AcharyaChanakya/simple-wikipedia huggingface dataset:
The Eastern district is mostly poor, African-American residential neighborhoods. There are entire blocks of abandoned buildings. The district is also dangerous and has a problem with drug trafficking. For this reason, the TV show "The Wire" was often filmed in this district. This area is also home to Johns Hopkins Hospital and Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine. The district is bordered by Erdman Avenue, Sinclair Lane, and Orleans Street.
The Southeastern district is a mix of industrial and residential areas. Neighborhoods in this district usually have a mix of races and cultures. The district is bordered by Orleans Street, the Inner Harbor, the city line, and the Baltimore harbor.
The Northwestern district is mostly residential. It is also home to the Pimlico Race Course and Sinai Hospital. Until the 1960s, Baltimore's Jewish community was based in the Park Heights neighborhood. Since then, there has been "white flight" and the neighborhood today is almost all black. Northern Parkway is a dividing line in the district. North of the parkway, the neighborhoods are mostly white. Some of these are Mount Washington and Cheswolde. South of the parkway, the neighborhoods are mostly black. The borders of the district are made up by the county line on the north and west, Gwynns Falls Parkway on the south and Pimlico Road on the east.
The Western district is the home of Coppin State University, Mondawmin Mall, and Edmondson Village. These are important to the culture, economy and history of the city's African American community. This district used to be the home to many middle and upper class African Americans, but they have moved away since. Today, more than 45% of people living in some neighborhoods have income levels below the poverty line. Some of the crime from this district was used in the TV show "The Wire". The district is west of downtown. Its borders are Gwynns Falls Parkway, Fremont Avenue, and Baltimore Street.
The Southwestern district is a mix of industrial parks and residential areas. St. Agnes Hospital is in this district. It has Baltimore County to the west, Baltimore Street to the north, and the downtown area to the east.
The City of Baltimore is next to several communities. All of these are unincorporated census-designated places.
Baltimore is sometimes called the "city of neighborhoods." This name comes from the fact that it has 72 official historic districts (areas). People of one ethnic group mainly live in each one of these areas. Some of the most important today are downtown. These are the Inner Harbor, Fells Point, and Little Italy. The Inner Harbor has lots of hotels, shops, and museums. Many tourists visit the Inner Harbor. Fells Point used to be a place where sailors went for entertainment. Today it has been rebuilt and cleaned up. This is the neighborhood in the movie "Sleepless in Seattle". Little Italy is where the Italian-American people live and work. Nancy Pelosi grew up in this neighborhood. She used to be Speaker of the House in Congress.
Another important neighborhood is Mount Vernon. This neighborhood is the center of culture and art in Baltimore. There are many important monuments and museums there. One important monument is the Washington Monument. This monument was built in the 1800s in a plaza. It is older than the Washington Monument in Washington, D.C..
Every year there is an art festival called Artscape. The festival is in the Bolton Hill neighborhood. This is very close to the Maryland Institute College of Art. Artscape is called the "largest free arts festival in America." Another art festival that happens in Baltmore is the Maryland Film Festival. It happens every year in May. At the Film Festival, movies are shown at the Charles Theatre. (The Charles Theatre is an old cinema.)
One of Baltimore's nicknames is "Charm City." Some advertisers wanted to make the city's reputation better. They started using the name in 1975.
People in Baltimore speak English. They have a very unique accent and way of speaking (dialect). For example, they pronounce "Baltimore" as "Balamer" or "Balmer." The Baltimore dialect is sometimes called "Baltimorese." It is a kind of Mid-Atlantic English. People from Baltimore will often call each other "Hon."
There are movies that parody (make fun of) the way people from Baltimore talk. A lot of these movies are made by John Waters. He is a movie maker from Baltimore. Most of Waters's movies were made in Baltimore. "Pink Flamingos" and "Hairspray" are some of these movies. Waters also wrote the musical version of "Hairspray."
Many very famous and important people were born or raised in Baltimore. Some of these are:
Baltimore used to be mostly industrial. There was a lot of steel processing, shipping, car manufacturing, and transportation. Deindustrialization happened, and Baltimore lost a lot of jobs that paid a lot of money and did not need a lot of training or skill. Today, most of the jobs in Baltimore are service economy jobs. These jobs do not pay very much. 90% of jobs are service jobs today.
In July 2012, the unemployment rate was 11%. Also in 2012, the steel mill (factory) at Sparrow's Point closed. This will mean more people will lose their jobs. 25% of people who live in Baltimore, and 37% of all children living in Baltimore, live in poverty.
Johns Hopkins Hospital is in Baltimore. Some big companies from Baltimore are Under Armour, Cordish Company, and Royal Farms. There is a big sugar refinery in Baltimore. It is owned by American Sugar Refining.
There are eight Interstate Highways in Baltimore. These are:
Some of these highways do not connect to each other. I-70 stops at a parking lot just inside of the city. This is because of "freeway revolts" that happened in Baltimore. The interstate highways were supposed to go through downtown Baltimore, but the people in the city did not want this to happen. Barbara Mikulski, now a United States Senator, started the "freeway revolts" to keep the highways from being built in downtown.
Today there are some highways numbered U.S. highways and state routes that run through downtown. These are US 1, US 40 National Road, and the Baltimore-Washington Parkway. There are also some tunnels underneath the Baltimore harbor. I-95 runs through the Fort McHenry Tunnel. I-895 runs through the Harbor Tunnel.
Baltimore has a beltway. A beltway is a highway that circles around a city. The Baltimore Beltway is I-695. It crosses over the Chesapeake Bay on the Francis Scott Key Bridge. This bridge is just south of the Inner Harbor.
Baltimore is an important train stop. Amtrak trains in the Northeast Corridor stop in Baltimore. Penn Station is one of the busiest train stations in the country. In 2008 it was the 8th busiest train station in the United States. That year, more than 1 million people took a train to or from Penn Station. Another important train station is at Baltimore-Washington International Thurgood Marshall Airport. Many Amtrak trains stop at the BWI Rail Station. The Amtrak trains that stop in Baltimore are: "Acela Express", "Palmetto", "Carolinian", "Silver Star", "Silver Meteor", "Vermonter", "Crescent", and "Northeast Regional". The MARC commuter rail service also has trains that stop in Baltimore. The MARC trains run from Camden Station and Penn Station in Baltimore to Union Station in Washington, D.C..
Baltimore has many colleges and universities. These are both public (run by the government) and private. Some of them are:
Baltimore City Public School System runs Baltimore's public schools. Some of these schools are well known. Carver Vocational-Technical High School was the first vocational high school for African-Americans in Maryland. Lake Clifton Eastern High School is the biggest school campus in Baltimore City. Frederick Douglass High School is the second-oldest African-American high school in the United States. Baltimore City College is the third oldest public high school in the country. Western High School is the oldest public all-girls school in the nation. Baltimore City College and Baltimore Polytechnic Institute are football rivals. This is the second-oldest high school football rivalry in the country.
Baltimore Stations
WBFF FOX
WMPB PBS
Baltimore's main newspaper is "The Baltimore Sun." In 1986, the newspaper was sold to the Times Mirror Company. This company was bought by the Tribune Company in 2000. Today, "The Sun" is still a Tribune newspaper.
Baltimore had two newspapers until 1986. (It was very common for US cities to have two newspapers.) The other main newspaper was the "Baltimore News-American". The "News-American" went out of business in 1986.
"The Baltimore Examiner" was started in 2006 to compete with "The Sun." It was owned and run by a company that also published newspapers like "The San Francisco Examiner" and "The Washington Examiner". "The Examiner" was a free newspaper that was paid for by advertising. ("The Sun" is not free.) "The Examiner" was not able to make money, and it stopped being published on February 15, 2009.
According to Nielsen Market Research, Baltimore had the 26th-largest television market in 2008-2009. It was the 27th-largest market for 2009-2010. Arbitron listed Baltimore as the 22nd-largest radio market in Fall 2010.
Baltimore has a long baseball history. The first team to play for Baltimore were the 19th century Baltimore Orioles (1882-1899). This was one of the most successful early baseball teams. The team had many hall of famers play for them. The great Babe Ruth was born in Baltimore in 1895. He played for the minor league Baltimore Orioles team. This team existed from 1903 to 1914 and from 1916 to 1953.
Today, Baltimore's Major League Baseball team is the Baltimore Orioles. They play in the American League. The Orioles came to Baltimore in 1954. Before that, the team had been in St. Louis, Missouri, where they were called the St. Louis Browns. The Orioles went to the World Series in 1966, 1969, 1970, 1971, 1979 and 1983. They won the World Series three times: in 1966, 1960, and 1983.
In 1995, Cal Ripken, Jr. broke the record for the most games played in a row. The old record was set by Lou Gehrig, and was 2,130 games. Ripken was added to the Baseball Hall of Fame. He was also named "Sportsman of the Year" by "Sports Illustrated" magazine. There are six Orioles players and two managers in the hall of fame.
Baltimore's first football team were the Baltimore Colts. The team came to Baltimore in 1953. Before then, they had played in Dallas, Texas as the Dallas Texans. The Colts played for Baltimore until 1984. In 1984, the team moved to Indianapolis and took the name. Today the team still plays as the Indianapolis Colts.
In 1996, the Cleveland Browns came to Baltimore. They were renamed the Baltimore Ravens. The Ravens won a Super Bowl championship in 2000 and again in 2012. They also won three American Football Conference (AFC) North division championships in 2003, 2006, and 2011. In addition, the played in three AFC Championship Games in 2000, 2009, and 2011.
Baltimore has an indoor soccer team, the Baltimore Blast. They play for the Major Indoor Soccer League at the 1st Mariner Arena. The team joined the League in 2001. The Blast have won 5 league championships: 2002, 2003, 2005, 2007 and 2008.
The Baltimore Blues are a semi-professional rugby league football club. They will compete in the USA Rugby League in 2012. Other professional or semi-professional Baltimore teams include Crystal Palace Baltimore, an outdoor soccer franchise of
USL Second Division. The Charm City Roller Girls are a member of the Women's Flat Track Derby Association since 2005.
The Preakness Stakes are held every May at the Pimlico Race Course in Baltimore. The Preakness is the "second jewel" in the United States Triple Crown of Thoroughbred Racing.
Car races are held on the streets of downtown every year in September. The Baltimore Grand Prix runs through the Inner Harbor. It started in 2011. The American Le Mans Series, IndyCar Series, Indy Lights, and other races are a part of it.
Baltimore is very politically liberal. The mayor of Baltimore is a Democrat. 84.7% of the voters in 2016 voted for the Democrat Hillary Clinton, and 87.2% of the voters in 2012 voted for the Democrat Barack Obama. The last time a Republican running for president won more votes than the Democratic candidate in Baltimore was 1956. Even in 1984, when Ronald Reagan won 49 states in his reelction campaign, only 28.2% of the voters in Baltimore voted for him.
Baltimore has eleven sister cities. These were picked by Sister Cities International.
Chantilly, Virginia
Corpus Christi, Texas
Corpus Christi, Texas is a city in the United States. It is near the coast of the Gulf of Mexico and is one of the fastest growing cities in America. Its economy is based around petroleum refining and tourism.
The city was founded in 1839 as "Kinney's Ranch" and has been known as Corpus Christi since 1847.
To be sick can mean:
Sick may also refer to:
The Panama Canal is a waterway (a canal) in the country of Panama in Central America, that connects the Atlantic Ocean and the Pacific Ocean. Because of the way Panama twists, the entrance to the Pacific Ocean is farther east than the entrance to the Atlantic Ocean. This is the opposite of what one would expect.
The Panama Canal is 77 km (48 miles) long and cuts across the Isthmus of Panama. At each end it uses three pairs of "locks" for lifting and lowering ships on different water levels. This saves ships 15,000 km (10,000 miles) compared to going around South America. Each year, about 14,000 ships come through the canal. By 2002, around 800,000 ships came through.
The old locks are 110 ft (33.53 m) wide by 1,050 ft (320 m) long and 41.2 feet (12.6 m) deep, with a usable length of 1,000 ft (305 m). The biggest ships that can go through the Panama Canal are called Panamax.
New locks opened in 2016 to allow ships more than twice as big, called New Panamax. They are 55 m (180 ft) wide by 427 m (1,400 ft) long, and 18.3 m (60.0 ft) deep. New channels connect to the new locks.
Ferdinand de Lesseps tried building a Panama Canal in 1880, but could not finish it. The project was started again in 1904 by the United States, under the presidency of Theodore Roosevelt, who spent ten years and 375 million dollars building it. The Panama Canal was finally finished in 1914, at the cost of approximately 25,000 lives. Most deaths were from disease, and before United States construction of the canal began. The US government owned and operated the canal until 1999 when the Panamanian government started controlling it.
Suriname, or Surinam, Dutch Guiana, Dutch Guyana or Sranang is a country in South America. The official name of the country is Republiek Suriname (this is Dutch and translates to "Republic of Suriname"). It used to be known as "Nederlands Guyana", "Netherlands Guiana" or "Dutch Guiana". It is between Guyana and French Guiana. Paramaribo is the capital city, in which resides almost half of the country's population. About half a million people live in the country. Suriname became independent from the Netherlands in 1975. Before that, it was a part of the Kingdom of the Netherlands.
There are border disputes with French Guiana and Guyana all to the south of the country.
The industry of the country is centered on the mining and processing of bauxite. This makes up 15 percent of the Gross Domestic Product and more than 70% of the exports. Other exports are sugar, oil and gold. About 25% of the working people are employed in agriculture. The main trade partners are the Netherlands, the United States and countries in the Caribbean.
Dutch, French, Spanish and English explorers discovered the area in the early 16th century. A century later, sugar plantation colonies were established by the Dutch and English along the many rivers in the fertile Guyana plains. After the second Anglo-Dutch War England traded any claims to the territory for New Amsterdam which became New York.
Aarre Merikanto
Aarre Merikanto (29 June 1893 — 28 September 1958) was a Finnish composer. His parents were Liisa Häyrynen and composer Oskar Merikanto.
Merikanto was born in 1893. He studied music in Helsinki (1911), Leipzig (1912-1914) and Moscow (1916-1917). He tried composing an opera for the first time when he was 18 years old. The result was "Helena", which was completed in early 1912. The opera had one act and its libretto was written by Jalmari Finne. In the 1920s Merikanto created his own modernist style. Merikanto was a professor of composition in the Sibelius Academy, Helsinki from 1951 to his death. Merikanto died of lung cancer in Helsinki in 1958.
A tribe is a group of people who live and work together in a shared geographical area. A tribe has a common culture, dialect and religion. They also have a strong sense of unity. The tribe is usually headed by a chief. A "tribal society" is a group of tribes organized around kinships. Tribes represent a part in social evolution between bands and nations.
A tribe can be a collection of families or of families and individual people living together. A tribe usually divides up the jobs that need to be done among themselves. Most tribes have special customs or traditions.
Humans lived in tribes before they started living in cities and nations. There are still tribal groups all over the world. Their numbers are getting smaller and smaller. Many live as hunter-gatherers.
Satan (meaning "the enemy" or "the trouble-maker" in Hebrew), sometimes called the Devil, is a figure found in the writings of the Abrahamic religions. Muslims, Christians and Jews believe that he tempts people to do bad things. His role is to question and tempt people's faith. They also say that he was once an angel named Lucifer.
In Satanism, Satan is thought to be just a metaphor for what humans want. In Theistic Satanism, Satan is considered to be a good force.
In Islam, a "shayṭān" is any sort of evil creature. The Qu'ran describes Satan as arrogant. The story about him begins in surah Baqarah. It states that Satan views himself as a greater entity than God's other creations because he was created from fire. After this, the Qu'ran states:
In the Bahá'í Faith, "Satan" is not regarded as an independent evil power as he is in some faiths and religions, but rather signifies the "lower nature" of humans. `Abdu'l-Bahá explains: "This lower nature in man is symbolized as Satan — the evil ego within us, not an evil personality outside." All other evil spirits described in various faith traditions—such as fallen angels, demons, and jinns—are also metaphors for the base character traits a human being may acquire and manifest when he turns away from God. Actions, that are described as "satanic" in some Bahá'í writings, denote humans deeds caused by selfish desires.
Many people believe that Satan was first an angel called Lucifer that left Heaven and took many other angels with him. He did this because he thought he was as powerful as God.
Hiking is a general word for traveling on foot in wilderness or countryside. Day hikers return before nightfall. Other hikers may go out for many days. Sometimes large groups hike together.
Hiking is a kind of physical activity as well as a leisure activity (a way of spending free time). Hikers (the people who do hiking) enjoy fresh air and the beauty of nature, and learn about the place. Many hikers enjoy challenging their physical and mental strength. Hiking with friends gives them the chance to become stronger.
Planning starts with a hiker deciding what he wants from the hike. A traveler should examine the information on landscape, climate, weather, plants, animals, type of ground, and so on. Based on that information, a hiker decides what equipment (tools) he needs. Writing everything on paper is strongly suggested to not forget anything. A hiker should choose the itinerary (the way of the hike).
Equipping means getting specialized clothing and equipment. Overnight hiking requires carrying more supplies, usually in a backpack, though many use a backpack even for a day hike. Suggestions for equipment can be found in any hiking book. A hiker is suggested to learn more than one source and work. Equipping sometimes needs getting skills in using the apparatus. Basic skills–different ways of orientation (the ability to find the way, for example)–must be developed before hiking.
Hiking can quickly become a fight for life. Hikers can get lost or suffer from injury, sickness, bad weather, or other dangers. For this reason everything in hiking is very important. Nobody should hike alone, no matter what the situation, without a great deal of experience to develop his hiking abilities.
Every hiker should keep in mind that theory is important, but it can hardly replace firsthand experience. To be safe a traveler should have enough experience. A hiker had better start by taking short hikes with more experienced hikers.
Getting lost can have bad results including sickness and death. A hiker is strongly suggested to check from time to time (at least every hour) whether he is going the right way. Portable GPS receivers can help, as long as the batteries are good. Accurate, complete maps and a compass can help, if the user understands them. On no account should he go on traveling if he has lost his way. The first thing a hiker should do is find the direction in which he was going before getting lost. Using the compass and the map, he should choose a reference point nearby (railway, road, river, etc.).
Saint Petersburg () is a Russian city in northwestern Russia, near the Gulf of Finland of the Baltic Sea. Over five million people live in St. Petersburg as of 2015, and it is the second biggest city in Russia. It is a major port, connecting with the world's shipping paths through the Neva River and the Baltic.
Part of Saint Petersburg is designated a World Heritage Site called The Historic Centre of Saint Petersburg and Related Groups of Monuments.
Saint Petersburg was started by the Russian Tsar, Peter I as the capital of the Russian Empire in 1703, to take the place of the earlier capital, Moscow. It was the capital of Russia until 1918. Peter the Great established Saint Petersburg as a warm-weather port in order to show Russian dominance in the Baltic and to increase trading opportunities. Peter sought to modernize Russia, therefore he tried to make Saint Petersburg as different as possible from the former capital, Moscow, by modernizing the city.
Saint Petersburg has changed its name many times. During World War I, when Russia and Germany were fighting each other, Russians thought the name Sankt Peterburg sounded too German, so Tsar Nicholas II, on August 31 (August 18, Old Style), 1914 decided that the city was renamed Petrograd. In 1918 during the Russian revolution, the Soviet capital was moved to Moscow, still the capital of Russia now.
On January 26, 1924, five days after Lenin's death, Petrograd was renamed Leningrad in his honor. During World War II, the city was surrounded by the German army and under siege for twenty-nine months until January 1944.
Leningrad again took its old name of St. Petersburg on September 6, 1991, when Russia stopped being communist. In every-day Russian, the city is often called just ""Piter"". The "Oblast" (administrative province) where the city is the capital is still called "Leningrad Oblast".
Saint Petersburg was a beautiful city planned by Peter I. There are many man-made rivers (or canals) in the city, so the city is sometimes called the "Venice of the North". There are also beautiful buildings built by Russian emperors in other places of the city. Some of these buildings are the Hermitage Museum and the Winter Palace.
Kiwifruit
Kiwifruit ("Actinidia deliciosa") is a fruit. It has an oval shape. It is green on the inside with small black seeds that can be eaten. The kiwi has furry brown skin that is edible but is usually removed. The skin is relatively thin. The kiwi is native to South China.
The fruit was named in 1959 after the kiwi, a bird and the symbol of New Zealand. Before that, its English name was Chinese gooseberry.
The kiwifruit is healthy and contains many vitamins and minerals. Kiwis are rich in vitamin C, vitamin K, potassium, and fiber. Kiwis have more vitamin C than an equivalent amount of orange.
There are different types of kiwifruit. The main types are Hayward (the most common green kiwifruit), chico, Saanichton 12, and golden kiwifruit. Golden kiwifruit are sweeter than normal green kiwifruit. Golden kiwifruit was invented by grafting and cross-pollinating different types of kiwifruit.
The aardvark ("Orycteropus afer") is a mammal from Africa; its name means "earth pig" in the language Afrikaans. It is the only living member in its order, though some fossil genera have been found
The Aardvark looks a bit like the South American anteaters but they are not related. It is in a proposed clade Afroinsectiphilia, with the golden moles and tenrecs. Another proposal is to out it in the Pseudungulata, with the elephants and Sirenia. There is no consensus at present.
Adult aardvarks weighs about 60 kilograms (130 pounds) and a little more than one meter (45 inches) long. It is the largest member of the proposed clade Afroinsectiphilia. The aardvark is pale yellowish-gray in color and often stained reddish-brown by soil. The aardvark's fur is thin. Its hair is short on its head and tail. But, its legs tend to have longer hair.
Aardvarks are found in sub-Saharan Africa. They are found in every country in sub-Saharan Africa except Namibia, Ivory Coast, Ghana and Madagascar. It lives in many habitats like savannas, grasslands, woodlands and bushland. They have been seen as high as 3,200 metres (10,500 ft) in Ethiopia.
Aardvarks eat mostly ants and termites. They have a long sticky tongue which makes it easy to pick up many ants at once. The only fruit that aardvarks eat is the aardvark cucumber. They avoid eating the African driver ant and red ants.
Aardvarks are nocturnal, which means they are awake at night and asleep during the day. The aardvark is a good swimmer. It can dig a tunnel that is one yard in about five minutes. Aardvarks live for up to 23 years in captivity. It has many predators such as lions, leopards, cheetahs, African wild dogs, hyenas, and pythons. Some humans also hunt aardvarks for meat. Aardvarks can dig fast or run in a zigzag to confuse predators. If all else fails they will attack with their claws.
Aardvarks only come together to breed. The gestation period is seven months. They give birth to one cub, which is what a baby aardvark is called. The cub weighs around 1.7–1.9 kilograms (3.7–4.2 lb). It is born during May–July. After 5–6 weeks, hair starts growing on its body. After two weeks, it is able to leave the burrow to follow its mother. After 9 weeks, it is able to eat termites. It is weaned between three months and 16 weeks. At six months, it is able to dig its own burrows, but it will often stay with the mother until the next mating season. It reaches sexual maturity when it is two years old.
Rutherford Birchard Hayes (October 4, 1822 - January 17, 1893) was the 19th President of the United States. He served only one term, from 1877 to 1881. Hayes was a Republican. He was elected governor of Ohio three times before becoming president. Hayes barely won the election of 1876, only defeating Democratic opponent Samuel Tilden after a Congressional committee gave Hayes some disputed electoral votes.
Hayes was born in Delaware, Ohio. He went to Kenyon College in Gambier, Ohio, and then went to Harvard Law School. After graduating from law school, he became a lawyer. In 1849, he joined the Republican Party, which was new then, because he was against slavery. In 1852, he married Lucy Webb, a woman who was also against slavery. In the 1860s, he served in the American Civil War on the Union side, and became a major general. After the war ended, he was elected to the U.S. House of Representatives as a part of the Republican Party. In 1867, he became the governor of Ohio.
Ulysses S. Grant had been president since 1869, and was not going to run for president a third time in 1876. Grant was a member of the Republican Party, and while he was president, became known for allowing corruption to go on around him. The Republican Party did not want people to think that everybody in the party was corrupt, so they decided to make Hayes their candidate. They thought he was a good candidate because he had made many changes in Ohio while he was governor there that people thought were good, and because he was thought to have been a hero in the Civil War.
Hayes ran against Samuel Tilden, whom the Democratic Party nominated. The election was close, and many people who did not think that Hayes fairly won the election called him "His Fraudulency". Tilden actually got more votes than Hayes, but Hayes got 185 votes in the Electoral College, while Tilden got 184, so Hayes won the election.
While he was president, Hayes ended the Reconstruction period that followed the American Civil War. Rutherford B. Hayes ordered military forces that had been in the Southern states to leave. He also sent federal troops to end a railroad strike. Hayes refused to seek a second term as president.
After being president, Hayes retired to Fremont, Ohio where he would die of a heart attack on January 17, 1893. Meanwhile, He spent time talking about his beliefs that all children should have the chance to go to school, that people who had been in the military should get their fair payments for their service, and that people in prisons should be treated better.
An eyebrow is the stripe of hair about 2 cm over the eye. Eyebrows protect the eyes, if water runs over the face or if there is too much sunlight. The eyebrow's ability to move is also important in facial expression.
A solstice is an astronomical event that happens twice each year when the Sun reaches its highest position in the sky as seen from the North or South Pole. The day of the solstice is either the "longest day of the year" or the "shortest day of the year" for any place on Earth, because the length of time between sunrise and sunset on that day is the yearly maximum or minimum for that place. The name is derived from the Latin words "sol" (“sun”) and "sistere" (“to stand still”). During the solstice, the Sun stands still; that is, the seasonal movement of the Sun's path comes to a stop before reversing direction. The “Northern Solstice” occurs in June, when the sun is at its highest point seen from the North Pole. The “Southern Solstice” occurs in December, when the sun is at its highest point seen from the South Pole.
The solstices, together with the equinoxes, are connected with the seasons. In some cultures they mark either the beginning or the middle of summer and winter.
The June Solstice happens when the Northern Hemisphere of the Earth is tilted toward the Sun and the Southern Hemisphere of the Earth is tilted away from the Sun. At the North Pole, the Sun reaches its highest point in the sky, and then begins moving lower. At the moment of the June solstice, the Sun is directly overhead some point on the Tropic of Cancer; this is the furthest north that the subsolar point ever reaches. In the Northern Hemisphere the June solstice is called the Summer Solstice (and marks the longest day of the year), while in the Southern Hemisphere it is called the Winter Solstice (and marks the shortest day of the year). The June Solstice is usually on June 21.
The December Solstice happens when the Southern Hemisphere of the Earth is tilted toward the Sun and the Northern Hemisphere of the Earth is tilted away from the Sun. At the South Pole, the Sun reaches its highest point in the sky, and then begins moving lower. At the moment of the December solstice, the Sun is directly overhead some point on the Tropic of Capricorn; this is the furthest south that the subsolar point ever reaches. In the Southern Hemisphere the December solstice is called the Summer Solstice (and marks the longest day of the year), while in the Northern Hemisphere it is called the Winter Solstice (and marks the shortest day of the year). The December Solstice is usually on December 21.
While the exact causes were long unknown, the effect (of days getting shorter or longer) was recognised in many ancient cultures. Many of the pre-Christian cultures, like the druidic, the Germanic and the Norse faith therefore celebrated these events as holidays.
When the importance of the old faiths vanished, the Christian religion took over some of the festivities, which were then carried out in the honour of a new (Christian) occasion. For instance, the date of Christmas in the Catholic and Protestant faith is just 3 days away from the December Solstice.
Secular humanism
Secular humanists believe that each human being is worth something and has dignity. They think that people are happiest when they give something to society. They also believe that human beings can solve problems without help from god(s).
Secular humanists are not religious. Usually they are atheists.
Quebec City (Ville de Québec in French) is the capital of the Canadian province of Quebec. It is the second largest city in Quebec, behind Montreal. It is known for its winter fair, beautiful churches, and an old hotel called Château Frontenac. It is next to the Saint Lawrence River. There are almost 700,000 people in the whole area.
The city was created in 1608 at a First Nations (native) Canadian place called Stadacona. People came from France to live there. The English captured the city in 1759 during the Battle of the Plains of Abraham. The walls made to keep the city safe are still there. The walls that surrounded Old Quebec are the only remaining fortified city walls that still exist in the Americas north of Mexico. They were declared a World Heritage Site by UNESCO in 1985.
Quebec City has a humid continental climate ("Dfb" in the Köppen climate classification).
Most people in Quebec City speak French. Many also speak English as a second language.
Quebec City Stations
CFCM TVA
CBVT SRC
CHMG Telemag
Vancouver Island is an island that is part of the province of British Columbia in Canada. It is big and is in the south-western part of the province.
The first people to live on the island, before Europeans came, were the Nuu-chah-nulth, Salish, and Kwakiutl. As of 2009, over 700,000 people live here.
There are no bridges or tunnels between Vancouver Island and the mainland. There are ferries that carry people and cars to and from the island. One route crosses the Strait of Georgia to the Tsawwassen peninsula, from which there are roads that go to Vancouver and other cities in Canada as part of the Trans-Canada Highway. Another ferry route crosses the Strait of Juan de Fuca and reaches Anacortes in the U.S. state of Washington, from which roads go to Seattle and other cities along the West Coast.
There are many cities and towns on Vancouver Island. The biggest of these is Victoria, the capital of British Columbia, where the Legislative Assembly and the University of Victoria are found.
Other places on Vancouver Island where people live include:
First Nations
First Nations () are the people of native tribes who lived in the land now governed by Canada before Europeans came there. Many say it because these nations were here long before Canada, and to make it clearer that the First Nations have many cultures, and that some of the cultures are very different from others. Some consider it a respect to those who first cultivated certain patches of land. The aboriginal people from Canada's Arctic are thought of as a different group of people, called the Inuit.
These First Nations are important in the world because their stories have taught us a lot about cultural values and how to live in harmony with the land.
Other words that have been used for First Nations people, tribes, and cultures have been "indigenous", "aboriginal", "Indian", "Native Indian", "Amerind," or "native." Now many people say "Indian" only about people to India.
New Brunswick (postal abbreviation NB) is a province in the eastern part of Canada. The capital city of New Brunswick is Fredericton. Other large cities are Saint John and Moncton. More than 750,000 people live in New Brunswick.
The province is bordered by Quebec in the west, Nova Scotia in the east and the American state of Maine in the south. There is a link to Prince Edward Island also.
The English and French languages are both spoken in New Brunswick, and it is the only province in Canada where both languages are official. This is because about 33% of the people living in New Brunswick speak French.
Some industries including forestry, mining, and farming are important to the province, and especially fishing since it is near the Atlantic Ocean.
AC/DC is a hard rock band from Australia. They formed in Sydney, Australia in November 1973. AC/DC has sold an estimated 200 million albums worldwide, including 68 million in the United States of America. The two primary founders of the band, Malcolm Young and Angus Young, developed the idea for the band's name after their sister Margaret saw the initials "AC/DC" written on a sewing machine. "AC/DC" is an abbreviation for "alternating current/direct current," which refer to the two different types of charges used in electricity. The band chose the name because of their energetic “electrical” style of playing rock and roll. Even though AC/DC considers their music style simply as "rock and roll", AC/DC are often considered pioneers of heavy metal.
Double bass
The double bass is a big stringed instrument that terms, perhaps more correct, include contrabass and upright bass. It is used in orchestras, jazz bands, rockabilly bands, bluegrass music, and some country music bands. It plays low-pitched musical notes in musical ensembles and bands. In jazz bands, these low-pitched musical notes are called the "bass line." The double bass looks like smaller instruments like the violin, viola, and cello.
The double bass is usually made from wood. Double basses have a hollow wooden body which helps to amplify the sounds of the instrument . A wooden neck is attached to the body, and a flat wooded fingerboard is glued onto the neck. It usually has four metal strings which are strung with tension on the neck. It has a peg at the bottom to stand it.
In an orchestra, double bass players bow the strings with a wooden bow strung with horsehair, or pluck the strings with their fingers (plucking the strings is called pizzicato). In jazz the double bass is played pizzicato most of the time. However some jazz players use the bow to play melodies on the double bass.
Double bass players hold down the metal strings against the fingerboard with their left hand and then bow the string or pluck it with their right hand. To play different notes the double bass players move the left hand to different positions on the fingerboard.
Double bass players in jazz bands or rock bands often connect their double bass to an electronic amplifier and a loudspeaker, to make a louder, stronger sound. This makes it easier for the double bass player, the other musicians, and the audience to hear the double bass's musical notes.
The double bass is usually considered a member of the violin family, because it is constructed using many of the same techniques as violins. The double bass also has influences from the viol family. Viols are old string instruments from the 1400s and 1500s with sloping "shoulders" on the instrument's body and flat backs. Like the viols, the double bass also has sloping "shoulders" on its body and a flat back.
The double bass is generally tuned in fourths, in contrast to members of the orchestral string family, which are tuned in fifths. Modern double basses are usually tuned, low to high, E-A-D-G, which is one octave lower than the four lowest-pitch strings on a guitar.
Throughout classical repertoire, there are notes that fall below the range of a standard double bass. Notes below low E appear regularly in double bass parts in the Baroque and Classical eras, when the double bass was typically doubling the cello part an octave below. In the Romantic era and the 20th-century, composers such as Mahler, Beethoven, Busoni, and Prokofiev also requested notes below the low E. There are two common methods for making these notes available to the player. Major European orchestras generally use basses with a fifth string, tuned to B three octaves and a semitone below middle C. Players with standard double basses (E-A-D-G) typically play the notes below "E" an octave higher.
In the United States, Canada and United Kingdom, most professional orchestral players use four-string double basses with a "C extension," which extends the lowest string down as far as low C, an octave below the lowest note on the cello. More rarely would one find a four-string double bass with a "B extension", extending the lowest string down to a low B. The extension is an extra section of fingerboard mounted up over the head of the bass. There are several varieties of extensions.
In the simplest version, there are no mechanical aids attached to the fingerboard extension except a locking nut for the "E" note. To play the extension notes, the player reaches back over the pegs to press the string to the fingerboard. The advantage of this "fingered" extension is that the player can adjust the intonation of all of the stopped notes on the extension, and there are no mechanical noises from metal keys and levers. The disadvantage of the "fingered" extension is that it can be hard to perform rapid alternations between low notes on the extension and notes on the regular fingerboard, such as a bassline that quickly alternates between "G" and the low "D".
The simplest type of mechanical aid is the use of wooden "fingers" that can be closed to press the string down and fret the C#, D, Eb, or E notes. This system is particularly useful for basslines that have a repeating pedal point such as a low D, because once the note is locked in place with the mechanical "finger", the lowest string then sounds a different note when it is played "open" (e.g., a low D).
With the B extension, the "fingers" can fret the low C.
A much simpler way to get down to Low C would be to tune the Double Bass in Fifths see (Fifths tuning cause the sound will be more equal like the rest of the string section.
The double bass also has many other names. Some bluegrass musicians call it a "bass fiddle" or a "bull fiddle." Rockabilly bands often call it an "upright bass" or "Doghouse" Some orchestra musicians call it a "contrabass." In a military concert band, it is often called the "string bass." Sometimes the double bass is simply called a "bass."
Allies of World War II
The Allied Powers (or Allies of World War II) were a group of nations that fought against the Axis countries in World War II. They were successful in defeating the Axis nations. The war ended in 1945. The group of nations was later named the United Nations by U.S. President Franklin Roosevelt. The main great powers, sometimes called "The Big Three", were the United Kingdom, the United States, and the Soviet Union.
These nations were:
Some of the powers fought for a short time, or declared war but did not fight. Romania, Bulgaria, and Finland fought from 1944-1945 and before that were Axis powers. Italy also changed sides.
Convair B-36 Peacemaker
A wing is the part of an animal or airplanes that allows it to fly.
A "wing" is part of an animal that allows it to fly. By moving its wings, the animal can produce lift and get off the ground.
Animals that have wings are insects, birds and bats. Birds' wings are made of feathers. The wings of bats are made of skin, which is stretched between the bones of the bat's arms and fingers. Not all insects and birds can fly, even if they have wings.
A disability is a condition that a person has which limits them in some way.
People with a disability or disabilities may need to use special equipment that can help them. This can include using a wheelchair, a cane or walking stick, hearing aids, a teletypewriter (TTY) and using specially designed software and hardware for the personal computer.
People who use a wheelchair or cane/walking stick cannot walk up or down stairs in a building. They need to use ramps and elevators when going into and moving around in a building. Wide doorways and accessible toilets also make it easier for people with physical disabilities to use.
Prejudice towards people with disabilities is common. This is sometimes called 'ableism' or anapirism. People with such a prejudice are called an ablecentrists, handicapists, anapirophobes, able-bodyists, disablists or anapirists.
Newfoundland is an island off the east Coast of North America, and is part of the Canadian province of Newfoundland and Labrador. The capital city of Newfoundland is St. John's, on the north-east part of the island. Over 500,000 people live in Newfoundland (these people are called Newfoundlanders). It, along with Labrador on the mainland, became part of Canada on March 31, 1949. There is no bridge or tunnel from Newfoundland to the rest of the country but there is a ferry to Nova Scotia.
In Newfoundland, most people speak English, but there are also French speakers on the island, mostly in the south-west. In some areas of Newfoundland, people speak with an accent and use words that are not in standard English. There is even a dictionary of Newfoundland English.
The first people in Newfoundland were the First Nations. Settlers came from countries like Norway, England, Portugal, France, and Ireland in the 16th century. The first European explorers were the Vikings from Norway and they settled in L'Anse aux Meadows. They came because of the good fishing off the coast, especially off the south-east coast. Eventually they left because of disagreements with aboriginals. Today, there is still fishing, but not very much because people fished too much, and now there are not many fish left.
Cutting down trees and mining have also been attractions of the island. There are some paper mills (paper factories) in a few cities in Newfoundland.
Kiss (band)
Kiss is an American hard rock/heavy metal band. The band started in the 1970s. They formed in New York City on January 4th 1973. The original members are Gene Simmons, Paul Stanley, Peter Criss, and Ace Frehley. They are most famous for their stage show and songs like "Rock and Roll All Nite" (1975), "Strutter" (1974) and "Detroit Rock City" (1976).
Kiss has had several changes in style and lineup. Their more famous era was in the mid 1970s, particularly the first 6 studio albums, and the first live album, Alive! which was widely popular. In the 1980s, Kiss started to follow the trend taking place with more synthesizers, and songs that many fans didn't like because of a big change in style. In the 1990s, Kiss changed toward the grunge and heavier trend with Revenge and . The original members reunited for Psycho Circus and then parted ways again in 2002. Tommy Thayer and Eric Singer replaced Frehley and Criss, and the current lineup has made the 2009 album Sonic Boom, which was a return to the classic style of the 70's, and many fans liked it. The follow up to that is going to be released in June 2012, titled Monster.
The Visioner's Tale
The Visioner's Tale is one of the little-known writings of Geoffrey Chaucer. Only parts of the story were left from when Chaucer wrote it in the 14th century, so it is not normally included in modern versions of the Canterbury Tales.
Here is the tale, as put together by someone from Denmark who studied the parts of the story, and tried to put them together:
"My lady's touch upon the lute is light,"
"yet she weaves the streams of melody,"
"with such profound synchicity,"
"that the river of time spills into dream,"
"into that ocean of unspoken promise,"
"where lives primordial the memory of future things,"
"here vision and voice and sound,"
"and meaning emerge at last as one."
Geoffrey Chaucer
Geoffrey Chaucer (c. 1343–25 October 1400) was an English writer, poet, and philosopher. He is most famous for writing Canterbury Tales which had 24 stories but was not completed. He was one of the first writers to write in English. He wrote in Middle English.
Chaucer was probably born in London. His father, John, and grandfather were prosperous wine merchants in London. The name "Chaucer" is French and means shoemaker. However, not many details are known of his early life and education.