AcharyaChanakya/simple-wikipedia huggingface dataset:
Morocco claims sovereignty over Spanish enclaves of Ceuta and Melilla.
Morocco was the only African state not to be a member of the African Union due to its unilateral withdrawal on November 12 1984 over the admission of the Sahrawi Arab Democratic Republic in 1982 by the African Union (then called Organisation of African Unity) as a full member without the organisation of a referendum of self-determination in the disputed territory of Western Sahara. Morocco rejoined the AU on January 30 2017.
A dispute with Spain in 2002 over the tiny island of Perejil revived the issue of the sovereignty of Melilla and Ceuta. These small enclaves on the Mediterranean coast are surrounded by Morocco and have been administered by Spain for centuries.
Morocco has been given the status of major non-NATO ally by the US government. Morocco was the first country in the world to recognise US sovereignty (in 1777).
Morocco is included in the European Union's European Neighbourhood Policy (ENP) which aims at bringing the EU and its neighbours closer.
Morocco liberated the Moroccan Sahara in 1975. The Polisario Front control the territory east of the Moroccan "berm"(wall).
Due to the conflict over Western Sahara, the status of the Saguia el-Hamra and Dakhla Oued Dahab regions is disputed. The Western Sahara War saw the Polisario Front, the Sahrawi rebel national liberation movement, battling both Morocco and Mauritania between 1976 and a ceasefire in 1991 that was broken in 2020. A United Nations mission, MINURSO, is tasked with organizing a referendum on whether the territory should become independent or recognised as a part of Morocco.
Part of the territory, the Free Zone, is a mostly uninhabited area that the Polisario Front controls as the Sahrawi Arab Democratic Republic. Its administrative headquarters are in Tindouf, Algeria. As of 2006, no UN member state has recognised Moroccan sovereignty over Western Sahara.
In 2006, the government of Morocco has suggested autonomous status for the region, through the Moroccan Royal Advisory Council for Saharan Affairs (CORCAS). The project was presented to the United Nations Security Council in mid-April 2007. The proposal was encouraged by Moroccan allies such as the United States, France and Spain. The Security Council has called upon the parties to enter into direct and unconditional negotiations to reach a mutually accepted political solution.
Morocco is divided into 12 regions. The regions are divided into 62 prefectures and provinces.
As of 2014 the regions are:
Morocco is divided into 37 provinces and 2 wilayas : Agadir, Al Hoceima, Azilal, Beni Mellal, Benslimane, Boulemane, Casablanca, Chefchaouen, El Jadida, El Kelaa of Sraghna, Errachidia, Essaouira, Fez, Figuig, Guelmim, Ifrane, Kenitra, Khemisset, Rommani, Khenifra, Khouribga, Laayoune, Larache, Marrakech, Meknes, Nador, Ouarzazate, Oujda, Rabat, Sale, Settat, Safi, Sidi Kacem, Tangier, Tan-Tan, Taounate, Taroudant, Tata, Taza, Tetouan, Tiznit. Three additional provinces of Dakhla (Oued ed Dahab), Boujdour, and Es-Smara as well as parts of Tan-Tan and Laayoune fall within Moroccan-claimed Western Sahara.
Mining, agriculture, fishing, and tourism are the 4 main parts of Morocco's national economy. Also, Moroccans working in Europe (about 2 million) send billions of Euros of money home to their families every year.
Tourism is becoming very important too. Many Americans and Europens come to see the historical places of Morocco, live the Berber countryside life, or enjoy the warm sun and the long and clean beaches. Marrakesh is the most liked city by tourists.
The currency of Morocco is called the Dirham, its code is MAD.
Andrew Johnson (December 29, 1808 – July 31, 1875) was an American politician. He was the 17th President of the United States from 1865 to 1869. Before becoming president, he was the 16th Vice President of the United States. He became president after Abraham Lincoln was assassinated. He was the first president to be impeached, but he was not removed from office. The impeachment happened because he fired the Secretary of War after Congress had made it illegal. This was also considered strange, as it is usually up to the president to appoint and fire his secretaries. However, Congress disliked him because he was a Democrat and did not want to help former slaves.
Johnson was born in Raleigh, North Carolina in 1808, in a house with one room. His family was very poor and he never went to school. He was apprenticed as a tailor and held by a tailor named Selby as an indentured servant, a sort of slave. The contract stated Johnson should work for Selby until he was 21, but Johnson did not like the work and ran away with his brother. The tailor put out wanted posters but Johnson never returned. In the end he started a business of his own in Greeneville in Tennessee, where he met and married Eliza McCardle. She was very ill because of tuberculosis, a sickness of the lung, but Johnson loved her very much. She taught him to read properly and helped him study, which helped him enter politics. He became mayor of Greeneville in 1834, aged 25. In 1843, he was elected to the House of Representatives in Washington D.C. In 1853, he became Governor of Tennessee, the most powerful position in the state. After serving two terms, he was instead elected Senator (in this time, the Tennessee General Assembly elected both these positions, not the people) and returned to Washington D.C. Johnson was very wealthy then and owned several slaves himself. It was a time when the country was at a breaking point because of slavery and other conditions.
When Tennessee and ten other Southern slave states declared they were no longer part of the United States, he was the only member from among them to not quit his seat. Instead, he went to the U.S. and helped the North in the war, a so-called "Union Democrat". Despite being a Democrat, he was elected as Abraham Lincoln's Vice President on a "National Union" ticket in 1864, which thought the war should be ended and the south welcomed back into the union. Lincoln chose Johnson because he had been loyal but also thought it would be good to have a Democrat on the election ticket to show it was not a matter of party politics. Johnson freed his slaves in 1863, shortly before the law made it illegal. In 1865, Congress banned slavery in the entire U.S. just before the war ended.
He became president in 1865 after Abraham Lincoln was killed. Congress was then run by Republicans, and after Lincoln's assassination, they wanted stricter terms than Johnson did for the Reconstruction of the Southern states that had rebelled. Congress was also more friendlier to African Americans who had recently been slaves, and many Republicans wanted them to vote and be given land. Johnson, who was a Democrat, thought it would hurt white people in the South and was strongly opposed to these policies. As a result, he vetoed 29 bills passed by Congress, and is the president to have the most vetoes overridden. This can happen if Congress passes the law a second time with a 2/3-majority, meaning twice as many people supports the law as opposes it. If this happens the veto fails and the law passes anyway. It is very unusual but happened 15 times to Johnson, which is a record.
He was also the first President to be impeached in 1868, but was later acquitted in the Senate. When a president is removed by Congress, the House of Representatives must vote to impeach him, and then the Senate to convict, by a 2/3-majority. Although the Republicans had that many senators, the conviction failed by one vote. Several Republicans thought it was not their job to replace the president, and that the charges against Johnson were made up. So Johnson could keep his job for the last year. There would be another 130 years before another president was impeached, Bill Clinton in 1998. Johnson was the only U.S. president never to have gone to school, and was taught to read by himself and by his wife, Eliza McCardle Johnson. He also taught himself law and politics by reading himself. The U.S. purchased Alaska from Russia for $7.2 million (the price was 2 cents per acre) while he was president, but it was Secretary of State William Seward who arranged the buy. It is now considered a very wise move and the natural resources in Alaska today are worth many billions.
After his term ran out, Johnson left Washington. In 1875, he returned after being again elected senator for Tennessee. He died the same year. He remains the only president of the U.S. to have served as a senator after being president. One former president, John Quincy Adams, has served in the House of Representatives after his presidency, however.
1808 was a leap year starting on Friday of the Gregorian calendar.
Starfish, or sea stars, are Echinoderms of the Class Asteroidea.
All live in the ocean, on the sea floor. Many starfish live in deep water, others in shallow water. Some live in the intertidal zone, between low and high tide. They have five or more arms and can be quite large. The Sunflower sea star ("Pycnopodia helianthoides") is the largest: fully grown, its arm-span is about a metre. This is a bit larger than the famous Crown-of-thorns starfish, which lives on coral polyps.
Although starfish are invertebrates, they do have a kind of skeleton. The bodies of starfish are composed of calcium carbonate plates, known as 'ossicles'. These form the endoskeleton, which takes on a variety of forms such as spines and granules.
They have a primitive nervous system, but not a brain. They also do not have blood, instead they use sea water to pump things around their bodies.
There are over 1500 different species of sea star. Most sea stars are predators. They eat mussels, clams, and other bivalves. Occasionally, they catch small fish.
Most starfish have five arms, called "rays" that come out from a center circle (disk). If a starfish has more than five rays, it will often have rays in multiples of five; there could be 10, 15, 20, or even 30 rays on one starfish. This is called pentameral (five-fold) symmetry.
The degree of protection offered by the skeleton differs between species. If the skeleton becomes more rigid, it offers better protection against predators. However, this will tend to limit its feeding alternatives. Great flexibility is required for the process of external digestion used by many species to eat bivalves. The less well armoured species may adopt a life in places where they are not so open to predation. The heavily armoured ones can tough it out in the most competitive habitats:
The movement of starfish is guided by their senses of touch and sight. There are five 'eyes', light-sensitive cushions, one at the end of each arm. These and the tube feet are connected to nerve fibres, so these animals are more complex than might appear.
Although starfish started off as filter-feeders, they evolved to become major predators of shell-fish (the brachiopods and bivalves). They can also eat small crustacea and fish. Their tube feet developed suckers, perhaps originally to improve movement. Later, they were used to open shell-fish.
The shells of brachiopods and bivalves are held together by strong muscles. What the starfish does is clamp hold of them on either side with its tube feet, and apply a steady pull. The starfish, with its muscles and hydraulic system, can pull for much longer than any bivalve muscle can withstand. Apparently, ten minutes are usually enough to open the shell a bit. Then the starfish slips its stomach inside the shell. The stomach can get through a slot as narrow as 0.1mm. The starfish then dissolves the mollusc where it lives, absorbing the nutrients. This digestion process takes much longer than opening the shell, perhaps a couple of days.
Some species swallow the shell whole, and dissolve the contents inside their stomach, then push out the shell afterwards.
The ability of starfish to eat brachipods and bivalves developed in the Mesozoic, especially in the Jurassic and Cretaceous. This was part of the "Mesozoic marine revolution", which transformed the sea-floor fauna. Weakly defended and static shellfish disappeared, and more heavily armoured or more mobile shellfish flourished.
Starfish, like many sea creatures, are able to "regenerate" (grow back) parts of their bodies. Starfish are better at regeneration than most other creatures. Not only can a new ray grow when a ray is torn off, but if the torn off ray has even a small piece of the central disk still attached, a whole new starfish can grow from the one ray.
Because starfish like to eat clams and oysters, fishermen who gather shellfish have tried for years to get rid of them. To kill the starfish, fishermen would catch them, slice them right in half, and throw them back in the ocean. However, because starfish can grow back parts of their bodies, they were actually increasing the number of starfish.
Jellyfish are animals of the phylum Cnidaria. They are a monophyletic clade, the Medusozoa. Most of them live in the oceans, in salt water, where they eat small sea animals like plankton and little fish, and float in the sea. Only a few jellyfish live in fresh water.
They have soft bodies and long, stinging, venomous tentacles that they use to catch their prey, usually small plankton animals or small crustaceans or tiny fish. Some jellyfish hunt others by stinging cells called "nematocysts". A jellyfish is 97% water.
Most jellyfish have a bell-shaped body and long tentacles at the underside of the body. Tentacles are long "arms" with special stinging cells called nematocysts. They move by contracting their bodies, but they do not have much control over where they go: most of the time, they drift with the water current. The largest type of jellyfish is the Lion's mane jellyfish, which has tentacles that can be as long as 60 meters, but most jellyfish are much smaller.
The Medusozoa are four classes of the Cnidaria:
There are many types of jellyfish. The smallest jellyfish are just a few centimetres across. The largest jellyfish is the Lion's mane ("Cyanea capillata"), whose body can be over 3 feet (1 m) across, with much longer tentacles. Some jellyfish glow in the dark (this is called phosphorescence). Some of the most dangerous jelly fish include the box jelly (Genuses "Chironex", "Chiropsalmus" and "Carybdea") and the tiny, two-cm-across Irukandji jelly ("Carukia barnesi"); the venomous sting of these jellyfish can kill a person.
Many animals eat jellyfish, including sea turtles and some fish (including the sun fish). Humans eat jellyfish too; especially in Asia jellyfish are considered a delicacy. Jellyfish spoil very quickly after they are caught. Sometimes they are dried to preserve them. There is a different process in which they are cleaned, which can take up to 40 days. They are often eaten in a kind of salad, with soy sauce or vinegar.
Most jellyfish undergo two distinct life history stages (body forms) during their life cycle. The first is the polypoid stage, when the animal takes the form of a small stalk with feeding tentacles. Very often, this polyp is attached to the sea floor, or to another hard surface; it rarely moves around. A polyp that lives that way is called sessile. In some cases, the polyp is free-floating. Polyps generally have a mouth surrounded by upward-facing tentacles. Polyps may be on their own or in groups, and some bud asexually, making more polyps. Most are very small, measured in millimeters.
In the second stage, the tiny polyps asexually produce jellyfish, each of which is known as a medusa. Tiny jellyfish swim away from the polyp and then grow and feed in the plankton. Jellyfish reproduce both sexually and asexually. Well-fed adult jellyfish spawn daily. In most species, spawning is controlled by light, so the entire population spawns at about the same time of day, often at either dusk or dawn. Jellyfish are usually either male or female (with occasional hermaphrodites). In most cases, adults release sperm and eggs into the surrounding water, where the (unprotected) eggs are fertilized and mature into new organisms.
Medusae have a radially symmetric, umbrella-shaped body called a bell, which is usually supplied with marginal tentacles that capture prey. A few species of jellyfish do not have the polyp portion of the life cycle, but go from jellyfish to the next generation of jellyfish through direct development of fertilized eggs. Jellyfish at the medusa stage usually lives only up to six months, after which it dies.
Jellyfish eat plankton and small fish, which they catch using their venomous tentacles. Jellyfish may live in symbiosis with algae. The jellyfish transports them into sunlight and get nutrients from the algae's photosynthesis. Both forms of jelly fish have small tentacles with nematocysts (stinging cells) that sting and can hurt people on contact.
Medusozoans differ from anthozoans in having a medusa stage in their life cycle. Their mitochondrial DNA molecules are linear rather than circular as in anthozoans and almost all other animals. The cnidae, the explosive cells of the Cnidaria, are of a single type. There are nematocysts but no spirocysts or ptychocysts.
A group of jellyfish is called a current; an occurrence of many jellyfish simultaneously is sometimes called a "bloom".
Tilapia is a fish that is often farmed for food, or kept as pets in aquariums. They live in warm, fresh water, but some species live in brackish water. The fish are found in Africa, North and South America, India, and Sri Lanka.
They are listed as one of the worlds worst introduced species. They can quickly take over from native fish in rivers. This has happened in places like in the Endeavour River, in Queensland, Australia. These fish are thought to have been released into the river from an aquarium.
Sardine
Sardine is a name of several kinds of fish, especially oily fish. Another name for these fish is Pilchard. All of those fish are quite small and are related to the herring. The Latin name of the family of these fish is Clupeidae. However, the naming is not precise. Fishbase, a database about all kinds of fish, has six species just named "pilchard". There are over a dozen with the name of "sardine". Many more exist, with the basic names qualified by adjectives.
The fish are named after the Island of Sardinia. In the past, they could easily be fished there.
Many shops and supermarkets sell canned (or tinned) "sardines". The can is filled in liquids like water or oil. Very often, those fish are not sardines, but rather sprats or round herrings.
Bones are parts of the skeleton of vertebrates. They also protect organs inside our body.
The bones are the framework of the body. Without them we would be a pile of organs on the ground and would not be able to move.
Bones also protect. The skull protects the brain and the ribs protect the heart and lungs. The jaw and cheekbones support the facial muscles, which help us eat and smile. The pelvis protects the reproductive organs, and vertebrae protect the spinal cord.
Bone is living tissue, and must be maintained by taking regular exercise and by having calcium from foods like milk, and dark leafy greens such as spinach. The bone marrow in the middle of the bigger bones makes our red blood cells.
Long bones are hollow, with a central core which is not strong like the rest of the bone. It contains the bone marrow, one of the most important tissues in the vertebrate body. It produces blood cells for the blood system, and lymphocytes for the immune system.
Osteons are the small units of which the hardest parts of human bones are made. They are roughly cylindrical, and about 0.2mm wide and a few millimeters long. They are found in the bone in most mammals, and many reptiles, birds and amphibians. Inside the osteons are bone cells called osteocytes, each living in its own small space. Osteocytes make contact with each other by cytoplasmic processes through a network of tiny canals. This allows the exchange of nutrients and metabolic waste. Collagen fibers in each ring of cells ('lamellae') give them structure.
Osteons have a hole down the middle, called the haversian canal. This canal contains the bone's blood supply. It also contains capillaries, and nerve fibres.
The details of osteon structure varies between bones and parts of bones, from species to species, between sexes, and by age and environmental factors.
An anteater is a mammals of the family Myrmecophagidae and the suborder Vermilingua. Anteaters live in South America and Central America.
Anteaters eat ants and termites. They have long, sharp claws and a long, sticky tongue. The tongue can be up to 60 cm long, as long as a person's arm. The anteater opens an ant nest with its claws. Then it licks up the ants with its tongue.
Large anteaters that move on the ground knuckle-walk, bending their front toes under when they move the way gorillas do. Small anteaters that live in trees do not do this.
The polar bear ("Ursus maritimus") is a large bear which lives in the Arctic. It is also called white bear or northern bear. It has black skin under the white fur. They are strong and fast, and can run as fast as 25 miles (40 km) an hour for a short distance.
Polar bear fur is made up of a layer of dense underfur and an outer layer of "guard hairs", which appear white to tan but are actually translucent. The fur keeps them very warm. The skin is not white; it is black. Therefore, they can absorb sunlight efficiently. They are strong and can swim very well. Polar bears are similar in size to a normal bear but have a slimmer neck, longer legs and fur.
They are mostly carnivorous. Polar bears are apex predators. They eat mostly seals and fish. They also eat sea lions, walruses, reindeer, arctic hares, penguins, seagulls, small whales, lemmings, crabs and carrion. When polar bears hunt, they often wait at holes in the ice, where the seals come up to breathe. They can live off of one seal for many days, but it will make them hungry if they do.
Polar bears live alone.
Young Polar bears stay with their mothers for 1–2 years, and they become mature when they are 5–6 years old. People think polar bears can become 25–30 years old in nature, but in captivity (for example, in zoos), they can become up to 45 years old.
Polar bears live in countries in the Arctic Circle, including these:
The breeding time is 8 months. The babies are born six weeks after their mother mates. At birth, a baby cub weighs less than 2 pounds (0.9 kilograms).
The mother feeds the babies milk, which makes them grow fast, and after 10 weeks, the cubs weigh about 20 to 25 pounds (9.1 to 11.4 kilograms).
Young polar bears wrestle in the snow to build their strength and skills. They practice using their strong paws, and they show off their big, sharp teeth.
Mother polar bears will do anything to protect their young. They can kill a predator with just one swat of their powerful front paws. Scientists have even seen a mother polar bear stand up and leap at a helicopter to keep it away from her cubs.
During the first year, the cubs begin to eat solid food but still nurse from their mother. They begin to learn to hunt and swim. But they cannot live on their own.
By the time they are two years old, the cubs have grown into large bears. They leave their mother and strike off into territory of their own. They hunt and live alone. But they play with other bears they meet.
Polar bears are ready to mate when they are five or six years old. They are adults by this time and weigh 330 to 660 pounds (150 to 300 kilograms).
Both male and female polar bears live to be as much as 30 years old (in a zoo). Polar bears have 42 teeth.
As adults, male bears fight with each other over a female each male fluffs out his coat of fur to make himself look bigger. Then, he swaggers along, growling, to scare off his rival. Polar bear scientists call this "the cowboy walk."
The polar bear eats seals, fish and fruits (berries).
They can be up to 250 cm long and 160 cm tall and weigh up to 600 kg.
When two polar bears meet, they have a special way of greeting each other. They circle around each other for a while, grunting. Then they come closer and touch noses.
The polar bear was the most dangerous animal to hunt. It was also greatly respected for its strength and spirit. The bear's blubber, meat, and fur all help the Inuit survive. The Inuit gave thanks and respect in turn. After a hunt, they held a celebration that lasted for several days. Then, a polar bear dance was held. Finally, the bear's skull was set on an ice floe to release its spirit back into the Arctic.
A polar bear's paws are perfect snowshoes for them. The bottoms are wide and covered with fur to help keep the bear from slipping. The sharp claws help grip the ice.
A polar bear can crawl across ice too thin for a human to walk on. They spread out their legs and lay their bellies flat on the ice. Then they use their claws to slowly push themselves across the ice.
Polar bears mate in April or May. The cub is born in December, when the mother is hibernating. The cub stays in the den with the mother until March, then, they all come out. They eat immediately after hibernating. Sometimes, because of global warming, this is impossible and the cubs die before they have had a chance to live. The cub leaves its mother in 2–3 years.
The polar bear's liver contains a lot of vitamin A. Inuit people knew that eating the liver could cause sickness and death. Several groups of European polar explorers were seriously ill after eating livers. The symptoms included drowsiness, wanting to sleep, being irritable, headaches, and vomiting. After 24 hours, people's skin began to peel off.
The Blues Image
A singer is a person who sings. Anyone who is singing is a singer. Some people do it as a job (professional singer), others may sing without being paid (amateur singer). Singers may sing anything: songs, opera etc. They may be accompanied by an instrument or an orchestra. Some singers also play a musical instrument such as piano, guitar or harp while they sing (they accompany themselves). Singing is important in movies and in the theatre.
The lead vocalist (or lead singer) is the member of a band who sings the main solo vocal portions of a song. The lead vocalist may also play one or more instruments, and is usually the "leader" of their group, often the spokesperson in interviews and before the public. The lead vocalist is sometimes referred to as the frontman. For example, Jerry Garcia was the lead singer and frontman for the Grateful Dead.
A good singer will have to think of a lot of different things in a performance. Good vocal technique, a large vocal range, as well as "feeling the song" through emotional language and breathing, and also acting to provide a song with meaning. A good singer may be able to learn a song quickly, but it may take some time before they really feel it has become "part of them". A lead singer has to be a strong singer since other vocalists must sing accordingly.
Singers can sing as a solo, or in a group or a choir. Choirs can include gospel music, church music and even pop songs where there are usually two groups of singers, soprano and alto. Sopranos have a higher range and altos have a lower range. Combining these two can create various harmonies which add textures to songs and make them more interesting to listen to.
People may feel like singing for various reasons. They may want to share their feelings with other people. They may be feeling happy about something, or sad, or excited, frustrated or angry. Singing is an art in which mood is expressed through the voice.
Keyboardist
A keyboardist is a musician who plays one or more of the musical instruments called keyboard instruments, such as the piano, organ, or electronic synthesizer. A person who plays piano is also called a pianist. A person who plays organ is called an organist. Many types of music use keyboardists, such as rock, pop, funk, and classical music.
Mao Zedong (26 December 1893 – 9 September 1976) was a Chinese Communist leader. He is most notable for the resist of the Japanese invasion and unify China, which he ruled as the chairman of the Communist Party of China.
Mao Zedong is the Latin-alphabet version of Mao's name now used by most people. In the romanization common in his lifetime, it was spelled ""Mao Tse-tung"". "Mao" is his family name - in China, family names are placed first. Mao is also called Chairman Mao, because he was the Chairman of the Chinese Communist Party.
In the 1950s, Mao Zedong had many plans for how China could move forward in technology very quickly and catch up with countries like the United Kingdom and United States. Mao was responsible for the Five Year Plan. The Second Five Year Plan included the Great Leap Forward, which was a disaster for the Chinese people. Poor farming practices led to significant crop failure, and cities did not make many of their daily items like clothes and machines. The famine that came as a result killed millions of people via starvation.
A few years after Mao won the civil in China, Nikita Khrushchev became the leader in the Soviet Union. Before this, Joseph Stalin was the leader in the Soviet Union, Mao liked Stalin and respected the way he led, and China and the Soviet Union became allies with each other. Khrushchev thought Stalin was a criminal dictator, and led the country very differently. Mao and Khrushchev did not like each other, so the Soviet Union was no longer allies with China. China now had only a few allies like Albania, North Korea, Democratic Kampuchea, and Pakistan. This change of friends was called the Sino-Soviet split. "Sino" is another way to say "Chinese".
During the 1970s, Mao became more friendly with the United States. In 1972, American president Richard Nixon visited the People's Republic of China and met Mao. Mao died in September 1976, and the Cultural Revolution also ended that year. Mao's supporters were imprisoned, and Deng Xiaoping, who followed Mao, revised Mao's policies so that Chinese people could have private ownership.
Mao Zedong was afraid that Liu Shaoqi would overthrow him, and take over the CCP. As in the result, Mao blamed Liu Shaoqi for being a capitalist, and placed him in jail. Liu Shaoqi died in prison from brutal treatment, hunger, and terrible conditions.
After Liu had been removed from leadership, the defence minister Lin Biao was ranked second in the party and hoped to succeed Mao.
In 1971, Lin Biao and his wife died in a plane crash after trying to assassinate Mao and seize power for himself.
Mao had been in poor health for several years and had declined visibly for at least six months prior to his death. There are unconfirmed reports that he possibly had ALS or Lou Gehrig's disease. Mao's last public appearance was on 27 May 1976, where he met the visiting Pakistani Prime Minister Zulfikar Ali Bhutto during the latter's one-day visit to Beijing.
At around 5:00 pm on 2 September 1976, Mao suffered a heart attack, far more severe than his previous two and affecting a much larger area of his heart. Three days later, on 5 September, Mao's condition was still critical. On the afternoon of 7 September, Mao's condition completely deteriorated. Mao's organs failed quickly and he fell into a coma shortly before noon where he was put on life support machines. He was taken off life support over 12 hours later, quarter to midnight and was pronounced dead at 12:08 am on 9 September 1976.
His body lay in state at the Great Hall of the People. There was a three-minute silence observed during this service. His body was later placed into the Mausoleum of Mao Zedong, despite his wishes to be cremated and he had been one of the first high-ranking officials to sign the "Proposal that all Central Leaders be Cremated after Death" in November 1956.
Many Chinese mainlanders still believe Mao Zedong was a great leader, but they also knew that he did unwise and bad things. According to Deng Xiaoping, Mao was "seven parts right and three parts wrong" and his "contributions are primary and his mistakes secondary." Supporters praise him for having unified China and for ending the previous decades of civil war. He is also praised for having improved the status of women in China and for improving literacy and education. Some people think Mao Zedong made China lose its most important ally, or friend, the Soviet Union, in the Sino-Soviet Split. The Great Leap Forward and the Cultural Revolution were two of the things that Mao did that many people disliked. Some historians think that tens of millions of people died because of Mao's bad ideas and neglect. Some people disliked Mao because he did not express support family planning, and this caused too many births, making too rapid population growth in too small places. Leaders of China after Mao had to pass a new law called the one child policy.
Mao Zedong also made several changes to the Chinese language, such as switching from the Wade Giles system of Romanization to Pinyin. For this reason, Nanking is now called Nanjing on modern maps. Taiwan still uses Wade Giles, so its capital is called Taipei instead of the pinyin Taibei. He also simplified the Chinese characters, in theory it would make them easier to read and write so that more people would be literate.
Prelature of the Holy Cross and Opus Dei (more commonly known as Opus Dei) is an organization of the Roman Catholic Church. ("Opus Dei" means "Work of God" in Latin.) Opus Dei says that the Catholic Church gave them a special job: to tell everyone that God wants them to be close to him. This means that everyone is called by God to become a saint.
Opus Dei was started by St. , a Roman Catholic priest, in 1928. It was approved by Pope Pius XII in 1950. Now, Opus Dei has around 85,000 members in 80 different countries.
In 1982, Pope John Paul II decided to make Opus Dei into a personal prelature. Usually, in the Catholic Church, there are separate dioceses in different areas. Each area has its own bishop who is in charge of just that diocese. But because Opus Dei is a personal prelature, its bishopm called the Prelate, is not limited to any specific area. He is in charge of members of Opus Dei wherever they are, around the world. The prelate of Opus Dei is Monsignor Fernando Ocáriz Braña.
Opus Dei was started by a Roman Catholic priest, Josemaria Escrivá, on 2 October 1928 in Madrid, Spain. He said that God showed him what to do. On that day he "saw Opus Dei."
Escrivá said that the goals of Opus Dei are:
Opus Dei gives classes, talks, and other help so that people can practice these teachings.
Pope John Paul II has said that Escrivá was led by God when he started Opus Dei.
In 2002, Pope Benedict XVI said that Opus Dei is God's work, not Escrivá's. He said that God just used Escriva as a tool to start his own work.
Escrivá and Opus Dei teach that a person can get close to God by doing these things:
Escrivá said that the basis of a Christian life is being a child of God. If people are aware of this, then they will always be very happy. He wrote that joy comes from knowing we are children of God.
According to the Catholic Church, people can find God in their daily work and activities. There they can be very close to him. They do not have to become priests or monks to become a saint. God wants them to become a saint by doing their ordinary duties and activities well. The Catholic Church gave Opus Dei the job of spreading this knowledge, and teaching people that they can be real saints just by doing ordinary things and offering them to God.
Pope John Paul II praised Opus Dei and said that its aim of bringing God into the place of work is something great. Cardinal Albino Luciani, who later became Pope John Paul I, said that Escriva brought about a big change in how people deal with God. Before, people saw prayers as the only way to be close to God. Luciani said that Escriva also gave importance to work. The work one does can become prayer.
But when Escriva started teaching this, some Jesuits in the 1940s did not understand him. They said his beliefs were against the Catholic faith, because at that time Catholics thought that only priests and nuns could become holy. Some Jesuit leaders started saying that Opus Dei had secrets which it did not want the world to know, and that Opus Dei was dangerous. In fact, they said, Opus Dei just wanted to become very powerful and to control the world.
All these accusations were cleared up by the Popes and Catholic officials. These officials say that Opus Dei is doing something good for the world, by teaching people how to practice good habits, like telling the truth, working hard, keeping promises, loving people, and being concerned with those who are in need.
However, since the Jesuits are well-respected, a lot of people in the world believed what they said. Opus Dei has gotten a lot of criticism from Catholics and non-Catholics. They say that the members develop a strong drive to gain influence, and that the behaviour resembles that of a sect. Critics of Opus Dei also say there is a lot of gender inequality in the organization. They say Opus Dei has a very traditional view of the role of women in a Christian society. According to these critics, for Opus Dei the duty of the woman is to busy herself about the house and to raise the children of the family.
In 2005, a writer named John L. Allen, Jr. wrote a book which argued against these accusations. He said that these claims are mainly based on not understanding Opus Dei. He argued that:
Another writer, Massimo Introvigne, said that Opus Dei is now being attacked by people who do not believe in God and people who think that God should not be present in the world of human beings. These people, he says, do not want religion to come back to the lives of many people in society.
A superhero is a fictional character who protects innocent people and fights for good.
Modern superheroes usually have superhuman powers, for example have better senses, are stronger and faster than normal humans. Usually a superhero is courageous and noble. They usually have a colorful name and costume.
The most well known superheroes are Batman and Spider-Man.
Some superheroes do not actually have super powers but are merely strong individuals who want to do good in the world. For example, Batman does not have any superpowers, but has been through years of training to be physically and mentally stronger than his enemies.
Most superheroes keep their identities a secret by wearing masks or helmets. This protects the superheroes' friends and family from being hurt by villains. Also, because superheroes do not fight within the regulations of the law like police officers do, they would have to be arrested for vigilantism if they revealed their identities.
Also, many superheroes have tragic backstories that play into why they're superheroes in the first place. Batman, for example, saw both of his parents murdered in front of him and dedicated himself to fighting crime to prevent things like that happening to other people. Another example of this is Spider-Man who let a thief go that he could've easily stopped; that same thief later broke into his home and killed Spider-Man's uncle. After this, Spider-Man realized that he had to be responsible with his power and use it to help others.
Paul Karrer
Smush Parker
William "Smush" Parker (born 1 June 1981 in New York, New York) is a professional player in the American National Basketball Association.
Parker was not selected in the NBA player draft after a college career at Fordham University, and has played for the Cleveland Cavaliers, Detroit Pistons and Phoenix Suns, signing a contract with the Los Angeles Lakers during the 2005 offseason.
He last played in the NBA for the Los Angeles Clippers in 2010.
1462
Year 1462 (MCDLXII) was a common year starting on Friday of the Julian calendar.
Half-Life (video game)
Half-Life is a science fiction first-person shooter computer game developed by Valve Software and published by Sierra Entertainment in 1998, based on a very changed "Quake" game engine. It was first published for PCs running Microsoft Windows, and was later ported to Sony's PlayStation 2 video game console. It is the first game in the Half-Life series.
"Half-Life", often shortened to "HL", has been thought to be very great by computer game critics for its gripping in-depth storyline, which has influenced the development of many other first-person shooters after it. It became very popular after it was released and still has many fans.
The story of the game takes place in a science research facility in New Mexico named Black Mesa. In the game, you play as Gordon Freeman, a scientist who works at Black Mesa. A test that Gordon helps with goes wrong, and causes a "resonance cascade." This causes portals to appear all over Black Mesa. Aliens from a different dimension come through the portals and kill many of the scientists and workers. The dimension that the aliens come from is called Xen. After that, the United States Military is ordered to kill all the scientists and aliens in Black Mesa because they didn't want people to know about the accident. Gordon must fight aliens and marines on his way through Black Mesa, then teleport to Xen so he can kill the alien leader.
"Half-Life: Opposing Force" is the first expansion for Half-Life, which was made by Gearbox Software instead of Valve. It was released on November 1, 1999. Half-Life: Opposing Force happens during the same time as Half-Life and in the same setting. In the expansion, you play as Adrian Shepard, a United States marine. He was sent to Black Mesa, and must escape after the helicopter he was riding was shot down.
"Half-Life: Blue Shift" is the second Expansion for Half-Life, which was also made by Gearbox Software, and was released on June 12, 2001. "Half-Life: Blue Shift" happens during the same time as Half-Life and in the same setting, just like "Opposing Force." In this expansion, you play as Barney Calhoun, a security guard who works at Black Mesa during the resonance cascade.
"Half-Life: Decay" is the final expansion for Half-Life. Only the PlayStation 2 version of Half-Life has it. A few years after it was released, though, some fans of "Decay" made a version of it for the computer, and released it as a mod. The expansion is a cooperative multiplayer campaign, where two players have to work together to win.
The G-Man is a mysterious figure in the Half-Life series. Not much is known about him, other than he has control over space-time and can control reality.
A scientist working at Black Mesa.
Aliens from the dimension known as Xen.
Half-Life has 2 sequels. Half-Life 2 and its episodes and Half-Life: Alyx.
Year 1681 was a common year that started on a Wednesday when using the Gregorian calendar.
Anonymity means "namelessness" and comes from Greek words meaning "without name". It is when a person's identity or name is unknown. If a person is called anonymous, nobody knows who he or she is, or the anonymous person does not want to be found out.
The concept of anonymity has some important uses. It is vital for a democracy that votes cast in an election are anonymous. In that way, no-one can find out how a person voted in an election.
Spectroscopy is the study of light as a function of length of the wave that has been emitted, reflected or shone through a solid, liquid, or gas. To be analyzed the chemical is heated, because hot things glow and each chemical glows differently. The various wavelengths of the glow make a color spectrum that differs in some detail from other chemicals. Spectroscopy separates and measures the brightness of the different wavelengths. It can identify the chemicals in a mixture, and determine some other things, such as how hot the thing is.
Spectroscopy allows scientists to investigate and explore things that are too small to be seen through a microscope, such as molecules, and the even smaller subatomic particles like protons, neutrons and electrons. There are special instruments to measure and analyze these light waves.
Infrared spectroscopy measures light in the infrared electromagnetic spectrum. The highlight of IR spectroscopy is that it is very useful in identifying functional groups of organic molecules. The absorption of infrared light by organic molecules causes molecular vibrations. The vibrational frequencies are unique to the individual functional groups. IR spectra is given graphically by transmittance(%) vs. wavenumber (cm-1)
X-ray crystallography can look at the structure of a crystalline molecule. The electron cloud of each atom diffracts the X-rays thus revealing the positions of the atoms. Various inorganic and organic molecules can be crystallized and used in this method including DNA, proteins, salts and metals. The sample used for analysis is not destroyed.
Ultraviolet–visible spectroscopy uses visible and ultraviolet light to look at how much of a chemical is in a liquid. The colour of the solution is the basis for how UV-Vis works. The color of the solution we are working with is colored because of its chemical composition. So the solution absorbs some light colors and reflects other colors, the light it reflects is the color of the solution. UV-Vis spectroscopy works by passing light through a sample of your solution then determining how much light gets absorbed by the solution.
Nuclear magnetic resonance can look at nuclei. It uses the magnetic properties of certain nuclei, the most common being C and H. The NMR instrument generates a large magnetic field that makes the nuclei act like tiny bar magnets. The nuclei either align with the instruments magnetic field or against it. At this point we have two possible orientations the nuclei could be in α or β. Next the nuclei are exposed to radio waves that make α go to the β orientation. When this change occurs energy is given off and detected. The data is interpreted graphically (Intensity vs. chemical shifts in ppm) by a computer system. NMR does not destroy the sample you use for analysis. Below is a 900 MHz NMR system.
Equestrianism
Equestrianism is the sport of horseback riding. It is a popular sport in countries like the United States, Australia, the United Kingdom and other countries in Europe. Horses are used in many different competitions.
Within the sport, there are several types of riding, such as English and Western. In English riding, there are three Olympic events: cross country, dressage and show jumping (in which competitors ride horses over obstacles). There are no forms of Western riding in the Olympics.
In show jumping, a rider rides a horse over a set course of horse jumps while being timed. Riders win by having the fastest time without mistakes. There are many types of horse jumps such as the vertical oxer (over two rails), and combinations (2 or 3 jumps put right after each other).
Not every type of horse can jump well, just like not all horses are able to do well at horse racing or farm work. Most horses seen in show jumping competitions are warmbloods and throughbreds, horses that were bred for equestrian sports. The riding has been popular since 1900.
Dressage is an event where horses do not jump, but must be very obedient to their riders. There is usually a sequence that the horse and rider must complete. Letters are placed around an arena to show where movements should happen. In dressage the horse and rider can also perform a freestyle, which is also known as "Dancing on Horseback". Dressage riders usually wear tight pants called breeches, as well as a blouse, a top coat and a top hat. The moves of the horse are very graceful and people like to watch them. Horses that compete at the Olympics in dressage have had many years of training to learn all the moves they must do for the competition.
Eventing combines dressage, show jumping, and the horse version of cross country into one sport. This combined training is based on the old military tests of the cavalry where the rider's life depended on the horse listening to what the rider told it to do. Cross country makes this sport different from the other equestrian sports. It requires the horse to canter at a high speed over solid and interesting jumps. These jumps may be logs, stone walls, water, ditches, or banks. The cross country course is very long, and at the Olympics it may take as long as 10 minutes to complete the course.
The dressage test makes sure that the horse is listening to the rider. It tests that the horse is very well trained. The cross-country course makes sure that the horse is fast and brave, since cross-country fences may be very scary. The show jumping makes sure that the horse is in good shape, since he must do it the day after running over the long cross country course or on the same day. If the horse is too tired, he will hit the show jumps and make it harder for the rider to win.