AcharyaChanakya/simple-wikipedia huggingface dataset:
Chopsticks are sticks used in pairs as cutlery. Chopsticks are the traditional eating utensils of some countries including China, Japan, Korea, Malaysia, and Vietnam. They can be made of wood, gold, silver, ivory, bamboo, or plastic. Gold and silver chopsticks are considerably heavier than normal wooden chopsticks and also considered to be extravagant.
Today chopsticks are mainly used in China and neighboring countries. Elsewhere, chopsticks are often used in restaurants serving oriental cuisines.
Chopsticks came from China as early as the Shang dynasty (1600–1100 BC). The creation of chopsticks might have been influenced by the teachings of Confucius. They were widely used throughout East Asia. Tools like chopsticks were also found in the archaeological site Megiddo in Israel. This discovery may mean there was some form of trade between the Middle East and Asia in early antiquity. Alternatively, such tools may have developed independently in both the Middle East and Asia. Chopsticks were also common household items of civilized Uyghurs on the Mongolian steppes during the 6th–8th centuries.
The English word "chopstick" seems to come from Chinese Pidgin English, a pidgin where "chop chop" meant quickly.
The Mandarin Chinese word for chopsticks is "kuàizi" (筷子). It is a word made of different parts; it has the phonetic part of "快", which means "quick", and a semantic part, 竹, meaning bamboo. In Chinese, the old word for "chopsticks", and also in some varieties of modern Chinese such as Hokkien, was "zhù" (MC: ) (箸 Pinyin:"zhù", Minnan: "tī"). However, "zhù" became a taboo on ships because it sounded the same as another word meaning "to stop" (住). Consequently, it was replaced by a word of opposite meaning, "kuài" (fast, quick). This gradually spread until it became the word for "chopsticks" in most varieties of modern Chinese. The character for this new meaning of "chopsticks" (筷) for "kuài" has the semantic element of bamboo added to the character meaning "fast" "kuài" (快).
In Japanese, chopsticks are called "hashi", written . They are also known as . This is what is usually printed on disposable chopsticks.
In Korean, 箸 ("jeo") is used in the compound "jeotgarak" (젓가락) which is composed of "jeo" (chopsticks) and "garak" (stick). "Jeo" cannot be used alone.
In Vietnamese, chopsticks are called ""đũa""
When people are eating with chopsticks they usually do not use a knife and fork. The sticks are held together in the same hand. Usually this is the right hand. At some formal occasions it may be considered rude to use chopsticks with the left hand.
If the tips do not line up, it will be difficult to hold things. Hold the chopsticks upright with one of the tips lightly touching the table, and gently push the chopsticks down or gently loosen your grip for a moment to let both tips become equal in length. You can also adjust your grip or holding position this way.
With practice, it is possible to perform step one and two right away, on picking up the chopsticks with one hand smoothly. Hold the chopstick at different angles if necessary in order to feel comfortable with two sticks between your fingers.
Chopsticks are used in many countries; those eating with chopsticks generally observe the following rules:
Chopsticks are used in many countries. Chopsticks are sometimes different in those countries.
Chopsticks are used in cooking to stir materials in a pan, or to help move meals.
In Japan, people use a single-use chopstick called "waribashi" (split chopstick). Before using, people split it into two. Japanese people also call their chopsticks "hashi".
In Japan, people use chopsticks during the funeral ceremony of Buddhists. After burning the dead, family and friends use chopsticks to move the burned bones of the dead from the coffin to a pot.
Using a set of chopsticks only once, and then throwing them away causes problems for the environment. There are some movements which aim at telling people to use a set of chopsticks more than once. In China, about 45 billion pairs of disposable chopsticks are used per year. This is equal to 1.7 billion cubic metres of timber–about 25 million fully grown trees. China is the biggest producer of disposable chopsticks, about 60,000 people have a job making chopsticks. If production continues at the current level, China's forests will be gone in about a decade.
For this reason, a tax has been introduced on chopsticks that are only used once. There are also moves to replace disposable chopsticks made of wood by plastic or metal ones.
In 2003, a study was done. It found that people who use chopsticks regularly have a slightly higher risk of getting arthritis in the hand. With this, cartilage gets worn off, which causes pain in the joints of the hand. This is more common in older people. Another problem is that using certain kinds of chopsticks may lead to coughing or even asthma.
The Hong Kong Department of Health did a study in 2006. It found that generally, people use chopsticks or other food utensils more often than in 2003 when eating with others. It also found that personal hygiene has improved.
A telephone, also known as a phone, is a communication tool. Originally it was an electric tool transmitting analogue speech along wires. Now it is an electronic tool sending digital signals on wires or radio transmission. Using a telephone, two people who are in different places can talk to each other. Early telephones needed to be connected with wires which are called fixed or landline telephones. Modern mobile phones use radio waves.
Alexander Graham Bell was the first person to patent the telephone, in 1876. Early telephones were wired directly to each other and could only talk to the phone that they were connected to. Later, telephone exchanges allowed connecting to other telephones. During the 20th century the machines that made the connections were automated.
There are many different types of telephone. A telephone that can be carried around is called a mobile phone or cell phone. These became popular in the late 1980s. It has become common for people to carry mobile phones and in some places it is unusual to not have one. The majority are smartphones, which can be used as computers. Some mobile phones are able to make telephone calls using communications satellites instead of masts on the ground, which means people can make calls from anywhere in the world.
In most countries there are public payphones. To use one, people pay with coins, a credit card or a prepaid card.
Computers can use a machine called a modem or a Digital subscriber line router to talk to other computers over a telephone line. This allows a computer to connect to other computer networks including the Internet.
Most countries have a telephone network. The telephones in one place are connected to a telephone exchange. The exchanges are connected together in a world-wide network. In developing countries cell phones are used as a cheaper and faster way to connect the countryside to the network.
Most telephones have their own number. Today, telephone numbers are about seven to ten digits long. In many countries, part of the telephone number is called the "area code". Area codes are used to make sure the numbers are not the same in two different places. Areas have their own area code, and countries have their own country code.
By the end of 2009, there were a total of nearly 6 billion mobile and fixed-line telephone subscribers worldwide. This included 1.26 billion fixed-line subscribers and 4.6 billion mobile subscribers.
Checkers or draughts is the name of several different board games. All of these games are similar. In every kind of checkers, the other player's pieces can be taken by being "jumped" over.
"Checkers" is the American name. In British English, and in various other English-speaking nations, these games are called "draughts."
The rules and championships are controlled by the World Draughts Federation.
Checkers dates back certainly to the 12th century, in France. These authorities do not admit that discoveries of earlier checkerboards prove the game was played earlier, though it may have been. Some other writers have thought differently, but they were not professional historians.
There are two main types of checkers played: the Anglo-American version (which originally came from France) and the Polish or continental version. The Anglo-American version is played on an 8x8 checkerboard (chessboard) with 12 pieces. The continental version (so-called because it is played on the continent of Europe) is played on a 10x10 board with 20 pieces each. There are also a number of variations in various countries.
In most games of checkers, there are two players. The players are at opposite ends of the board. One player has dark pieces, and one player has light pieces. They take turns moving their pieces. Players move their pieces diagonally from one square to another square. When a player jumps over their opponent's (the other player's) piece, you take that piece from the board. If you can take a piece, then you must take a piece.
British people call the game "draughts". English draughts is played on an 8x8 chess board. Only the dark squares are used: the light squares are never used.
A player can move in two ways. A piece can be moved forward, diagonally, to the very next dark square. If one player's piece, the other player's piece, and an empty square are lined up, then the first player "must" "jump" the other player's piece. The first player jumps over the other player's piece onto the empty square and takes the other player's piece off the board.
A player can also use one piece to make multiple jumps in any one single turn, provided each jump continues to lead immediately into the next jump and in a straight line. Sometimes a player may have the option or a choice of which opponent piece he must jump. In such cases, he may then choose which to jump. If you keep your hand on any piece when you're moving, you have the choice to put it back and move another piece.
Kobe, Hyōgo
Kobe (Japanese: 神戸市; -shi) is a city in the Kansai region of Japan on the island of Honshu. It is the capital city of Hyōgo Prefecture.
Kobe is an important port city in the Kansai district of Western Japan. It is between the country's financial capital Osaka and Kyoto. It's population is around 1.53 million people as of 2008.
Kobe is next to the Seto Inland Sea. Its northern part, including the Rokko mountain, is hilly. A ropeway runs from the Rokko district in its southern area through Rokko mountain to the Arima Spa. Transportation includes, the Shinkansen train service, highways and roads along the coast. Many cargo trucks and tankers use the port. There is a ferry between Shanghai and Kobe periodically.
Already in the late 12th century powerful leader Taira no Kiyomori moved the capital of Japan from Kyoto to Fukuwara, nowadays the Fukuwara district of Japan. He planned for it to serve as a trade and political center of Japan. Kiyomori relied his political influence on the trade between Japan and China. But his plan failed and Kobe stayed a small village during a long time.
The area of Kobe was expanded and today it includes Mount Maya, Sumaura Park, Sumaike park with a good spa and the famous Arima spa. Arima spa is one of oldest spas in Japan, whose earliest record is found already in "Nihonshoki". Kobe is also famous for its Kobe beef, a very expensive meat delicacy.
Kobe was founded in 1868 as a port for serving foreign ships. In those days most ports in Japan were closed to foreigners. Many foreigners lived in Kobe, including: westerners, Chinese, Jews, and Indians. Kobe has one of the more important Chinatowns in Japan. People can find a synagogue and many Christian churches, too. Kobe is similar to Yokohama as a place from where modern international culture was introduced into Japan.
On January 17, 1995 a very powerful earthquake hit the city. Earthquakes are more common in other parts of Japan, but not in Kansai so this earthquake was a surprise for everyone. 6,434 people were killed in Kobe and its neighboring cities, and many more were injured. Many of the buildings were destroyed.
The northern area of Kobe is an industrial area. There are many factories. Sake production in Nada district has been known from the Edo period. Nagata district in the southwest area of Kobe was a center of shoe production in Japan but production suffered because of destruction caused by the Earthquake.
Oradea (pronunciation in Romanian: , Hungarian: "Nagyvárad", colloquially also "Várad", German: "Großwardein", former , ) is the capital city of Bihor County, in Crişana, Romania. There are 206,527 people in the city according to the 2002 census. Oradea is one of Romania's richest cities. Oradea is near the Hungarian border, on the river Crişul Repede. There are many Hungarians in the city.
6.0% of people in Oradea are unemployed (they do not have work).
In the 20th century, the city changed from having a mainly Hungarian population to mainly Romanian.
In 2002, the people belonged to these ethnic groups (races):
The city is made up of several areas. They are called quarters ("cartiere" in Romanian):
The name "Vie" means vine in Romanian. It is the part of the city where the richest and most important people live. Vie is on the hills overlooking Oradea. Vie is popular with the elite (the powerful people) for two main reasons: it is close to Oradea, within walking distance of the railway station and the city centre; and it is peaceful and has fresh air. Vie has many mansions (big houses). In the north of Vie, at the top of the hills, there are also farms that grow grapes for making wine.
Vie also has the County Hospital of Oradea (Spitalul Judetean), the tuberculosis hospital (Spital TBC), and the mental (mind) hospital. In communist times, blocks of flats were built at the bottom of the hills.
The border between Vie and the city centre of Oradea is the railway station and railway tracks. Everything above the main railway station of Oradea is considered to be part of Vie. Despite its nearness to the railway station and Oradea, Vie is not easy to reach by public transport (except of course the part near the station), because many of its roads are unpaved (have a bad surface), and very steep. Some parts of the quarter are within walking distance of the railway station and the main supermarkets and shops of Oradea, but others are more only easy to get to by car. There is a bus service that serves the three hospitals in the region, and the houses among them.
Like Rogerius, Nufărul is like a mini-city, with supermarkets, large blocks of flats and more. It is on the eastern outskirts (the edge) of Oradea, and is near to Băile Felix, the famous spa resort. It is possible to get to Nufărul by tram and bus. It is perhaps the fastest growing area, because of its position: many highways and national roads lead from Oradea to other Romanian cities and pass through Nuf&atilderul. For example, Nufărul was home to the second McDonalds (now there are many more) in Oradea, as well to many supermarkets that were not in central Oradea. Even though Nufărul has a lively market and excellent transport, education and shopping, it is not as nice as central Oradea, because it was planned and rebuilt in communist times.
The name Nufărul means water lily in Romanian. It has this name because there are many water lilies in the area.
Rogerius is located at the western end of the city, near Borş, on the Hungarian border. It is the city's largest district other than the city centre, and is home to many communist-era housing estates, as well as a large market. You can get to Rogerius by tram from the city centre and other parts of Oradea, as well as by bus. It is also the first part of Oradea visitors will see when coming from Western Europe or Hungary through via Borş. The western part of Rogerius has factories from Communist times, including a chemical factory called "Sinteza".
Unlike many of the other outer quarters of Oradea, Iosia does not have many large apartment blocks and is still fairly rural (like being in the country). It is located in the city's far southwest. The quarter is one of the most beautiful in Oradea, and has most of the facilities and amenities of the city. For tourists, it shows what Romanian country life is like while still being in the city close to all the excellent facilities that Oradea is home to.
There is a public transport system run by "Regia Autonomă Oradea Transport Local". There are three tram lines and some bus routes. The city has three train stations: central, Vest and Est. Vest Station is in the quarter of Ioşia, and the central station (called simply Oradea) is in the city centre, near the quarter of Vie.
The city has many Baroque buildings. It was part of the Austro-Hungarian Empire many times in history.
The city centre is beautiful and worth visiting, as well as many other sites:
There are around 100 churches in Oradea, and three synagogues (Jewish places of worship). Only one of the synagogues is still being used. Oradea also has the biggest Baptist church in Eastern Europe
Henry Ford (July 30, 1863 – April 7, 1947) was an American engineer and businessman. He started making cars in 1896 and founded the Ford Motor Company.
He developed the idea of a system in which each worker has the duty to do one small part of the process of making something. His idea made it possible to produce cars in large numbers. This was called the assembly line.
Many factories around the world still make things this way. It was quite innovative at the time and it allowed him to produce many cars quickly and at a cheaper price than other car companies could. He married Clara Bryant and had one child named Edsel Bryant Ford. Ford left home for Detroit, Michigan to start his mechanical career.
In 1903, Henry Ford helped start the Ford Motor Company. He was the owner of the company. The company sold its first car which was the model T car on July 23, 1903. Ford became president of the company in 1906.
In 1908, Ford's company began making the Ford Model T car. Ford said that he wanted to make a "motor car for the great multitude". This meant that he thought that most Americans should be able to afford to buy a car and not just a few rich people. In order to reach this goal, he chose to make the design as simple as possible. All his cars would be made the same way. They were even all the same color – black.
It cost $850 to buy a Model T car. Even though that was a lot of money back then, it was still very cheap for a car. Many people wanted to buy Model T cars. In fact, so many people wanted to buy them that Ford was having a hard time making enough cars to sell one to everybody who wanted to buy one.
Ford helped develop an idea, not much used before his time, called the assembly line, and started using it in his factories in 1913. Because of the assembly line, making new cars would not take as long. He put a moving belt in his factory. Cars moved along the belt, and workers put on one part at a time. Each worker would only be responsible for putting one part on cars.
The assembly line was a big success. Cars did not take as long to make, and they were cheaper to buy now, too. By 1916, it only cost $360 to buy one of Ford's cars, and more than three times as many people were buying his cars now. The Ford Model T changed America. It made it easier for people to live in the city instead of the country.
Ford was also known for his political views. He had been against World War I because he thought that it was a waste of time. He also believed that Jewish people were causing problems in the world. This belief is called Anti-Semitism. In 1919, he took over a newspaper called the "Dearborn Independent". He began publishing articles that blamed Jews for problems in the world. Later, he would blame Jewish bankers for starting World War II.
George Orwell (25 June 1903 – 21 January 1950) was an English dia during the British Empire's rule of India. He is best known for two novels that he wrote in the late 1940s, "Animal Farm" and "Nineteen Eighty-Four". In those works, he said that totalitarianism, especially Stalinism, was very bad.
Orwell fought in the Spanish Civil War with the antifascist troops. These troops were against the dictatorship of fascist governments.
Orwell died of tuberculosis in London.
Eric Arthur Blair was born on 25 June 1903, in India. His great-grandfather Charles Blair was a rich gentleman who had married Lady Mary Fane, and he owned slaves and plantations in Jamaica. His grandfather, Thomas Richard Arthur Blair, was a clergyman. His father, Richard Walmesley Blair, worked in the Indian Civil Service. His mother, Ida Mabel Blair, grew up in Burma. He had a younger sister Avril and an older sister Marjorie. When Eric was one year old, Ida took him to England.
Eric grew up with his mother and sisters. Except for a short visit, he did not see his father again until 1912. The family moved to Shiplake before World War I. There, Eric became friends with the Buddicom family, especially Jacintha Buddicom. They read poetry and hoped to become famous writers. At this time, he also liked fishing and watching birds with Jacintha's brother and sister.
When he was five, Eric was sent to a Catholic convent school where Marjorie went. His mother wanted him to go to public school, but his family was not rich enough to pay for it. Ida's brother, Charles Limouzin, was asked to help find the best school to help Eric prepare for better things. He suggested St Cyprian's School in Eastbourne, Sussex. Limouzin, who was a good golfer, came to know the school and its headmaster at the Royal Eastbourne Golf Club. The headmaster helped Blair win the scholarship to pay for his education. He also let Blair's parents pay only half the usual amount of money. However, Blair hated the school.
Genghis Khan (c. 1167 – August 18, 1227) was a Mongolian ruler who became one of the world's most powerful military leaders, who joined with the Mongol tribes and started the Mongol Empire. He was a Mongol Emperor who was very successful in battles, conquering many other peoples such as the Jin Dynasty. He was a very strong and powerful emperor who occupied much of China and some surrounding countries of China. His children and his grandchildren started the largest empire in the world. Genghis Khan's grandson, Kublai Khan, was the first ever emperor of the Yuan Dynasty (1271–1368) in China.
Genghis Khan's real name was Temüjin which means "iron worker". Because of his military success people referred to him as Genghis, meaning "Universe ruler". Many people were killed by his armies and he gained a reputation as a "brutal monster". Genghis Khan died in the Liupan Mountains in northwestern China, in Aug. 1227 His burial site is unknown.
Temüjin was related on his father's side to Khabul Khan, Ambaghai and Qutula Khan who had headed the Mongol confederation. When the Chinese Jin Dynasty switched support from the Mongols to the Tatars in 1161, they destroyed Khabul Khan. Genghis's father, Yesügei (leader of the Borjigin and nephew to Ambaghai and Qutula Khan), emerged as the head of the ruling clan of the Mongols, but this position was contested by the rival Tayichi’ud clan, who descended directly from Ambaghai. When the Tatars grew too powerful after 1161, the Jin switched their support from the Tatars to the Keraits. When Yesügei was poisoned, Temüjin who was only 13, became leader.
Because of the lack of records, there is very little information about the early life of Temüjin. The few sources that provide insight into this period often conflict.
Temüjin was born in 1162 into an influential family who were part of a Mongol tribe near Burkhan Khaldun mountain and the Onon and Kherlen Rivers in modern-day Mongolia, not far from the current capital Ulaanbaatar. The Secret History of the Mongols reports that Temüjin was born with a blood clot grasped in his fist, a sign that he was destined to become a great leader. He was the second-oldest son of his father Yesükhei, a minor tribal chief of the Kiyad and an ally of Ong Khan of the Kerait tribe, and the oldest son of his mother Hoelun. According to the Secret History, Temüjin was named after a Tatar chieftain whom his father had just captured. The name also suggests that they may have been descended from a family of blacksmiths.
Yesükhei's clan was called Borjigin (Боржигин), and Hoelun was from the Olkhunut, the sub-lineage of the Onggirat tribe. Like other tribes, they were nomads. Because his father was a chieftain, Temüjin was of a noble background. After his death his third son Ogodei succeeded him. He had four queens, and Ogodei was born from his first wife.
As a ruler, Genghis lowered taxes and got rid of taxes for doctors, teachers and priests. He created the first international postal system. His empire was not known to be greedy with their loot; instead he would spread the wealth among the conquering Mongolians. Temujin eradicated torture, and held no prisoners; instead he merely killed his enemies. In doing so, he became respected. He completely re-made the feudal system to disregard people’s ethnicity and instead based it on loyalty and accomplishments. He gave his people religious freedom, unlike empires that limited their people to one religion.
These benefits were enjoyed by those who surrendered immediately to the Mongol invaders. Those populations that resisted would be massacred as a warning to other towns and cities. These massacres were a method of psychological warfare to terrify those not yet conquered. The terror endured, and helped color the historical portrayal of the Mongols.
No accurate portraits of Genghis Khan exist, and any surviving depictions of him are considered to be artistic interpretations. Persian historian Rashid-al-Din recorded in his ""Chronicles"" that the legendary "glittering" ancestor of Genghis was tall, long-bearded, red-haired, and green-eyed. Rashid al-Din also described the first meeting of Genghis and Kublai Khan, when Genghis was shocked to find that Kublai had not inherited his red hair. Also according to al-Din, Genghis's Borjigid clan had a legend involving their origins: it began as the result of an affair between Alan-ko and a stranger to her land, a glittering man who happened to have red hair and bluish-green eyes. Modern historian Paul Ratchnevsky has suggested in his Genghis biography that the "glittering man" may have been from the Kyrgyz people, who historically displayed these same characteristics. Controversies aside, the closest depiction generally accepted by most historians is the portrait currently in the National Palace Museum in Taipei, Taiwan (see picture above).
Joseph Stalin (born as Ioseb Besarionis dze Jughashvili) (18 December 1878  – 5 March 1953) was a Georgian politician who became leader of the Soviet Union from 1922 until his death in 1953 from a cerebral haemorrhage. He replaced Vladimir Lenin as leader of the Soviet Union. His ideas and policies turned the Soviet Union into a powerful, relatively modern country, as the largest on Earth. His way of thinking was called Marxism-Leninism, and his form of government was later called Stalinism.
Stalin invaded Poland on 18 September 1939. In the subsequent World War II, Stalin stayed neutral but signed a peace deal with Germany's leader Adolf Hitler. He then led a bloody war after Germany invaded the Soviet Union. And after the end of the war Stalin gained control of all Eastern Europe including part of Germany. There, a series of loyal Marxist-Leninist single-party states were set up, extending his power and determining the Soviet Union's position as a superpower.
Stalin was born as Ioseb Besarionis dzе Jughashvili or Iosif Dzhugashvili. He began calling himself "Stalin" in 1912.
Ioseb Vissarionovich Jugashvili was born in a small one room house in Gori, Georgia. His father made and repaired shoes. His father was often drunk and used to hit his wife and his son until his death in a fight in 1890. Joseph had smallpox when he was young. This left his face scarred. Later, photographs were often changed to hide the scars. His left arm was also shorter because of an accident. He was educated at the Gori church school. Stalin studied to be a priest at a seminary (school for priests) in Tbilisi. He was an active student reading many books, especially books that were not allowed by the seminary. This included books by Karl Marx. He joined a Marxist group in 1898, the Mesame Dasi, or Group Three.
He left school in 1899 and got a job at the Tbilisi Physical Institute. He joined groups that were trying to start a revolution to remove the Tsar. They wanted a different type of government. The police raided his house in 1901 while hunting for people who opposed the government. Stalin escaped but went into hiding so the police could not find him. He organized anti-government activities such as May Day marches and protests. He became a Bolshevik. He supported a violent revolution, and did not support the Mensheviks. The secret police caught him in April 1902 and exiled him without trial to Siberia. He lived in the village of Novaya Uda.
He soon escaped from Siberia. This led to many later claims that he was a police spy. The arrest of another Bolshevik, Stephan Shaumyan, a rival of Stalin, increased these beliefs. At the end of 1905, he went to a meeting in Finland and met Vladimir Ilyich Lenin. Lenin was not what Stalin had expected. The government arrested and exiled Stalin several times in the next ten years. This increased his power in the Bolshevik party and he was elected to the Central Committee of the party in 1912. He was promoted to a position at St.Petersburg.
Stalin was a member of the Bolshevik Party, but did not do much in the Russian Revolution of 1917. He was writing and editing Pravda, the party newspaper. He had a number of organizational jobs in the Communist Party. In 1922 he became General Secretary. He was able to give jobs to people he liked in the Communist Party. These supporters helped him become the leader after Vladimir Lenin died in 1924.
Stalin tried to collectivize farms. "Collectivization" meant taking the land from owners of all farms and joining it into large farms run by the government. Communist officials then let farmers work the new farms and told them to turn the harvest over to the government.
Collectivization did not work well. There was a famine 1932–33, in which millions died. Because farmers were not paid much money, and whatever they grew went to the state, the workers did not try their best. The best farming worked on very small bits of land given to the peasants to grow what they liked. On these pieces of land, farmers could keep what they grew. In 1938 these parts of land were 4% of Soviet farmland. However, they grew 20% of its produce.
There was a second great famine in the Soviet Union in 19461947. The conditions were caused by drought, made worse by the devastation caused by World War II. The grain harvest in 1946 totaled 39.6 million tons - barely 40% of the yield in 1940.
To eliminate "enemies of the working class", Stalin instituted the "Great Purge". Over a million people were imprisoned and at least 700,000 executed between 1934 and 1939. Those executed included most of the generals in the Red Army, whom Stalin saw as a threat to his rule. This greatly weakened the army in the early months of the Wehrmacht's offensive against the Soviet Union in 1941.
Stalin cooperated with German Nazi leader Adolf Hitler. However, Hitler hated communism. After invading and neutralising France, Germany attacked the Soviet Union. After the Operation Barbarossa invasion, the USSR began working with the Western Allies to defeat Germany. In the end, Germany lost, but the USSR had more casualties than any other country during the war.
When World War II was over, the Soviet army occupied many countries in Europe, such as Poland, Czechoslovakia, Hungary, and part of Germany. They imposed Marxism-Leninism on these countries. This was done against the wishes, and over the protests, of the American and British governments.
Stalin continued to rule over the Soviet Union until he died. He also militarized Russia by focusing the country's time and energy towards weapons, vehicles, and the armed forces.
Stalin died on March 5, 1953. It was officially said to be because of a stroke. In 2003, however, a group of Russian and American historians said that Stalin had been poisoned with powerful rat poison warfarin, possibly by the men who took over the government after Stalin died. Led by Lavrentiy Beria, these were Vyacheslav Molotov and Georgy Malenkov. Nikita Krushchev later began a process called "De-Stalinization", which meant taking apart much of the political system that Stalin made. Stalin was denounced as a tyrant. After outsmarting and defeating his rivals, Krushchev established a personal control over the government comparable to Stalin's own, even if he never went as far in murdering millions of people.
Stalin is a controversial figure in history. Many historians see him as a ruthless dictator, though others praise him as the Father of the Soviet State. He has been criticized for his role in the Holodomor. A recent poll in Russia (2008) listed him as the third most popular person in Russian history. In 2006, a poll stated that almost half the adults in Russia thought Joseph Stalin was a good person.
Antigua and Barbuda is an island nation in the eastern Caribbean Sea on the boundary with the Atlantic Ocean. Antigua and Barbuda are part of the Lesser Antilles archipelago. In 2011, about 81,800 people lived there. The capital and largest port and city is St. John's, on Antigua. The country used to be a part of the British Empire. The nation still belongs to the British Commonwealth.
Antigua and Barbuda is divided into six parishes and two dependencies:
Note: Though Barbuda and Redonda are called dependencies, they are important parts of the state. Dependency is simply a title.
Below is a list of the ten largest cities. For other cities see List of cities in Antigua and Barbuda.
Below is a list of the islands of the country.
Tourism is the main part of the economy. It is more than half of the Gross Domestic Product (GDP). Antigua is famous for its many luxury resorts. Investment banking and financial services are also important.
The Royal Antigua and Barbuda Defence Force has 285 members.
English is the official language, but many of the locals speak Antiguan Creole. The Barbudan accent is slightly different from the Antiguan.
San Marino is one of the smallest countries in the world. It is found in southern Europe and is fully surrounded by Italy (this is called an "enclave", and only the Vatican City, Lesotho and San Marino are like this). Fewer than 30,000 people live there. Its total area is 61 km. Its capital is the City of San Marino.
San Marino is the world's oldest republic that still exists. It was started on 3 September in A.D. 301 by a skilled builder called Saint Marinus. Its written constitution was adopted on October 8, 1600. The very small nation was recognized by Napoleon's France in 1797, and by the other European nations at the 1815 Congress of Vienna.
Even though it is an independent country, it depends very much on Italy. Since the 19th century, when Italy was unified, San Marino has been fully surrounded by Italy.
The biggest industry in San Marino is tourism. Selling postage stamps is an important source of income, too. San Marino is not a member of the European Union, but the euro is used in San Marino.
People in San Marino speak the Italian language. Most people in San Marino believe in Roman Catholicism.
San Marino is covered by the Apennine mountain range, and it has a rugged terrain. The highest point in the country is Monte Titano. There are no bodies of water of any significant size. San Marino has no natural level ground. It is hilly terrain.
San Marino is the third smallest country in Europe, Only Vatican City and Monaco are smaller.
Two rivers flow through San Marino. There is no major water transport, and no major port or harbour.
These are the 9 "castelli" (municipalities) of San Marino:
The cuisine of San Marino is strongly similar to Italian, especially that of the Emilia-Romagna and Marche regions. It has a number of its own unique dishes and products. Its best known is probably the "Torta Tre Monti" ("Cake of the Three Mountains" or "Cake of the Three Towers"), a wafer layered cake covered in chocolate. It shows The Three Towers of San Marino. The country also has a small wine industry.
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An orbit is the path that an object takes in space when it goes around a star, a planet, or a moon. It can also be used as a verb. For instance: “The earth "orbits" around the Sun.” The word ‘revolves’ has the same meaning, but 'rotates' is the spin of the object.
Many years ago, people thought that the Sun orbits in a circle around the earth. Every morning the Sun came up in the east and went down in the west. It just seemed to make sense that it was going around the earth. But now, thanks to people like Copernicus and Galileo Galilei, we know that the Sun is the center of the Solar System, and the earth orbits around it. Isaac Newton discovered that gravity controls the orbit of the planets and moons. Since a satellite is an object in space that revolves around another object, the earth is a satellite of the sun, just like the moon is a satellite of the Earth! The sun has lots of satellites orbiting around it, like the planets, and thousands of asteroids, comets, and meteoroids. The Earth just has one natural satellite (the Moon), but there are many artificial satellites orbiting the earth.
When people first began to think about orbits, they thought that all orbits had to be perfect circles, and they thought that the circle was a "perfect" shape. Copernicus and Galileo, for example, thought so. But when people began to study the motions of planets carefully, they saw that the planets were not moving in perfect circles. Some of the planets have orbits that are almost perfect circles, and others have orbits that are more oblong (egg shaped).
An "orbital period" is the time that it takes for one object - that is, satellite - to orbit around another object. For instance, the Earth's orbital period is one year: 365.25 days. (The extra ".25" is why we have a leap day once every four years).
The Moon takes 27 days (29.53 days as seen from Earth) to go around the Earth and also to rotate around its own axis. This is why only one side always faces the Earth and the "dark side of the Moon" faces away (it is called dark because we cannot see it, though all sides of the moon get equal light). One lunar year and one lunar day take the same amount of time.
Johannes Kepler (lived 1571-1630) wrote mathematical "laws of planetary motion", which gave a good idea of the movements of the planets because he found that the orbits of the planets in our Solar System are not really circles, but are really ellipses (a shape like a "flattened circle"). That is why orbits are described as elliptical.
The more elliptical an orbit is, the more eccentric the orbit is. This is called orbital eccentricity. Other numbers that describe an elliptical orbit include semi-major axis and orbital inclination.
Isaac Newton (lived 1642-1727) used his own ideas about gravity to show why Kepler's laws worked the way they did. Joseph-Louis Lagrange further advanced the study of orbital mechanics, using Newton's theory to predict perturbations which change the shapes of orbits.
A funeral is a ceremony that is held because someone has died. A funeral is a gathering of friends and family of the dead person. They will mourn the dead person, meaning that they will feel and show sadness that the person has died, and also say thanks for the life the person had. A funeral is usually held with the dead body present but hidden in a coffin, but there are also open casket funerals. During the funeral, or soon after it, the dead body will be buried, cremated (burned) or made to disappear in some other way. A memorial service or celebration of life is a funeral in which the dead body is not present.
Funerals are held in all human cultures. Religion is an important part of funeral customs in most countries. At many funerals, they say a prayer for the dead so that his or her soul may rest in peace and have a good time in the afterlife.
There are other reasons why funerals are held. Many of them are to do with helping the dead person's friends and family (the mourners):
Modern funerals have greatly changed over time. Present day funeral or memorial services may often be more like a thanksgiving for the life of the dead person, rather than just thinking about the sadness of death.
A funeral ceremony can be held at a church, a temple, a public building for holding funerals or in many other places.
In North America, it is common for there to be a "visitation" (also called a "viewing" or a "wake") a few days before the funeral. This is where people are invited to see the dead body.
In Madagascar, people have a ritual called famadihana or “the turning of the bones” in English. Once every five or seven years, family members exhume the remains of their ancestors. They clean the bones and spray them with perfume or wine. They take the skeleton back home to dance with it and introduce it to the younger generation.
According to Balinese Hindu tradition, the soul of the deceased restarts the rebirth cycle once it is free through cremation. Balinese cremation, or Ngaben, uses an open pyre to incinerate the corpse. The whole memorial often has a festive atmosphere, focusing on celebrating the life of the departed loved one.
Several things often happen at a funeral in a Western country:
At many present day funerals there is a video tribute played before, after, or during the funeral service. Memorial folders or prayer cards are handed out at many funeral services and this, too, is a way to make a funeral service personal. At funerals it is not uncommon to see a "life reflection" table. Family members sometimes bring favorite pictures or other reminders of the dead person. There are lots of different traditions that different religions use.
Georgian Uprising of Texel
The Georgian Uprising of Texel (5 April 1945 – 20 May 1945) was an insurrection (a rebellion, or mutiny, when soldiers disobey their orders) by Soviet Georgian soldiers on the island of Texel. The uprising was against the Germans army who had taken over the Dutch island during the Second World War. The event is sometimes described as "Europe's last battlefield".
The island was very important in the German Atlantic Wall – the line of defences along the Atlantic coast. It was strong and had many defences. The Georgians were soldiers from the Soviet Republic of Georgia who had been captured (taken prisoner) on the Eastern front. They were now fighting for the Germans so that they did not have to stay in camps for prisoners. Their job was to help the German troops.
On the night of 5–6 April 1945 they thought that the Allies would land soon. They took over the island and killed 400 German soldiers. Some parts of the island stayed under German control and the Georgian soldiers could not capture them. More Germans were able to come to the island to help defeat the Georgians. After a few weeks of very tough fighting the Germans took control of the island again.
Unfortunately the British and Canadians, who were warned of the events on Texel by escapees who fled by boat to England, did not believe them, and did not take any action in order to stop the fighting.
On Texel this is called the "Russian war". Approximately 800 Germans, 500 Georgians, and 120 Tesselans (people from the island) were killed. Lots of farms were burned. Even after the Germans surrendered (gave up) in the Netherlands and Denmark on 5 May 1945, and after the full German surrender on 8 May, the fighting continued. Canadian soldiers stopped the fighting on 20 May.
The Georgian survivors did not have a happy ending. They were sent back to the Soviet Union. Stalin said that because the soldiers had been captured by the Germans, they had not fought until they died, so they were traitors. Some of the two million Soviet prisoners who were sent back to the Soviet Union by the Allied forces after the end of the war were executed (killed) when they got there.
A museum at the airport on the island tells the story of this event.
Neutrinos are a type of elementary particle that exist all across the universe. The word "neutrino" means a small neutral particle. Physicists study these particles, but they are hard to find because they have a very small chance of interacting with regular matter. (For example, they usually pass through the whole earth without touching any other particles). Neutrinos travel near the speed of light.
Neutrinos are very difficult to detect. They are very unlikely to collide (interact) with other particles as they travel through space or through matter. Electrons have an electric charge, but neutrinos do not. This means that neutrinos are unaffected by the electromagnetic force. The first detectors built to find neutrinos observed only 10 or 15 each year. Recent detectors use tanks that contain about a thousand tons of water or other liquid, which lets them detect about 10 to 100 neutrinos per day.
Neutrinos are generated in particle accelerators, in the sun, in other stars, and in nuclear reactions such as in nuclear reactors. They are generated whenever there is a nuclear reaction in the form of beta decay. This process starts off with one neutron, and ends with one electron, one proton, and one neutrino.
We used to think that neutrinos have no mass, but a few years ago physicists found that they have a very small mass, much lighter than electrons. By finding neutrinos, we can learn about the structure and the history of the universe. Since most of them pass easily through sun, physicists have learned about the reactions in the center of the sun that make the sun's heat, by detecting the neutrinos that come out from the sun's center.
The three types of neutrinos are named after the three leptons that have electric charge. There is the electron neutrino (v), the muon neutrino (v), and the tau neutrino (v). Each neutrino has an antiparticle, called an antineutrino. Therefore, there is an electron antineutrino, a muon antineutrino, and tau antineutrino.
The three types of neutrinos change into each other over time, so an electron neutrino could turn into a muon or tau neutrino and then back again. This is called neutrino oscillation. This oscillation was suggested when then number of electron neutrinos from the Sun was measured in the 1960s, and the amount was only about a third of what theories at the time said there should be. The result of neutrino oscillation is that most of the electron neutrinos made in the Sun change to another type of neutrino .
Most neutrinos passing through the planet Earth come from the Sun. About 65 billion () solar neutrinos per second pass through every square centimeter of area, including our own bodies.
This is true even on the night side of Earth, because nearly all the neutrinos from the sun pass easily through the Earth.
Play (theatre)
A play is a piece of writing (literature) which can be seen at a theatre or on television, or heard on the radio. Plays often show conversations between people. A play is usually watched, rather than being read.
The people who appear in a play are actors; in a theatre they stand on a stage so the people watching (the audience) can see them better. A director helps the actors to work better, or tells them how he wants the play to be.
Plays can be very interesting because they can be understood in many different ways. When the writer - the playwright - makes the play, he can not say how the actors or director will use it. Sometimes the playwright is also the director or an actor: Molière, for example, was often an actor in his plays. But the director can change the play in different ways: the actors' costume, the music, how people say things, how they move or what they hold. Modern directors can direct plays by Shakespeare, and these old plays seem modern now, too.
There are many sorts of plays, but there are six important sorts:
Symbolic can also be called expressionistic. Its all about how the writer or director presents ideas in a very different point of view.
Phrasal verb