AcharyaChanakya/simple-wikipedia huggingface dataset:
This view is quite neutral towards history. It says Bible stories that man failed in the Garden of Eden and needed to be saved are explanations of deeper spiritual truths. Some also say that Jesus Christ was God trying to start a new relationship with man.
Eastern Orthodoxy believes that a son is not guilty of the sins of his father (so sin is not passed down from Adam). They believe that men and women are forced to sin because of the world around them and thy have to try and resist if they want to go to Heaven. But they still believe that Adam caused all humanity to have to work for this. The emphasis on free will is great: even the sinful people can be saved through synergy with God's grace.
Pelagianism says that humans are capable of freely choosing good or bad decisions without God's help and that humans are not born with Adam's sin.
Mormonism believes that The Fall was part of a plan thought up by God so that His children could get into Heaven.
Mormons say that when Adam ate from the Tree of Knowledge it was not wrong, but was just a "demotion", like going from one good job to another, less good job. A step down but progressing in a forward direction. Mormons refer to The Fall as a Transgression. For Mormons a sin is the act of doing something contrary to the known will of God and to do so willing with full knowledge. Transgression, on the other hand, is the violation of a law or rule. So for Mormons, all sins (willfully disobedience) are transgressions but not all transgressions (violations) are sins. Since Adam didn’t have knowledge of good and evil before partaking of the forbidden fruit, so his act was a transgression of the law, not a sin against the law.
Before eating the fruit, Adam could never die. Because he could never die, he could never go to heaven. Eating the fruit made it so that Adam could die, so that later he could go to heaven. It also made it so that Adam and Eve could have children, so that everyone would have a chance to live, die, and go to heaven. Mormons say that if one follows the Plan of Salvation, that person can go to heaven. Mormons believe that:
Unification Church believe that Adam and Eve had sexual relations before they were married, and so they got thrown out of the Garden of Eden. They believe that a Blessing Ceremony can "wash" this sin away.
The Unity church believes that "The Fall of Man" has an important meaning but that it is not a true historic event.
Unitarian Universalists believe that people are inherently good, and that it is their most precious gift, free will, that allows people to sometimes act wrongly, rather than predestination or external temptation. The Fall is story, metaphor, allegory, not a history.
Philip Pullman wrote a series called "His Dark Materials" and he says in the book that The Fall was a good thing. It was when humans became free to learn. Pullman believes that it is not worth being innocent if the price is not knowing the truth.
C.S. Lewis wrote a book called "Perelandra" where Adam and Eve were on the planet Venus rather than the classic Garden of Eden.
Albert Camus wrote a book called "The Fall" where a man tells another man in a bar in Amsterdam called "Mexico City" why he did not want to rescue a man who was trying to kill himself by jumping off a bridge into a canal.
In the manga (or comic-book) "Neon Genesis Evangelion", The Fall is often talked about, and at the end, an attempt to clean Adam's sin is performed and a new genesis is started.
Colorado River
The Colorado River is a river in the southwestern United States and northwestern Mexico. It is approximately 1,450 miles (2,330 km) long. It drains a part of the dry regions on the western slope of the Rocky Mountains.
The natural course of the river flows into the Gulf of California. The heavy use of the river as an irrigation source for the Imperial Valley has desiccated the lower course of the river in Mexico. Now it no longer always reaches the sea.
On its way the Colorado River runs through Colorado, Utah, Arizona, Nevada, California and Mexico. The Colorado River drains 242,900 sq mi (629,100 km²). Total flows of the river range from 4000 cubic feet per second (570 m³/s) in droughts to 1,000,000 ft³/s (28,000 m³/s) in severe floods. With the construction of massive power dams on the lower course of the river, floods of over 70,000 ft³/s (2000 m³/s) are rare. The mean flow of the total river before diversion is 22,000 ft³/s.
Historically, the flow was much higher before water usage began in the basin.
Cola is a type of carbonated drink that was made from the kola nut in the past, although other foods are often used now. Coca-Cola and Pepsi are types of cola. 120 years ago, only 9 glasses of cola were sold each day, but now, around 14 million cola drinks are drank in the world every day.
Slash can mean:
Slash (musician)
Saul Hudson (born 23 July 1965), better known by his stage name Slash, is an English-American musician. Originally from Stoke-on-Trent, his family moved to Los Angeles, California when Hudson was a child. Slash is best known for being lead guitarist of hard rock band Guns N' Roses from 1985 to 1996. After leaving the band Slash first formed Slash's Snakepit and then later co-founded Velvet Revolver with his former Guns N' Roses bandmates Duff McKagan and Matt Sorum.
In August 2009, Time Magazine named him #2 on its list of the 10 Best Electric Guitar Players of All-Time.
Hurricane Beta
Hurricane Beta was the twenty-third named storm, fourteenth hurricane, and seventh major hurricane of the 2005 Atlantic hurricane season. It formed in the southwestern part of the Caribbean Sea on October 26 and made landfall on the eastern coast of Nicaragua on October 30 as a strong Category 2 hurricane. Although Beta did create a lot of damage, it was somehow less than originally expected.
Late on October 26, a broad area of low pressure in the southwestern part of the Caribbean Sea off the coast of Costa Rica developed and became Tropical Depression Twenty-Six. At the second full advisory six hours later, the depression was upgraded to Tropical Storm Beta. Beta strengthened into a hurricane at 2 am EDT October 29, after spending a few hours on the border between tropical storm and hurricane strength. Beta reached maximum windspeeds of 115 mph (185 km/h) making it a Category 3 hurricane by 4 am EST October 30. The Colombian island of Providencia, about 140 miles off the coast of Nicaragua, was in danger to hurricane force winds for several hours as the center of the storm moved slowly very close to the island. Original reports stated major damages to homes and a temporary loss of communications with the islanders.
Beta made landfall in the morning of October 30 near the town of Sandy Bay Sirpi, 310 kilometres northeast of the Nicaraguan capital, Managua, as a strong Category 2 hurricane, destroying many buildings and knocking down trees. It weakened as it moved onto land and dissipated into a remnant low pressure system. If the system continued to move westward, the remnant low could have probably re-strengthened after it entered the Pacific Ocean. If the storm had regenerated, a new number and name would have been given.
The remnants of Hurricane Beta poured heavy rain over parts of the Central America on Monday, making forecasters to warn of deadly landslides and flooding as the storm began to dissipate. There were numerous reports of damage but fortunately no deaths were reported, although there were several reports of injuries and people missing. The storm finally dissipated late in the evening of October 30. Although Beta had moved out to sea, several rain bands from the remnant continued to fall on Nicaragua and Honduras on October 31.
Nicaraguan government officials said that if the hurricane had hit larger coastal cities such as Puerto Cabezas or Bluefields as was first predicted, it would have been a disaster. Hurricane Beta was the first hurricane to be named after a letter in the Greek alphabet, because the first tropical system to be named with a Greek letter, Tropical Storm Alpha, did not reach hurricane strength.
In Puerto Cabezas, Nicaragua, local officials announced a curfew to help stop looting and worked to cut off electricity throughout the city to stop possible injuries. 60,000 people were moved into shelters. Thousands of residents striggled through heavy rain to reach shelters. Many experts, including national meteorology director Milagros Castro, warned of the threat of mudslides, especially since Beta was a slow-moving storm.
In Honduras, the government also kept a red alert for the storm and an emergency committee was working on moving 150,000 people from areas of the capital, Tegucigalpa, that would be in danger to flooding and mudslides. Evacuations were being readied in five of the country's eighteen departments. Civil defense officials have declared an alert in neighboring El Salvador, fearing the threat of mudslides after Hurricane Stan destroyed much of the area. The preparations eventually turned out to be very serious, since there was no deaths reported in spie of the large damages.
On the island of Providencia, roofs were ripped off from dozens of wooden homes, the island's main communications tower was knocked over and a tourist footbridge was destroyed. But most of the 5,000 islanders stayed safe by climbing Providencia's many hills to ride out the storm in brick shelters. At least thirty people are reported to have been injured during Hurricane Beta's destruction upon the island.
Beta wiped out most of the town of Sandy Bay as it made landfall. Local reports said the town's population of 3,000 had mostly evacuated in advance. Wooden huts made most of the housing in Sandy Bay, and about eighty percent of it was thought to be uninhabitable. Trees were knocked down and roofs were ripped off from houses during Hurricane Beta's attack on the country. At least one pier was damaged. Many herds of cattle were killed by the storm. 700 people were trapped in Tasbapauni, a town separated from the mainland by a lagoon. Eighty percent of homes in Tasbapauni are thought to be damaged very badly. Some 200 homes in Laguna de Perlas' seventeen lake-front villages are reported to have been damaged a lot.
Though the storm's remnants were expected to drop an additional four to eight inches on the already water logged ground, President Enrique Bolaños said his country had escaped a major disaster. He promised to quickly get aid to separated towns cut off by flooding and landslides. Nicaraguan Civil Defence Chief Col. Mario Perez Cassar said eighty per cent of the buildings on the central coast where the hurricane hit were heavily damaged or destroyed.
One person was reported to be injured and four people were reported missing in Nicaragua. The four missing men were later found alive on a boat that had been swept out into the Caribbean. A passing Panamanian-registered tanker ship found the four, all Miskito Indians, adrift about forty eight kilometres off the Nicaraguan coast after their gasoline ran out.
In Honduras, Beta left fifty communities separated and broke bridges in the northeastern provinces of Gracias a Dios, Atlantida and Colon on the coast. Strong winds knocked down signs, fences, trees and electricity and telephone poles, cutting off power and communication in hundreds of communities and at least two highways were blocked.
Authorities evacuated more than 7,800 people from north of the Nicaraguan border after four rivers overflowed from rain caused by Beta. The national soccer league stopped all of its games. The airports at La Ceiba and Roatan on the coast were operating intermittenly because of poor visibility, strong winds and flooding. Flooding damaged rice, corn and bean fields. High waters also sent snakes out of the jungle into urban areas, although there were no reports of snakebites.
Billie Joe Armstrong
Billie Joe Armstrong (born 17 February 1972 in Oakland, California) is an American musician and the lead singer and guitarist for the punk band Green Day. He also has numerous side projects as a vocalist, lyricist and guitarist in Foxboro Hot Tubs, Pinhead Gunpowder and The Network.
He was born in Oakland, California. He is of Cherokee, English, German, Irish, Italian, Mexican, Native American, Scottish, Spanish and Welsh descent.
Armstrong was given his first guitar "Blue", a Fernandes Stratocaster, at the age of 11 by his father, Andy, who died soon after. He and childhood friend Mike Dirnt started Sweet Children, their first band which eventually developed into Green Day in 1987. They added drummer John Kiffenmeyer (Al Sobrante). Sobrante left the band to go to college as they were making waves and gaining popularity. Frank Edwin Wright III (famously known as Tre Cool) replaced him as the permanent drummer making the official line up of Green Day in 1989.
The band gained a following in the punk scene in California, particularly in the Gilman Street Scene. They released three EPs ("1000 hours", "39/Smooth" and "Slappy") before releasing two LPs, one being a compilation of the EPs ("1039 Smoothed Out Slappy Hour") in 1991 and "Kerplunk" later in the same year.
With the release of their first major label album "Dookie" the band gained worldwide attention. Their intentions were not to sell out but just to make music. Unfortunately the popularity did not do well with the Gilman scene and they were exiled. However, despite those rough years the band became increasingly popular.
Armstrong is openly bisexual. He is married and lives in Berkeley, California with his wife Adrienne Armstrong and two sons Jakob and Joseph!
The Importance of being Earnest, A Trivial Comedy for Serious People is a play by Oscar Wilde. It was first performed on 14 February 1895 at St. James's Theatre in London. In the play, the protagonists make up people who are not real to try to make their lives easier. The play's most important themes are the light humourous way it treats serious things like marriages and the satire of Victorian ways. At the time the play came out, reviews all praised the play's humour. However, some people wanted better social messages, while others thought that it was the best play Wilde had ever written. It is Wilde's most popular play.
The plot is about two men who try to woo their respective lovers by convincing each that their name is Ernest. The play includes many puns and plays on words. Even the title is a pun, because "Ernest" is a man's name and "earnest" is a word that means "serious, honest, and sincere." The play is about morality, style, and hypocrisy, among others, but it is noted for being humorous and lighthearted.
The successful opening night marked the climax of Wilde's career but also heralded his downfall. The Marquess of Queensberry, father of Lord Alfred Douglas, Wilde's lover, planned to present Wilde a bouquet of spoiling vegetables and disrupt the show. Wilde was tipped off, and Queensberry was refused admission. Soon afterwards the feud came to a climax in court, and Wilde's new notoriety caused the play, despite its success, to be closed after just 86 performances. After imprisonment, he wrote no further comic or dramatic work. "The Importance of Being Earnest" has been revived many times since its premiere and adapted for the cinema on three occasions, in 1952, 1992 and 2002.
Unlike many other plays at this time, "The Importance of Being Earnest"'s light story was not about serious social or political issues. This was something that reviewers at that time were not sure what to think about. Though they were not sure of how serious Wilde was, they agreed that the play was clever, funny, and popular. George Bernard Shaw, for example, reviewed the play in the "Saturday Review". He said that comedy plays should not only be funny but touching, saying, "I go to the theatre to be "moved" to laughter". Later in a letter he said that the play was "extremely funny" but "really heartless".
In 1963, Erik Chisholm made an opera from the play.
BBC Radio 4 made a radio adaptation on 13 February 1995. It was directed by Glyn Dearman. Dame Judi Dench was "Lady Bracknell", Sir Michael Hordern was "Lane", Michael Sheen was "Jack Worthing", Martin Clunes was "Algernon Moncrieff", John Moffatt was "Rev. Canon Chasuble", Miriam Margolyes was "Miss Prism", Samantha Bond was "Gwendolen" and Amanda Root was "Cecily". The production came out on audio cassette by Hodder Headline Audiobooks with BBC Enterprises ().
On 13 December 2000, BBC Radio 3 broadcast a new radio adaptation directed by Howard Davies. In this radio adaption, Geraldine McEwan was "Lady Bracknell", Simon Russell Beale was "Jack Worthing", Julian Wadham was "Algernon Moncrieff", Geoffrey Palmer was "Rev. Canon Chasuble", Celia Imrie was "Miss Prism", Victoria Hamilton was "Gwendolen" and Emma Fielding was "Cecily". The music was written by Dominic Muldowney. The production was released on audio cassette by the BBC Radio Collection ().
Puerto Cabezas
Tegucigalpa
Tegucigalpa is the biggest and capital city of Honduras. As of 2006, the city has a total population of 1,200,000 residents.
Zappanale
Burlington Airpark
Burlington Airpark is an airport in Burlington, Ontario, Canada. It has two runways. The airport is privately owned by Vince Rossi.
The airport was created by Victor and Gwen Kovachik in 1962. It is a very popular airport for Toronto-area pilots.
The airport's first runway is and is made of asphalt and turf. The second runway is and is made of turf.
Pratibha Patil
The lily is a genus of flowering plant. There are many species of lilies, like trumpet lilies and tiger lilies. They are usually quite tall, and are perennials.
Most lilies grow from a bulb, which in some species develops into a rhizome, which carries small bulbs.
Lilies grow in Europe, North America, and Asia. There are more than 100 species, and many cultivated varieties. They also come in various colours. It tends to grow wild in the forest and a grassy plain of a mountainous area, but several kinds grow wild on wet ground. A lily's petals come in multiples of three. The fleur de lys is a stylized depiction of the lily.
Some "Lilium" species are toxic to cats, especially "Lilium longiflorum".The mechanism is not exactly known but it involves damage to the kidneys, which can cause acute renal failure. Veterinary help should be sought, as a matter of urgency, for any cat that is suspected of eating any part of a lily – including licking pollen that may have brushed onto its coat.<section end="lilium-toxicity" />
Tropical Storm Zeta
Hurricane Zeta was the twenty-eighth and last storm of the 2005 Atlantic hurricane season. It formed very late during the year on December 30, after the official end of the season, and was a very rare tropical cyclone to live during two calendar years.
Tropical Storm Zeta formed on December 30 in the central Atlantic Ocean, where it stayed far away from land during its whole lifetime. While every forecast given to the storm predicted it to dissipate quickly, Zeta, like Hurricane Epsilon, denied those advisories. Zeta reached to its maximum strength on January 2 until finally dissipating on January 8, also bringing the close to the end of the 2005 season.
Late on December 29, 2005, a tropical depression developed in the east-central Atlantic Ocean from a frontal trough and strengthened into a tropical storm early the next day. As this was more than four weeks after the official end of the season, the National Hurricane Center did not actually classify the system until after it had already become a tropical storm. The new bound storm originally moved to the northwest but stopped for a few hous late on December 31 before moving west. As Tropical Storm Zeta slowly gained strength, it had many characteristics similar to Hurricane Epsilon, like when the National Hurricane Center constantly forecasted that Zeta would weaken because of the high wind shear; but Zeta still held onto its strength, like Epsilon had done.
Tropical Storm Zeta weakened a little bit on January 2, before strengthening again to its maximum strength with 65 mph (100 km/h) winds on the same day. One of the models suggested that Zeta could strengthen further and become a hurricane but this did not happen. Tropical Storm Zeta continued to reject forecasts of weakening and on January 4, so much frustration made NHC forecaster, Dr. Lixion Avila to say that he had "run out of things to say".
The effects huge amount of wind shear finally began to affect the storm itself on January 4, as Zeta's strength began to weaken. This made Tropical Storm Zeta to weaken into a very weak tropical storm. The NHC still continued to overestimate how fast Zeta would dissipate and early on January 5 they actually downgraded Zeta to a depression, which was later confirmed to have been wrong. Zeta continued to move west-northwestward, barely holding on to tropical storm status before becoming disorganized again. Zeta weakened into a tropical depression on January 6 and dissipated into a remnant later that day, finally bringing an end to the 2005 Atlantic hurricane season. But the remnant low still its identity for one more day before it dissipated 660 miles (1060 km) southeast of Bermuda.
Several of the people that were taking part in the 2005 Atlantic Rowing Race were affected with heavy seas and strong, unpleasant winds from Tropical Storm Zeta. The ship "Liberty Star" made several reports of strong winds from Tropical Storm Zeta, including one of 40 mph (65 km/h) winds early on December 31, when the ship was about 45 miles (75 km) north from the center of the storm. Because Tropical Storm Zeta never came close to land, no coastal watches or warnings were given out. There were no reports of damages or deaths from Zeta.
When Tropical Storm Zeta formed at 0600 UTC on December 31, it became the second latest-forming tropical cyclone ever recorded in the Atlantic Ocean, forming about six hours earlier than Hurricane Alice did in 1954. Zeta is only the second Atlantic tropical cyclone on record to have lived through two calendar years (after Alice). Tropical Storm Zeta also extended the record number of storms to form in the 2005 season to twenty-eight, seven more than the previous record held by a hurricane season from 1933. It was also the only Atlantic storm to have a name beginning with the letter "Z", since the list of names for Atlantic storms do not have a "Z" name.
Daniel Grayling "Dan" Fogelberg (August 13, 1951 – December 16, 2007) was an American singer, songwriter and multi-instrumentalist, whose music was inspired by sources as diverse as folk, pop, classical, jazz, and bluegrass music. He was most popular in the late 1970s and early 1980s.
Lettuce is a vegetable. Both the stems and the leaves can be eaten.
Lettuce can be grown in many parts of the world, including Europe, Asia, and North America, in temperate climates. It will turn more bitter tasting in hot weather. You can grow lettuce during winter in a greenhouse.
In some countries, it is often eaten cold and raw, in salads, hamburgers, tacos, sandwichs, and many other dishes. In some places, including China, lettuce is eaten cooked. Lettuce contains very little energy or nutrients.
Most lettuce leaves are green, but some are red. Most lettuce leaves taste bitter. Some kinds of lettuce grow in a head shape like cabbage, while the leaves of some kinds grow more loosely.
The five main cultivars are: green leaf, red leaf, cos, crisphead, and stem lettuce.
Common varieties are Romaine, iceberg, and butter lettuce.
The name of the plant in English, "lettuce," and in Latin, "lactuca," come from "lactis", the Latin word for milk, because the juice of the plant looks like milk.
Wild lettuce plants were eaten by the Romans and Egyptians. The ancient Greeks were among the first people to grow lettuce as a crop. It was one of the first plants brought to the New World by Christopher Columbus.
Hadrosaurus
Hadrosaurus ("Hadrosaurus foulkii") was a genus of hadrosaurid dinosaur from the Upper Cretaceous period. Is the only species in its genus and is the official state dinosaur of New Jersey.
The name is dubious because no skull has been found to distinguish it from near relatives.
William Alan Shatner (born on March 22, 1931) is a Canadian Actor who gained fame for playing James Tiberius Kirk of the "USS Enterprise" in the television show "" from 1966 to 1969 and in seven more movies. Shatner has written a series of books telling his experiences playing James T. Kirk and being a part of "Star Trek". He also played the role as veteran police sergeant "T.J. Hooker", from 1982 to 1986. He has since worked as a musician, bestselling author, producer, director, and celebrity pitchman, most notably for Priceline.com. He currently co-stars as attorney "Denny Crane" on the television drama "Boston Legal", for which he has won an Emmy and a Golden Globe Award.
Shatner is of Jewish descent.
He trained as a Shakespearean actor and appeared in many plays. Before Star Trek, Shatner appeared in other TV shows such The Outlaws, 1960's "The Outer Limits", The Twilight Zone, and movies. His first movie was in 1951. He starred in the movie "Incubus" that was filmed only in Esperanto.
Yeardley Smith
Denise Richards
Ashley Judd
Barbara Stanwyck
Barbara Stanwyck (July 16, 1907 – January 20, 1990) was an American actress of movie, stage, and television.
In 1999, the American Film Institute named her among the Greatest Female Stars of All Time, ranking at No. 11.
She was awarded the Golden Globe Cecil B. DeMille Award.
Brooke Shields
Brooke Christa Camille Shields (born May 31, 1965) is an American actress and supermodel. She has been named one of People's most beautiful people in the world three times. Shields started being a model when she was 11 months old. Ford Models started their children's division for Shields.
She first acted in "Alice, Sweet Alice", a 1976 slasher film. Her next film was "Pretty Baby". In it she played a child prostitute called Violet. She was 12 when it was released and was naked in the film. Some people said this was child pornography and Shields got a lot of attention from this. In February 1980 she was the youngest model ever to be on the cover of Vogue (magazine). She was 14. Later that year she was in adverts for Calvin Klein jeans. In 1981, she starred in The Blue Lagoon.
In 1985 a book Shields wrote about her life, "On Your Own" was published.
In 1987 Shields got a degree from Princeton University in French literature.
From 1996 to 2000, Shields was the main character in the sitcom "Suddenly Susan".
On April 19, 1997, Shields married Andre Agassi. She later married Chris Henchy with whom she has two daughters.
On July 7, 2009 Shields gave a speech at Michael Jackson's memorial service. Jackson and Shields met when she was 13. They became friends instantly. In an interview with Rolling Stone, Shields said, “There were times when he would ask me to marry him, and I would say, ‘You have me for the rest of your life, you don’t need to marry me, I’m going to go on and do my own life and have my own marriage and my own kids, and you’ll always have me’.”
In his 1993 interview with Oprah, Jackson said that he was dating Shields. However, in the 2009 Rolling Stone interview Shields said the last time she saw Jackson was 1990.
Fujita scale
The Fujita scale is a scale used for rating tornado strength, based on the damage tornadoes cause on human-built buildings and vegetation. The official Fujita scale category is determined by meteorologists (and engineers) after a ground and/or aerial damage inspection; also including analysis of available sources such as eyewitness accounts and damage images and/or videos. It was replaced with the Enhanced Fujita scale in the United States in February 2007.
Other F0 Rated Tornadoes:
Waterspout
Canton Ticino or Ticino ([]; French and German: "Tessin" [] and []) is the southernmost canton of Switzerland. The written language is Italian in almost the entire canton (except the Walser municipality of Bosco Gurin, where it is German). It surrounds the Italian exclave of Campione d'Italia. Together with areas of the canton of Graubünden it makes up the so-called "Svizzera Italiana" (Italian Switzerland). Lombard dialects (Ticinese) are still spoken, especially in the valleys, but they have no official status. It is named after the Ticino river.
The canton of Ticino is located in the south of Switzerland. It is almost entirely surrounded by Italy which lies to its east, west and south. To the north lie the cantons of Valais and Uri, to the northeast the canton of Graubünden.
Its area is 2,812 km², of which about three quarters are considered productive. Forests cover about a third of the area, but also the lakes Maggiore and Lugano make up a considerable part of the total area. These lakes are known with the above listed names, but are officially named Lake Verbano and Lake Ceresio.
The canton is split geographically in two parts by the Monte Ceneri pass. The northern, more mountainous part, called "Sopraceneri", is formed by the two major Swiss valleys around the lake Maggiore: Ticino Valley and Maggia Valley. The southern part, called "Sottoceneri", is the region around the Lake Lugano.
The River Ticino is the largest river in the canton. It drains most of the canton, flowing from the northwest through the Bedretto Valley and the Leventina valley to enter Lake Maggiore near Locarno. Its main tributaries are the Brenno in the Blenio Valley and the Moesa in the Mesolcina Valley in Graubünden. The lands of the canton are shaped by the river, which in its mid portion forms a wide valley, commonly known as the "Riviera".
The western lands of the canton, however, are drained by the Maggia River. The Verzasca Valley is located between the Ticino river and the Maggia river. There is also a smaller area that drains directly into the Lake Lugano. Most of the land is considered within the Alps, but a small area is part of the plain of the River Po which drains the north of Italy.
In ancient times the area of what is today Ticino was settled by the Lepontii, a Celtic tribe. Later, probably around the rule of Augustus, it became part of the Roman Empire. After the fall of the Western Empire, was ruled by the Ostrogoths, the Lombards and the Franks. Around 1100 CE it was the centre of struggle between the free communes of Milan and Como: in the 14th century it was definitively acquired by the Visconti, Dukes of Milan. In the 15th century the Swiss Confederates conquered the valleys south of the Alps in three separate conquests.
The Canton of Uri conquered the Leventina Valley in 1440. Between 1403 and 1422 some of these lands were already annexed by forces from Uri, but subsequently lost. In a second conquest Uri, Schwyz and Nidwalden gained the town of Bellinzona and the Riviera in 1500. Some of the land and the town Bellinzona itself were previously annexed by Uri in 1419 but lost again in 1422. The third conquest was fought by troops from the entire Confederation (at that time constituted by 12 cantons). In 1512 Locarno, the Maggia Valley, Lugano and Mendrisio were annexed. Subsequently, the upper valley of the Ticino River, from the St. Gotthard to the town of Biasca (Leventina Valley) was part of Canton Uri. The remaining territory ("Baliaggi Ultramontani", "Ennetbergische Vogteien", the Bailiwicks Beyond the Mountains) was administered by the Twelve Cantons.
The lands of the canton of Ticino are the last lands to be conquered by the Swiss Confederation. (After the battle of Marignano in 1515 the king of France Francis I defeated the Confederates, and they gave up any further conquests.) In February 1798 an attempt of annexation by the Cisalpine Republic was repelled by a volunteer militia in Lugano. Between 1798 and 1803, during the Helvetic Republic, the districts of Bellinzona and Lugano were separate cantons, but in 1803 the two were unified to form the canton of Ticino that joined the Swiss Confederation as a full member in the same year. During the Napoleonic Wars, many Ticinese (as was the case for other Swiss) served in Swiss military units allied with the French.
Until 1878 the three largest cities, Bellinzona, Lugano and Locarno, alternated as capital of the canton. In 1878, however, Bellinzona became the only and permanent capital.
The current constitution dates from 1997. The previous constitution, heavily modified, dates from 1830, nearly 20 years before the constitution of actual Swiss Confederation.
The cantonal parliament is the "Grand Council" (Italian: "Gran Consiglio"), with 90 members and the government ("Consiglio di Stato") has 5 members ("Consiglieri di Stato"). In the both councils the members are elected with the proportional electoral system. The canton sends two deputies to the Swiss Council of States (upper house), and eight deputies to the National Council (lower house). It's regional capitol is Bellinzona.
The main agricultural production is wine, mostly merlot, a type of red wine. It is followed by horticulture, milk and cheese production.
The hilly slopes of the canton are used extensively for the production of hydroelectricity. The electricity produced is used at home and sold for export. There is cattle breeding in the northern areas. The production of wine is important in the canton and exported to mainly other areas in Switzerland. The vineyards are mostly concentrated in the southern half of the canton where the climate is warmer. Other agricultural produce includes corn (maize), potatoes, tobacco and vegetables.
The weather in the canton is often inverse to that north of the Alps. This, and a warmer climate in general, attracts many tourists from other Swiss cantons. The lakes together with the sunshine are considered attractive. Tourism is the single most important economic factor in the canton.
There is also light industry, mostly concentrated around the three largest towns of Lugano, Locarno and Bellinzona.
The canton is well connected to the rest of Switzerland. There are tunnels underneath the Gotthard massive, both for rail and road. The canton of Grisons (Graubünden) is connected with a direct coach link, whereas the canton of Valais is connected by rail through a tunnel at the Simplon Pass. There are good rail links to Milan and Rome in Italy as well as Germany via Basel and Zürich.
Because of the tourist trade there are a number of small railways in scenic areas in the mountains. Winter sports is important, despite being less developed.
There are two major centres of education and research located in the canton of Ticino. The University of Italian speaking Switzerland (USI, Università della Svizzera Italiana) is the only Swiss university teaching in Italian. The University of Applied Sciences of Italian speaking Switzerland (SUPSI, Scuola Universitaria Professionale della Svizzera Italiana) on the other hand is a professional training college focused on a practical method of teaching in the areas of applied art, economy, social work, technology and production science.
Three daily newspapers are published in Ticino: Corriere del Ticino, La Regione, and Giornale del Popolo. These represent the only Italian daily publications in Switzerland.
The official language, and the one used for most written communication, is Italian. In oral communication Western Lombard (Ticinese) varieties, although receding in favour of Italian (especially in the cities of Lugano, Ascona and Locarno and among the younger generations), are still well preserved. These are further subdivided into local variations, with the northern valleys speaking a dialect more closely aligned with Romansch, Switzerland's fourth official language. There is a certain amount of popular literature (poems, comedies, etc.) in Ticinese, and the national radio and televisions trasmit regularly program in Ticinese (mainly comedies).
The population is mostly Roman Catholic (75%) or Protestant (7%). About 2% each are Orthodox or Muslim.
The Canton of Ticino is divided into 8 districts ("distretti") and 38 circles ("circoli"):
There are 195 municipalities in the canton (as of February 2006). These municipalities ("comuni") are grouped in 38 "circoli" (circles or sub-districts) which are in turn grouped into districts ("distretti"). Since late 1990 there is an ongoing project of group some municipalities together (as they are small).
Ticino (river)
Po (river)
The Po (Latin: "Padus", , ancient "Eridanus") is a river that flows 652 kilometers (405 miles) eastward across northern Italy, from Monviso (in the Cottian Alps) to the Adriatic Sea near Venice. It has a drainage area of 71,000 km² and is the longest river in Italy.
It goes through many important Italian towns, including Turin (Torino) and (indirectly) Milan (Milano), in Lombardy. It is connected to Milan through a net of channels called "navigli", which Leonardo da Vinci helped design. Near the end of its course, it creates a wide delta (with hundreds of small channels and five main ones, called "Po di Maestra", "Po della Pila", "Po delle Tolle", "Po di Gnocca" and "Po di Goro") at the southern part of which is Comacchio, an area famous for eels. The Po valley corresponds to the Roman Cisalpine Gaul, divided in Cispadane Gaul (South of the Po) and Transpadane Gaul (North of the Po).
The vast valley around the Po is called "Pianura Padana" and is so efficiently connected by the river that the whole valley became the main industrial area of the country. This river is subject to the authority of a special authority, the "Magistrato delle Acque".
Roman poets sometimes referred to the Po river as Eridanus, which also has other meanings.
The main products of the farms around the river are cereals.
In 2005, water from the Po was found to contain "staggering" amounts of benzoylecgonine, which is excreted by cocaine users in urine. Based on these figures, cocaine consumption was estimated to be about 4 kg daily, or 27 doses per day per thousand young adults in areas that feed into the river—a number nearly three times higher than previous estimates. The po river also has large fish in the waters which can be found only in the summer. The river consists of 71,000,000 pounds of water that turns purple once every year. the temperature in the waters are below 1-.
On May 4, 2007 The river dried up in spots completely. Italy declared a state of emergency in the northern and central regions. The Alps had reduced snowfall the previous winter. It was the Alps's warmest winter in 1300 years. Experts said this could have been part of global warming. There was some discussion about filling the river up by diverting water flows from large lakes and reservoirs in the Alps.
The Po showed the effects of drought again in 2017. By then, experts were even surer it was part of global warming, then called climate change.
Tributaries include (R from the right side, L from the left, looking downstream):
Cristiano Ronaldo dos Santos Aveiro (born 5 February 1985), better known as Cristiano Ronaldo, or by his nickname 'CR7', is a Portuguese professional footballer who plays as a forward. He plays for Serie A club Juventus and is the captain of the Portuguese national team. He is considered to be one of the greatest footballers of all time, and, by some, as the greatest ever.
Ronaldo began his professional career with Sporting CP at age 17 in 2002, and signed for Manchester United a year later. He won the FA Cup in his first season, and then won three back-to-back Premier League titles: in 2006-07, 2007-08, and 2008-09. In 2007-08, Ronaldo helped United win the UEFA Champions League. In 2008-09, he won his first FIFA Club World Cup in December 2008, and he also won his first Ballon d'Or. At one point Ronaldo was the most expensive professional footballer of all time, after moving from Manchester United to Real Madrid for approximately £80 m in July 2009.
He won his first trophy with Real Madrid in 2011, the 2010-11 Copa del Rey. In the next season, he won his first La Liga title with the club, the 2011-12 La Liga. In the 2012-13 season he won the Supercopa de España. In the next season, the 2013-14 season, he won his second Ballon d'Or. Then he won the Copa del Rey, and he also won his second Champions League with a record 17 goals. The following year, Ronaldo won the Ballon d'Or again, along with his second FIFA Club World Cup in December 2014. In 2016, Ronaldo won his third Champions League, and scored the winning penalty in the final against Atlético Madrid. He won his fourth Ballon d'or the next season, his second La Liga title for the first time in five years, another Champions League, and his second Club World Cup. Ronaldo's last season with Real Madrid was the 2017-18 season, where he won his fifth Ballon d'Or in 2017, and also won his fifth Champions League and scored two goals in the final against Juventus. With his third consecutive Champions League, he became the first player to win the UEFA Champions League five times. He would later go on to transfer to Juventus in July 2018. Ronaldo left the club by holding the record for being the top goal scorer in Real Madrid's history, and remaining as the only player in La Liga's history to score 30 or more goals in six consecutive seasons.
Ronaldo began his career with Portugal at age 18. He scored his first goal at UEFA Euro 2004 and helped Portugal reach the final, although they lost to Greece 1-0. The first World Cup he played at was the 2006 FIFA World Cup. He scored a goal and helped Portugal earn fourth place. Two years later, he became Portugal's full captain. Since then, he has appeared at three Euro's: 2008, 2012, and 2016, and two World Cups: 2014 and 2018. He helped Portugal win their first major international trophy at Euro 2016, and their second three years later with the UEFA Nations League.
Cristiano Ronaldo dos Santos Aveiro was born in Funchal, Madeira Islands to Maria Dolores dos Santos and José Dinis Aveiro. He has one brother named Hugo, and two sisters named Katia and Elma. Ronaldo was diagnosed with a racing heart (Tachycardia) at age 15, but he got surgery to treat it. In 1997, 12-year-old Ronaldo went on a trial with Sporting CP. He impressed the club enough to be signed for £1,500. He then moved from Funchal to Lisbon, to join the Sporting youth academy.
Ronaldo played his first professional match against Inter Milan on 14 August 2002. He came in as a sub during the second half. On 7 October 2002, Ronaldo played his first game in the Portuguese Primeira Liga, against Moreirense. He scored two goals and Sporting won 3–0. Ronaldo came to the attention of Manchester United manager Alex Ferguson in August 2003, when Sporting defeated United 3–1 in the first game ever played at the Estádio José Alvalade in Lisbon. His performance impressed the United players, who told Ferguson to sign him.
On 12 August 2003, Ronaldo joined Manchester United from Sporting CP for a fee of £12.24 million. He was Manchester United's first Portuguese player. He wanted the number 28, the number he wore at Sporting, but was eventually given the number 7. This number had been worn by George Best, Eric Cantona and David Beckham before him. He played his first game for the club on 16 August 2003 in a 4-0 win against Bolton Wanderers. Many people were impressed with his debut, including legendary United player George Best. Ronaldo's first goal with Manchester United was a free kick. He scored it in a 3-0 win against Portsmouth on 1 November 2003.Ronaldo won his first trophy in England, the 2003-04 FA Cup, in May 2004, when Manchester United beat Millwall 3-0. Ronaldo scored the first goal of the match.
Ronaldo scored his first UEFA Champions League goals in a 7-1 victory against A.S. Roma in April 2007. He scored two goals that day in what was his 30th Champions League match. He played the FA Cup Final that year, but United lost 1-0 to Chelsea. Even though he lost the FA Cup final, he didn't end the season without a title, because he won his first Premier League title.
In the 2007-08 season, Ronaldo scored his first and only hat-trick for Manchester United in a 6–0 win against Newcastle United on 12 January 2008. In the 2008 Champions League final against Chelsea, he scored a header as the match ended 1-1 after extra time. Although he missed his penalty, Manchester United won the shootout 6-5 and Ronaldo won his first UEFA Champions League. On 15 November 2008, Ronaldo scored his 100th goal for United in a 5-0 win against Stoke City. He also scored two free-kicks: the first one was his 100th goal. He scored a total of 42 goals and won the European Golden Boot, an award given to the top scorer of every European national league.
He won the first FIFA Puskas Award in 2009. The Puskas Award is given to whoever scores the best goal of that year. The goal was a 40-yard strike into the top-left corner against FC Porto on 15 April 2009 in the Champions League quarter finals. That goal was the only goal of the game. It was also an important goal because it sent United to the semi-finals. In the semi-final against Arsenal, Ronaldo scored two goals. One of them was a free kick from 40 yards out. His goals helped Man United qualify to the final, where they lost to Barcelona 2-0.
Ronaldo joined Real Madrid on 1 July 2009 for a fee of €94 million. That was a world record transfer fee at the time. He also signed a six-year contract with the club. At his presentation as a Real Madrid player, 80,000 people greeted him at the Santiago Bernabéu Stadium. This is the world record, breaking the 25-year record of 75,000 people at Diego Maradona's presentation for Napoli. He wore the number 9 in his first season because number 7 was taken by Raúl González. Ronaldo had to wait until Raul left the club in the summer of 2010 to wear number 7. He made his debut (first appearance) on 29 August 2009, in a La Liga game against Deportivo de La Coruña. He scored a goal and Real Madrid won 3-2. On 23 October 2010, Ronaldo scored 4 goals in a match for the first time in his career during a 6-1 win against Racing de Santander. Ronaldo scored a header in extra time in the 2011 Copa del Rey final against rivals Barcelona. His goal was the match winner, so that was Ronaldo's first trophy in Spain. At the end of the 2010-11 season, he became the first player to score 40 goals in La Liga.
On 2 November 2011, Ronaldo scored both goals in a 2-0 Champions League group stage win against Olympique Lyon. The second goal was his 100th goal for Real Madrid. He achieved this in just 105 matches. He scored his 100th La Liga goal for his club in just 92 appearances in a 5-1 win against Real Sociedad on 24 March 2012.
Ronaldo began the 2012-13 season by winning the 2012 Supercopa de España. He scored in both legs, as Real Madrid won against Barca. In October 2012, he scored his first hat-trick in the Champions League in a 4-1 win against Ajax. On 6 January 2013, Ronaldo captained his club for the first time. In May 2013, he scored his 200th goal for Real Madrid in a 6-2 win against Málaga. He finished as the Champions League top scorer that season. Ronaldo also won his second Ballon d'Or in 2013.
In the 2013-14 season, Ronaldo broke the record for most goals in one Champions League season by scoring his 17th goal with a penalty in extra time in the final against Atlético Madrid that Real Madrid won 4–1. The previous record was 14 goals, set by Messi in the 2011-12 season.
In the 2014-15 season, Ronaldo set a new personal record by scoring 61 goals in all competitions. This achievement helped him win his second Ballon d'Or. He scored five goals in one match for the first time in his career in a 9-1 win vs. Granada on 5 April 2015. He became Real Madrid's all-time top scorer when he scored 5 goals against RCD Espanyol in a 6-0 away win on 12 September 2015. This brought his total goal tally to 230 goals in 203 games. The previous record holder was Raul.
On 18 April 2017, he became the first player to reach 100 goals in the UEFA Champions League, after he scored a hat-trick in a 4-2 extra-time win against Bayern Munich. On 18 March 2018, Ronaldo reached his 50th career hat-trick in a 6-3 win against Girona. Ronaldo scored an amazing bicycle-kick in a UEFA Champions League match against Juventus on 3 April 2018. He got a standing ovation, or round of applause, from the Juventus fans after scoring that goal. Real Madrid went on to play the final against Liverpool F.C.. Real Madrid became champions, so that was Ronaldo's 5th Champions League.
On 10 July 2018, He joined Juventus of Italy and signed a 4 year contract worth 112 Million Euros. The transfer was the highest paid for a player over 30 years old. People called it "the deal of the century".