into Combat Forms (which are fast zombies that can use weapons). He finds a flying machine that protects Halo. It is named 343 Guilty Spark. It explains that he should turn on Halo's weapons to destroy the Flood. The Flood want to escape Halo and infect other species. The Master Chief must get an Index to do activate Halo. The Master Chief gets the Index (which can activate Halo's weapons).
They both go to the ring's control room to activate its weapons. Surprisingly, they find Cortana that tells to the Chief that the ring can not destroy the Flood. It destroys the food of the Flood. This means humans, Covenant and all other suitable living species. Following Cortana's suggestions, Master Chief goes to the Pillar of Autumn. As he destroys the core of the ship, he escapes. He uses a human spaceship to get into space while the explosion destroys Halo.
The main character in the game is Master Chief. It is the character the player controls in the game. Other main characters are Cortana and 343 Guilty Spark, the two machines. Apart from them, other human characters appear who fight in the side of the player against the aliens and the flood. The most notable are Sergeant Johnson and Captain Keyes.
In the first Halo game, there are no alien characters who play an important role in the game. However, in the next two halo games, "Halo 2" and "Halo 3", many important alien characters appear.
Sonora is a Mexican state, in the northwestern Mexico region. Sonora borders the states of Chihuahua to the east, Sinaloa to the south, and Baja California to the northwest. To the north Sonora accounts for a long stretch of the U.S.-Mexico border adjacent to the U.S. states of Arizona and New Mexico; to the west it borders the Gulf of California (Sea of Cortez).
There are various explanations as to the origin of the word Sonora. Here, we will tell you some of the most widely accepted versions. One of these says that when the Spaniards arrived in the lands occupied by the Opata people, they built a chapel and painted an image of the Virgin on a buffalo skin. Over time, when the Opatas began to worship the Virgin, they used to call her Senora instead of the Spanish word Señora (Our Lady). Finally, it would seem that this word became Sonora as we know it today.
Another version has it that Sonora is derived from the Opata word, sonotl which means corn leaf. A legend speaks of an indigenous group that lived near the village of Huépac, and who used corn leaves to cover the walls and roofs of their huts. Yet another version insists that the word comes from the name of a tribe that lived on the banks of the Sonora River; these people were known as the Sonora Indians. This river crosses a large part of the state. It is also useful to understand that, just as Mexico has its national emblems, so the state of Sonora has its own coat-of-arms.
A monsoon is a seasonal wind which lasts for several months. The word was first used in English for the seasonal rains in the Indian subcontinent. These rains blow in from the Indian Ocean and Arabian Sea in the southwest bringing heavy rainfall to the area.
Monsoons also occur in other regions such as in North America, Sub-Saharan Africa, Brazil and East Asia.
Monsoons happen because of a simple fact: land heats up faster than water. The temperature difference between the land and sea can be as much as 20°C – land temperatures in India can be hotter than 45°C, while the surrounding water in the Bay of Bengal and the Arabian Sea remains in the low 20s. The heat absorbed by the land warms the air above it. The hot air rises, and cooler ocean air rushes inland to replace it. As it moves, it carries moisture with it, releasing it over land as the summer monsoon (also known as southwest monsoon).
The hot air over the land tends to rise, creating an area of low pressure. This creates a steady wind blowing toward the land, bringing the moist near-surface air over the oceans with it. Rainfall is increased by the moist ocean air being lifted upwards by mountains, as with the Tibetan Plateau, and by surface heating.
Baja California (state)
Baja California is a Mexican state in the northern section of the Baja California Peninsula. It borders the state Baja California Sur to the south, and Sonora to the east. It also borders the U.S. state of California to the north. It means "Lower California".
Baja California is both the furthest north and furthest west state in Mexico.
Verizon Ladies First Tour
Verizon Ladies First Tour is a 2004 joint concert tour by American R&B/soul singers Beyoncé and Alicia Keys and American rapper Missy Elliott.
Dangerously in Love World Tour
The Dangerously In Love World Tour was singer Beyoncé's first solo concert tour, intended to showcase songs from her debut solo album, "Dangerously in Love".
The stage was simple and featured a large LED screen in the back that moved up and down throughout the entire show and displayed video images of Beyoncé and her dancers, as well as some images from her music videos and some prerecorded images with special effects.
The set list included not only "Dangerously in Love" material, but also contained a special segment of her show dedicated to her erstwhile group Destiny's Child. This concert also featured songs from Beyoncé's 2003 film "The Fighting Temptations" ("Fever" and "Summertime"). A highlight for many fans was her performance of "Dangerously in Love 2".
Déjà Vu (song)
Déjà Vu is an funk song written by Beyoncé Knowles, Rodney Jerkins, Delisha Thomas, Makeba, Keli Nicole Price, and Shawn "Jay-Z" Carter for Knowles' second solo album, "B'Day" (2006). It features rapper Jay-Z and production by Rodney "Darkchild" Jerkins, utilizing the bass, hi-hat, and the 808 instruments and sound system, reminiscent of many popular Rich Harrison productions. Released as the album's lead single in the third quarter of 2006, "Déjà Vu" reached number one in Brazil, China, Poland, and the United Kingdom. While the song failed to match the success of 2003's "Crazy in Love", it entered the top ten on the majority of the charts it appeared on. It also was nominated for Best Rap/Sung Collaboration and Best R&B Song at the 2007 Grammy Awards.
If (Beyoncé song)
If is an R&B ballad by Beyoncé Knowles. The song is her final single from her second album "B'Day: Deluxe Edition". The song was most likely chosen due to the fact that originally it was not available in the U.S. as it was an international track, but due to the Des'ree law suit, the U.S. version of the album with the track "Still In Love (Kissing You)" was replaced by a version with "If". A CD single of the song was created for her official fan club and is available for purchase from their online store.
Ciara Princess Harris (born October 25, 1985) professionally known as Ciara, is an American singer, songwriter, record producer, dancer, and actress.
In 2004, Ciara released her debut studio album "Goodies", which produced three hit singles: "Goodies," "1, 2 Step," and "Oh." The album was certified triple platinum by the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA), and earned her four nominations at the 48th Grammy Awards. She released her second studio album, "Ciara: The Evolution", in 2006 which spawned the hit singles "Get Up," "Promise," and "Like a Boy." The album reached number one in the US and was certified platinum. Her third studio album "Fantasy Ride", released in 2009, was considerably less successful than Ciara's first two albums. However, it produced the worldwide top-ten hit "Love Sex Magic" featuring Justin Timberlake, which earned her a Grammy Award nomination for Best Pop Collaboration with Vocals. The following year, Ciara released her fourth studio album "Basic Instinct," which was met with low sales and continued a downward trend in her commercial success. In 2011, she signed a new record deal with Epic Records, and she released her fifth studio album, "Jackie", which is preceded by the lead single, "Sorry” in 2015. In 2019, she released her sixth studio album, "Beauty Marks", which is preceded by the hit lead singles, "Level Up", “Thinkin Bout You” and the album titled song “Beauty Marks “.
On Ciara's 28th birthday, Future asked her if she would marry him. They became engaged but was the engagement was called off later that year. January 14, 2014 Ciara said on "The View" that she was pregnant with Future's child. In June 2016, she married Seattle Seahawks NFL star quarterback Russell Wilson. They had their first child, Sienna Princess Wilson, on April 29, 2017.
Mykolaiv
Mykolaiv (, also referred to as or Mykolayiv, Nikolaev, or Nikolayev; ) is a major city in southern Ukraine.
The city is located 65 kilometers from the Black Sea along the estuary of the Southern Buh river (where it meets the Inhul River) at around . Population 514,000 (as of 2001 Ukrainian Census).
It is the administrative center of the Mykolaiv Oblast (province), as well as of both the Mykolaivsky and Zhovtnevy raions (districts) within the oblast. However, Mykolaiv is a city of oblast subordinance, thus being subject directly to the oblast authorities rather to the raion administration housed in the city itself.
The town was founded in 1789 by the Russian Governor General of Novorossiya Knyaz Potemkin initially as a shipyard called simply a "New Shipyard on the Ingul river". Knyaz Potemkin signed an order to construct a shipyard on August 27, 1789, which is considered to be a city birth date. The shipyard was to serve for the repair of the Russian Navy ships in the Russo-Turkish war. Later Potemkin ordered the shipyard to be named "Nikolaev" to commemorate the date of fall of Ochakov to the Russian troops under his command on December 6, 1788, close to the day of Saint Nicholas "(Nikolay)" December 19, in the Russian Orthodox Church.
The history of the city has always been closely connected to the ship building.
The only Russian Navy aircraft carrier currently in commission, "Admiral Flota Sovetskogo Soyuza Kuznetsov", was built in Mykolaiv.
Today Mykolaiv is a major ship building center of Ukraine (as, earlier, of the whole Soviet Union) and an important riverport. The city has 3 major shipyards some of which are capable of building large navy ships. Other important industries are mechanical engineering, power engineering, metallurgy and cosmetics.
Akkad (Sumerian: "Agade", Bible: "Accad") was an ancient city in Mesopotamia. It was the centre of the Akkadian Empire. The ruins have not been found, but it is believed to be on the River Euphrates. The empire comes after a long relationship with Sumer, and before the ethnic Akkadian empires of Babylonia and Assyria.
According to the Sumerian king list, Akkad (Agade) was built by Sargon of Akkad, 23th century BC, and is often called the first empire in history. Even so, it is known from older cuneiform writings that the city was already there before Sargon, in the time of the kings of Uruk. According to the Bible (Genesis 10:10), it was one of the cities started by Nimrod. Also, in the earliest records, when Mesopotamian kings started calling themselves "lord of the four quarters" around Sumer, these were listed as: Martu, Shubar, Elam, and Uri-ki.
As the capital city of the Akkadian Empire beginning with Sargon, the city ruled from around 2300 to 2215 BC, when it was destroyed by the Gutians who invaded from the mountains.
Sargon conquered many of the surrounding regions. He created an empire which reached as far as the Mediterranean Sea and Anatolia, and extended his rule to Elam, and as far south as Oman. He ruled over this area for 56 years. Trade extended from the silver mines of Anatolia to the lapis lazuli mines in Afghanistan, the cedars of Lebanon and the copper of Oman. This consolidation of the city-states of Sumer and Akkad reflected the growing economic and political power of Mesopotamia. The empire's breadbasket was the rain-fed agricultural system of northern Mesopotamia and a chain of fortresses was built to control the imperial wheat production.
Images of Sargon were erected on the shores of the Mediterranean, in token of his victories, and cities and palaces were built at home with the spoils of the conquered lands. Elam and the northern part of Mesopotamia (Subartu) were also subjugated and rebellions in Sumer were put down. Contract tablets have been found dated in the years of the campaigns against Canaan and against Sarlak, king of Gutium.
The Akkadian language was one of the Semitic languages, and at the time of the Akkadian Empire it was made official in both Mesopotamia and Elam. Akkadian remained the main diplomatic language of Mesopotamia for centuries.
During the 3rd millennium BC, an intimate cultural symbiosis developed between the Sumerians and the Akkadians, which included widespread bilingualism. Akkadian gradually replaced Sumerian as the spoken language of Mesopotamia somewhere around the turn of the 3rd and the 2nd millennium BC (the exact dating being a matter of debate), but Sumerian continued to be used as a sacred, ceremonial, literary and scientific language in Mesopotamia until the 1st century AD.
The fall of the empire established by Sargon seems to have been as sudden as its rise, and little is known about the Gutian period. From the fall of Akkad ca. 2083 BC until the Sumerian renaissance ca. 2050 BC, there is much that is still dark. It has recently been suggested that the regional decline at the end of the Akkadian period (and also in the Ancient Egyptian Old Kingdom) was associated with rapidly increasing aridity, and failing rainfall in the region of the Ancient Near East.
Faisal Mosque
Faisal Mosque is a mosque in Islamabad, the capital of Pakistan. It is the National mosque of Pakistan, and one of the largest mosques in the Islamic world. It is named after King Faisal of Saudi Arabia. It was the biggest mosque for a period of six yrs (1986-1993).
Song cycle
A song cycle in classical music is a group of songs that belong together. Although each song may be sung separately, the composer really imagined that they would be performed together as one work. Sometimes they tell a story, but sometimes they just belong together because they are about the same idea (e.g. the sadness that can be caused by love). They are often for solo voice and piano accompaniment, but they can also be without accompaniment, or with several instruments or even a whole orchestra. The words of a cycle are often by the same poet, but this is not always the case.
Song cycles started to become popular with composers in the Romantic period. Although there were examples of song cycles written before that, it was the German composers of the 19th century who are most often thought of as writers of song cycles. Their songs are called "Lieder".
The great composer Franz Schubert wrote about 600 songs. These include two long song cycles: "Winterreise" ("Winter’s Journey") and "Die schöne Müllerin" ("The beautiful miller’s daughter"). Each of these song cycles is long enough for a whole concert. Robert Schumann wrote song cycles including two which he simply called "Liederkreise" ("Song Cycles"), and his well-known "Dichterliebe" ("Poet’s Love") and "Frauenliebe und -Leben" ("Women’s Love and Life"). Brahms wrote "Vier ernste Gesänge" ("Four Serious Songs"), and Gustav Mahler, who became very interested in folk song, wrote several song cycles with orchestra accompaniment, including "Das Lied von der Erde" ("The Song of the Earth").
French composers who wrote song cycles include Jules Massenet, Gabriel Fauré and Claude Debussy. Russian composers include Modest Mussorgsky and Dmitri Shostakovich, and English and American composers in the 20th century include Michael Tippett, Benjamin Britten and Aaron Copland as well as the South American Alberto Ginastera, Juan María Solare and Heitor Villa-Lobos.
Quetta () is the capital and largest city of Balochistan province in Pakistan. It is famous for its climate and buildings. It is to the north of Balochistan, 133 kilometers away from Spin Buldak, Afghanistan.
In 1935, a powerful earthquake hit Quetta. The earthquake was felt between 2:30 am to 3:40 am. It resulted in the collapse of buildings, that is why there is no historical building in Quetta.
Quetta is also spelled Kuwatah which is a variation of Kot, a Pashto word meaning "fortress".
Quetta was captured by Mehmood Ghaznavi in the 11th century. The Khans of Kalat ruled Quetta until 1556 when the Persians conquered the city, only to have it retaken by Mughal Emperor Akbar in 1595. Despite all this, the Khans of Kalat were successful in restoring their rule in the region by the 18th century.