AcharyaChanakya/simple-wikipedia huggingface dataset:
These persons and their groups attacked people, they tried manly to attack the foreign troops in Saudi Arabia. Some examples of such attacks are given below:
September 11, 2001 attacks in New York had resulted into many deaths and big destruction. After enquiry, it came to light that out of 19 suspected persons for these attacks, 15 were from Saudi Arabia.
Such things attracted the attention of the government of Saudi Arabia. The government started a policy to check such activities. Even then, terrorist activities of such persons and groups continued.
Linga
A linga or a lingam is a very complex symbol of Hinduism. It is associated with Shiva, supreme god in main gods of the Hindus. The Hindu scriptures say that a linga represents energy and strength. In almost all the temples of Shiva, Shiva is shown in the form of a linga.
The Hindu scriptures also say that Shiva took twelve forms as Jyotirlinga, that is, "a linga of light". In India, there are twelve places where this form of Shiva is worshiped. The Hindu scriptures also tell about five more forms of lingas. These form of lingas represent the earth, the water, the fire, the air and the sky (or ether). There are five different places in India where Hindus worship these forms of Shiva. These places are located at the following locations:
Beside above places, in almost all the towns and villages of India, Shiva’s temples are found. In all such temples, lingas are worshipped.
United States National Guard
The United States National Guard is an organization of the United States Army and the United States Air Force. The U.S. Army and U.S. Air Force are both branches of the United States military. The National Guard is a militia (an emergency army) for the United States. Each U.S. State has its own National Guard, usually under the control of that state's government. When needed, they are mobilized under control of the United States.
There are two parts of the United States National Guard, administered by the National Guard Bureau of the United States Department of Defense. The Air National Guard is part of the United States Air Force; the Army National Guard is part of the United States Army. The two National Guard groups are identified by the kinds of jobs they do. The Air National Guard does mainly air defense jobs, while the Army National Guard does the jobs on the ground.
Bishop's Stortford
Bishop's Stortford is a town in Hertfordshire in south-east England, with about 35,000 people living there.
People have lived in the area for hundreds of thousands of years but it became a permanent town by the time of the Saxons.
The Domesday Book says there were 120 people living there in the 1100s. The Normans built a small castle there but it was unused and broken by the time of the Tudors.
The town grew as an important centre for transport. After 1769, ships were able to use the river. It was a stagecoach stop for travel on the road between London and Cambridge. In 1842 the town got a railway station.
In 1901 there were 7,000 people living there, and by 1951 it was 13,000.
The town is popular for travellers to London because of the M11 motorway (an important road) and good train services to London. Stansted Airport has also caused development.
A raven is a big black bird, ("Corvus corax"). It may be called the common raven or the northern raven. It is similar to a crow but bigger. It and the thick-billed raven are the two largest birds in the crow family, and perhaps the heaviest perching birds. The raven's feathers are all black, but a crow has feathers that are white at the bottom. This cannot be seen from a distance.
The most famous raven is in the Edgar Allan Poe story called "The Raven".
The common raven can be tamed. Some think it is mischievous and sly, and it has been regarded as a bird of evil and mysterious character.
Malnutrition is eating a diet which does not supply enough nutrients. There are two broad cateogries of malnutrition:
Sometimes, people need to lose weight, and eat according to a special diet. This is usually not called malnutrition.
Malnutrition is considered a more scientific and official term than starvation which has negative associations. Malnutrition is not, however, simply a matter of eating too little. Someone can be malnourished if they eat an unhealthy diet. This can be cured by eating a proper balanced diet.
Children whose daily diet contains less carbohydrate and protein do not grow well. They do not gain weight. Their hands and legs appear as skin and bones. They cry all the time with hunger. They are not active and have sunken eyes. Such children often fall sick. Lack of a particular vitamin is another kind of malnutrition which can cause a particular deficiency disease, such as beriberi and rickets.
Malnutrition becomes a bigger problem during famine because most of the people do not get enough food, hence increasing the death rate.
Carolina parakeet
The Carolina parakeet is an extinct species of parrot.
It was the last parrot type to have lived before the European conquest in the eastern United States. It was found from the Ohio Valley to the Gulf of Mexico, and lived in old woods along rivers.
The last wild Carolina parakeet was killed in Okeechobee County in Florida in 1904, and the last bird kept by people died at the Cincinnati Zoo in 1918. This was the male bird called "Incas", who died within a year of his mate "Lady Jane". It was not until 1939, however, that it was agreed that all the Carolina parakeets had died.
At some date between 1937 and 1955, three parakeets looking like this sort of bird were seen and recorded on videotape in the Okefenokee Swamp of Georgia. However, the American Ornithologists Union thought that they had probably recorded escaped pets. Additional sightings were recorded in Okeechobee County in Florida until the end of the 1920s.
The Carolina parakeet died out for a number of reasons. To make space for more farms, large areas of forest were cut down, taking away its living space. The colorful feathers (green body, yellow head, and red around the bill) were in demand as decorations in ladies' hats, and the birds were kept as pets. Even though the birds were bred easily in captivity, little was done to make sure enough birds were bred to avoid their dying out. Finally, they were killed in large numbers because farmers thought they were pests.
Another reason that led to their extinction was that, unfortunately, they liked to return in large flocks to places where some of them had just been killed. This led to even more being shot by hunters as they gathered about the wounded and dead members of the flock.
Match Game was a game show that ran from 1962-1999. Hosted Premierie on 1973 Present CBS GSN & More Premierie June 26 2016 on ABC During $100,000 Pyramid Match Game The Hollywood Squares (1983) Like The Price is Right in Wheel of Fortune October 31 1983 on 1962-2016 Present Finale Until of 1979 in 1980-1982 in 1990 Theme in 1960s-2010s Like Pyramid
First the challenging contestant would pick a question, A or B. Host Gene Rayburn would read it to the contestant. Then the contestant and the six celebrities would write their answer to the question on a piece of paper. Then after the contestant and the celebrities got done with their answer, Gene would ask for the contestant's answer. They would tell it to him. Then he would ask the celebrities for their answers. If the contestant's and a celebrity's answer are the same the contestant would get a point, and a green triangle would light up.
Then the defending contestant would take the remaining question. Then the process was the same as above, except red circles lit up.
Whoever had the most points at after two rounds of the above procedures would win $100 and go on to the Big Money Super Match.
Before the game show, the audience would be surveyed. Their top 3 answers to the question (e.g. Road ___) would be worth (3rd most popular) $100, (2nd most popular) $250, and (most popular) $500. The contestant would pick 3 celebrities to give them answers they thought would be under the $500 slot. Then the contestant would choose one of those answers or make up their own. The answers were revealed one at a time.
If the contestant won the Audience Match, they would get a chance to win 10 times that money. They had to match a celebrity's answer exactly to questions like ____ Bee. At first, the contestant chose the celebrity they wanted to play with. In 1978, the Star Wheel was introduced. The contestant spun a wheel to determine which celebrity they would be playing with. If the wheel stopped on a gold star section, the money the contestant would be playing for was doubled.
The first "Match Game" had different rules from this one and was shown on the NBC network starting in 1962 and ending in 1969. Then, this "Match Game" was introduced on the CBS network in 1973. That version ended in 1979. In 1975, a syndicated version titled "Match Game PM" started. It had three rounds of gameplay, and two Audience Matches in the Big Money Super Match. It ended in 1981. A second syndicated version with the same gameplay as "Match Game PM" started in 1979, and ended in 1982. In 1983, it was combined with another game show, "Hollywood Squares", to form the "Match Game-Hollywood Squares Hour", which was on television for one year. Six years later, in 1990, it was brought back for the ABC network with a new host, Ross Shafer. In this version, contestants played for cash. It also featured a new round called the "Match Up" round. It was played at the end of both rounds. To start, a contestant chose one of the celebrities. The contestant had 30 seconds (45 in the second round) to match the celebrity in Super Match-style questions. Each question had two choices. Matches were worth $50 in the first round and $100 in the second. This version ended in 1991, but in 1998 it returned with Michael Burger as host. It featured five celebrities instead of six. This version was not very famous, however, and ended in 1999.
Melanesia
Melanesia is a region of islands in Oceania.
It stretches from the western side of the Eastern Pacific Ocean, to the Arafura Sea, northeast of Australia. Its name was invented in 1832 and means "black islands".
The following islands and groups of islands since the 19th century have been considered part of Melanesia:
Islands whose long-established inhabitants are of mixed ancestry and do not necessarily self-identify as Melanesian:
Some of the islands to the west of New Guinea such as Halmahera, Alor, and Pantar can also be considered part of Melanesia, although people in this area do not make use of the term.
Diaphragm
The diaphragm is a muscle that is at the bottom of the ribcage of mammals.
When breathing in, the diaphragm pulls down so that the size of the lungs increases, allowing air to enter the lungs.
When breathing out, the diaphragm rests and goes up making a dome shape, decreasing the size of the lungs and pushing air out.
This increases the surface area of the air so that there is more oxygen that the lungs can hold.
Germ theory of disease
The Germ theory of disease is a theory in biology. It says that small organisms (called germs), also known as microbes, cause some diseases. These diseases are called infectious diseases. The germ theory states that small organisms cause a reaction in the body of those who are infected. The body's reaction to infection is called a disease.
Many scientists and doctors in history figured out that diseases are caused by microscopic organisms. Even after the microscope was invented, people still didn't know that germs caused diseases. People long believed that "bad air" from stinky trash dumps and from rotting meat was the cause of diseases. So people thought that covering their mouth and nose with a cloth would help filter out the "bad air." Scientists and doctors would use garlic and perfumes to ward off the bad air. But people still got sick and even died, so this theory was wrong. Polluted air is not the cause of disease.
One problem with the old theories of disease was that people believed that living things were spontaneously generated. Spontaneous generation is when something like a fly grows from a small speck of smelly meat. That old theory is called abiogenesis. In the seventeenth century, Francesco Redi (February 18, 1626 – March 1, 1697) discovered that flies lay eggs that become maggots. Prior to this, people thought that maggots came from rotting meat. He discovered this by sealing some meat in a jar and watching it. No maggots were found on the sealed meat. He also put some meat in a jar and covered it with gauze. Maggots were found on the gauze but not inside the jar. But when he placed meat in an open jar, maggots were found on the meat and inside the jar. Experiments like this proved that maggots come from flies who lay eggs, not from rotting meat. Later scientists would prove that diseases did not come from the air. Diseases are spread by infection.
Also in the eighteenth century, Antonie van Leeuwenhoek discovered the first microscopic organisms with a microscope. He was the first microbiologist. He saw some of the microscopic organisms that cause diseases, but he didn't know what they were. In 1700, Nicolas Andry thought that some of these microscopic organisms caused smallpox and other diseases. Over 100 years later, Agostino Bassi figured out what caused disease in silkworms. Ignaz Semmelweis was a doctor who figured out that if doctors washed their hands after touching dead people, that other patients wouldn't get sick. That was in 1847. It was about this time that sanitation and hand washing became popular with some, but not all doctors. Doctors began to use chemicals to cleanse wounds and clean their tools between each patient.
One of the most famous experiments of the nineteenth century was when John Snow discovered the source of a cholera outbreak. It turns out that cholera is transmitted when human waste contaminates water that people drink. Snow found out that there was a large number of sick people in Soho in London. After talking to many people in the area and mapping where each sick person lived, he realized that the sick people were almost all getting their drinking water from the same public water pump. He solved the epidemic by having the water pump's handle removed so that the people would get water from some other place. It worked, and the epidemic was soon over.
Louis Pasteur showed that the germ theory of disease was true. In 1862, he invented a process that heats up a liquid to a high temperature to keep it from spoiling. This process is known as pasteurization, named after Pasteur. Pasteurization is used to kill microscopic organisms in liquids like milk, wine, and beer. Liquids that are pasteurized will last much longer before they spoil.
Later, he did an experiment with fermentation. In one case he made a broth that he put inside a jar with a very long winding tube, so that no particles could pass to it from outside. Air could get inside the tube, but almost no dust. The broth he made did not change, and no fermentation took place.
He then took a similar broth, but this time he allowed air and dust to go inside the jar. This time, fermentation took place. The thing that caused fermentation therefore needed to come from outside (the environment). And it wasn't just air that caused fermentation, it must be something floating in the air which was very small. We now know that small particles called yeast cause fermentation.
In the latter part of the nineteenth century, Robert Koch and Joseph Lister would go on and help establish the germ theory of disease as an important part of science and medicine. Koch's theories are called "postulates" and helped medical researchers know what causes diseases. Lister's ideas would help establish sanitation as a major defense against disease. Koch's postulates and Lister's sanitation discoveries are still very important today.
We now know that small things cause diseases. Each one of these things can cause infection: fungus, bacteria, virus, prion, yeast, protist.
Labor Day is a holiday in the United States and Canada on the first Monday of September. This holiday honors workers. It is similar to the May Day holiday in other countries. Many businesses close on Labor Day. Many students start school the day after Labor Day.
In some countries, it is known as International Workers' Day. It is celebrated every year on May 1 in almost 80 countries in the world. The day is celebrated on a different day, such as the first Monday of September in the United States.
Christian cross
The Christian cross is the main symbol of the Christian religion. These crosses are usually found on Christian churches.
Jesus, who many Christians believe is God the Son and their Messiah, was crucified (nailed to a large wooden cross). This was a commonly used method for killing people in Roman times.
Christians believe that Jesus' death made the sins of all humans who trust in him, go away, and that they are forgiven. They also believe that Jesus was resurrected (came back to life) after three days. Because of this, the cross is a symbol for Jesus' sacrifice and suffering, but also a symbol of hope, forgiveness of sins, and victory over death.
There are several different Christian crosses that are symbols for different Christian groups or persons.
A cross with the body of Jesus on it is called a Crucifix.
The empty cross is usually favoured by Protestants and Eastern Orthodox, and the symbol reminds them of the Resurrection of Jesus, though the Orthodox will add a slanted footbar, as well. The crucifix is favoured by Catholic churches and is a reminder of Christ's sacrifice. Jehovah's Witnesses believe that Jesus died on a simple upright pole, a "torture stake" ; and only display it as a picture of an impaled Jesus in their literature.
Christians remember the death of Jesus on the cross on Good Friday every year.
The most common cross is the Latin Cross. The cross represents and memorializes Christ's death.
This cross is a symbol of hope over death, and of victory in returning to life. (See Philippians 2:8-9)
Martin Luther King, Jr. Day
Martin Luther King, Jr. Day is a US Federal Holiday. It commemorates civil rights activist Martin Luther King, Jr.'s birthday. It is celebrated on the third Monday in January and is one of only four United States Federal holidays to honor an individual person.
President Ronald Reagan signed a bill, proposed by Representative Katie Hall of Indiana, to create a federal holiday honoring King. The holiday was observed for the first time on January 20, 1986. It is observed on the third Monday of January.
Washington's Birthday
Memorial Day is a national holiday in the United States. It is also a state holiday in many states. The holiday honors troops who have died in past wars like World War I and the Korean War. Memorial Day was first held in 1865 after the American Civil War. It was called Decoration Day at that time. The holiday was first called Memorial Day in 1882, and became a federal holiday in 1967. On June 28, 1968, the United States Congress made a law that said that the official Memorial Day holiday is May 30, but that Memorial Day was to be observed by Federal Employees as a paid holiday on the last Monday in May. Memorial Day is thought of by many Americans as being the start of summer. It was founded by John A. Logan(General).He fought in the Civil and Mexican–American War.
Veterans Day is the American holiday when people who had served in the military during war-time are remembered and thanked. It is both a federal and a state holiday. The holiday is celebrated on the same day as Armistice Day or Remembrance Day in other countries. These holidays are all November 11. This is the day seen as the end of World War I. The first World War ended on November 11, 1918.
The holiday was first created as Armistice Day in 1919 by President Woodrow Wilson. Thirty states made it a state holiday that year. It was made a holiday for the entire country in 1938. In June 1, 1954, the name was changed to Veterans Day.
Ralph Vaughan Williams (b. Down Ampney, Gloucestershire, 12 October 1872; d. London, 26 August 1958) was the most important English composer of his generation.
Vaughan Williams always pronounced his first name “Rafe” - (“Vaughan” rhymes with “born”). His father was a rector. Ralph was very young when his father died. The family moved to Dorking near London. He went to Charterhouse School and played the viola in the school orchestra. He studied at the University of Cambridge and at the Royal College of Music where Hubert Parry was his teacher.
Vaughan Williams wanted to be a good composer, so he went abroad to study with famous composers like Max Bruch in Berlin and Maurice Ravel in Paris. Yet he knew that he must not simply imitate these composers, so he also studied English folk song. He became good friends with the composer Gustav Holst. The two men always showed one another the music they were writing so that they could help one another by offering criticism.
In 1910 he wrote a work which became one of his best-known pieces of music: the "Fantasia on a theme of Thomas Tallis". The piece is for a string orchestra divided into two sections. It uses a theme by the famous 16th century composer Tallis. He also wrote hymn tunes for the English Hymnal. One of his most popular hymn tunes is the one called "Sine Nomine" sung to the words “For all the saints”. Another lovely work is "The Lark Ascending". This is a short work for solo violin and orchestra. The violin sounds like a skylark singing in the sky. In 1934 he wrote a short piece for flute, harp and string orchestra called "Fantasia on Greensleeves" which is based on the famous English Renaissance tune "Greensleeves".
During his long life Vaughan Williams wrote nine symphonies, works for the stage, songs, choral music and chamber music. In 1938 he wrote a famous piece called "Serenade to Music" for 16 solo singers and orchestra. It was one of several works he wrote inspired by Shakespeare. The words were from the play "The Merchant of Venice". It was written for the 50th anniversary of Sir Henry Wood’s career as a conductor. In 1953 he wrote music for Queen Elizabeth II’s coronation, including a very short and simple motet "O taste and see" which has remained very popular with church choirs.
In his old age he became quite deaf. This was because of the noise of gunfire he had been exposed to when he was serving as a stretcher bearer in World War I.
Some of Vaughan Williams’s best works are those where he makes his music sound like folk song. He loved the poetry of Housman and used some of the poems in a song cycle called "On Wenlock Edge" for tenor, piano and string quartet. His music always sounds English. He was born in the 19th century which was a time when people thought English musicians were not very good. Vaughan Williams and Edward Elgar (who was a little older) made people realise that it was possible for an Englishman to write beautiful, moving music.
The New Grove Dictionary of Music & Musicians, ed. Stanley Sadie; 1980
Recycling is the process of recovering scrap or waste and reprocessing the material into useful products. Glass, paper, plastic, and metals such as aluminum and steel are all commonly recycled. Dead plants, fruit and vegetable scraps can be recycled through composting. It is important, however, not to confuse recycling with reusing, which is where old things, such as clothes, are donated or given a new use instead of being thrown out.
One reason that people give for recycling is that it reduces trash in landfills and incinerators. Another reason people recycle is to reduce the amount of raw materials and energy used in making things. Most of the time, it takes less energy to recycle trash than to throw it away, "The Economist" says. Recycling can reduce your carbon footprint and it can help to minimize the whole size of landfills around the world.
The 3 R's are Reduce, Reuse, and Recycle.
Most people make about two kilograms of waste (trash) every day, and about 7% of this waste is made up of plastic products that can be recycled. Today, plastic can be recycled into products like picnic tables, park benches, and even high-chairs.
First, plastic is collected and taken to a recycling center, where it is "sorted out". When plastic is sorted out, symbols have to be printed on every recyclable plastic product used. There are two types of plastic: "polyethylene" and "polymer". There are two kinds of polyethylene plastic, too: "high density polyethylene" (HDPE), and "low density polyethylene" (LDPE). HDPE plastic is usually used to make furniture, and LDPE plastic are usually things like milk jugs, plastic and grocery bags.
HDPE plastic is ground into a small powder. LDPE plastic, which are usually thin films, need to be ground by a special machine. After that, both plastics are washed with hot water and . Dirt and other things, like labels, are taken off. After the wash, the powder is dried with hot air.
Sometimes, the powder is sold. But other times, the powder is heated, colored, and then put into a "pelletizer". The pelletizer makes the powder into little , which are bought by a company that shapes the pellets into pieces of plastic "wood". This plastic wood is used to make flowerpots, trash cans, pipes, picnic tables, benches, toys, mats, and many other things.
Transnistria, Transdniestria, or Pridnestrovie, officially the Pridnestrovian Moldavian Republic (PMR; ), is a partially-recognized state in Eastern Europe.
The country is recognized by three other partially or unrecognized states, Abkhazia, Nargorno-Karabakh Republic, and South Ossetia. The country declared independence from Moldova on 2 September 1990. With the help of the Russian army, it defeated the Moldovan army in the War of Transnistria.
There has been peace since 1992, but the Council of Europe calls Transnistria a "frozen conflict" region.
There is argument about whether it is really a country or not. The region continues to boast independence, and acts independently over its territory with the help of peacekeeping forces from foreign countries.
In a vote in 17 September 2006, 97% voted to be free from Moldova. This vote has not been accepted by Moldova, which calls the territory the "Territory of the Left Bank of the Dniester".
Transnistria is the only independent state to still use the hammer and sickle on its flag.
Mercalli intensity scale
The Mercalli intensity scale (or more precisely the Modified Mercalli intensity scale) is a scale to measure the intensity of earthquakes. Unlike with the Richter scale, the Mercalli scale does not take into account energy of an earthquake directly. Rather, they classify earthquakes by the effects they have (and the destruction they cause). When there is little damage, the scale describes how people felt the earthquake, or how many people felt it.
Very often, non-geologists use this scale, because it is easier for people to describe what damage an earthquake caused, than to do calculations to get a value on the Richter scale.
Values range from I - Instrumental to XII - Catastrophic.
Giuseppe Mercalli (1850-1914) originally developed the scale, with ten levels. In 1902, Adolfo Cancani extended the scale to include twelve levels. August Heinrich Sieberg completely rewrote the scale. For this reason, the scale is sometimes named Mercalli-Cancani-Sieberg scale, or MCS scale.
Harry O. Wood and Frank Neumann translated it into English, and published it as Mercalli–Wood–Neumann (MWN) scale. Charles Francis Richter also edited it. He also developed the Richter scale, later on.
The lower degrees of the Modified Mercalli Intensity scale generally deal with the manner in which the earthquake is felt by people. The higher numbers of the scale are based on observed damage to structures
The large table gives Modified Mercalli scale intensities that are typically observed at locations near the epicenter of the earthquake.
This is an accurate representation
The Scale under here is also a really good source for the Mercalli Scale.
There is a correlation between the magitude and the intensity of the earthquake. Even though this correlation is there, it may be difficult to link one to the other: This correlation depends on several factors, such as the depth of the earthquake, terrain, population density, and damage. For example, on May 19, 2011, an earthquake of magnitude 0.7 in Central California, United States 4 km deep was classified as of intensity III by the United States Geological Survey (USGS) over away from the epicenter (and II intensity almost from the epicenter), while a 4.5 magnitude quake in Salta, Argentina 164 km deep was of intensity I.
The small table is a rough guide to the degrees of the Modified Mercalli Intensity scale. The colors and descriptive names shown here differ from those used on certain shake maps in other articles. However, it will not be 100% accurate.
Dili
Dili is the capital of the country East Timor. People from Portugal moved there around 1520. Now, Dili is home to about one hundred fifty thousand (150,000) people.
Holly is a type of bush with recognisable leaves. The leaves have sharp edges, and are often used to decorate a house on Christmas Day. Some types of holly are used to make tea. The leaves of the Holly don't fall of in the winter because they're very thick and have a waxy layer on them.
Holly bushes produce berries that birds often eat during the winter season.
Dysentery
Dysentery is a disease that involves severe diarrhea. It is caused by a bacterium, which causes the intestines to swell up a lot. The main symptom of dysentery is having blood in the excrement. Some more symptoms are high fever and abdominal pain. It is usually treated with antibiotics. The diarrhea is severe and can be a problem for the people who catch the disease.
NHK, the Japan Broadcasting Corporation, is Japan's public broadcaster, like PBS in the United States. Its name is written as or Nippon Hōsō Kyōkai in Japanese.
NHK was founded in 1926, based on the BBC radio company in the United Kingdom. They began operating TV broadcasting in 1953. The first color broadcast was in 1960.
Everyone in Japan who owns a TV is asked to pay anywhere 15,720 or 27,360 (included satellite broadcasting) 円 per year to support NHK; there is a discount for lump sum payment.
NHK has lots of types of TV shows:
NHK has 500 staff members in the announcer division alone; but announcers that convey nationally important events and news are operated quite fixedly like Korean Central Television.
Fargo, North Dakota
Fargo is the largest city in the American state of North Dakota. It is in the eastern part of the state, near the Minnesota border. The city was founded in 1871, and it has a population of 105,549 as of the 2010 census. Fargo lies at the intersection of two major highways, Interstate 29 and Interstate 94.
Blur (band)
Blur are an English alternative rock band. Formed in London in 1988 originally under the name Seymour, the group's members are singer Damon Albarn, guitarist Graham Coxon, bassist Alex James and drummer Dave Rowntree. Blur's first album "Leisure" (1991) contained the sounds of Madchester and shoegazing. After a change in sound started by English guitar pop groups such as the Kinks, the Beatles and XTC, Blur released "Modern Life Is Rubbish" (1993), "Parklife" (1994) and "The Great Escape" (1995). As a result, the band helped the Britpop genre become popular and became popular in the UK, which was helped by a rivalry with Oasis in 1995 called "The Battle of Britpop".
Daft Punk were an electronic music duo from France. There are two people in the band, Guy-Manuel de Homem-Christo (born February 8, 1974) and Thomas Bangalter (born January 3, 1975). Daft Punk uses analog synthesizers and other real instruments to make their music. On 22 February 2021 they released the video "Epilogue" that announced the end of Daft Punk as a group.
Both of the two Daft Punk members went to the same school in Paris.
They became friends and recorded a demo track with other students from the school. Thomas Bangalter played bass while Guy-Manuel de Homem-Christo played guitar.
They formed a band called Darlin' which featured an additional member named Laurent Brancowitz.
The Darlin' experience did not last very long and after a show they performed in the United Kingdom, a newspaper qualified the music of Thomas and Guy-Manuel as "daft punk" (silly punk music).
Thomas and Guy-Manuel were amused by this nickname and officially adopted it, and that's how they became the well known Daft Punk.
Laurent left the group and joined his younger brother Christian Mazzalai of Phoenix.
While attending a rave at Eurodisney, they met Scottish house/techno artists Stuart MacMillan and Orde Meikle of Slam who signed them up to the label Soma Quality Recordings based in Glasgow.
Daft Punk recorded their first demo called, "The New Wave" as well as a handful of others including, "Alive" and "Da Funk" both of which would appear in their debut album a few years later.
In 1995, Daft Punk began to record in the studio a song called Da Funk which became their first commercial success.
After that success, Daft Punk looked for a manager, and they chose Pedro Winter who is also known by the name Busy P.
The idea of Homework debuted when Daft Punk signed with Virgin Records.
That album became one of the most essential house albums of the nineties after that it had been released in 1997.
In 1999, Daft Punk returned to recording studio to work on Discovery which would be their second album and their second success.
Discovery reached the second place on the UK Charts.
One More Time, their first single from Discovery, became a giant hit around the globe and Daft Punk became one of the most famous electronic music groups.
Daft Punk used many samples (little sounds from other songs) to compose songs like Face to Face, Too Long and Harder, Better, Faster, Stronger. (Kanye West's 2007 song Stronger from the album Graduation uses a large sample from Harder, Better, Faster, Stronger.)
In 2003, Daft Punk released the full-length animated movie Interstella 5555. The band worked with the Japanese animation company Toei Animation and the famous Japanese producer named Leiji Matsumoto to create this film. It is a fully animated story that is set to the Discovery album from start to finish and with no additional words and only a few added sound effects.
In 2004, Daft Punk spent six weeks on their third album.
Human After All was a subject of controversy, concerning some aggressive aspects in songs like Technologic, saying that most of the songs were too repetitive.
De Homem-Christo and Bangalter only said:"We believe that Human After All speaks for itself".
In 2006, Daft Punk released "Electroma", a short film about two robots (Daft Punk themselves) who are on a journey to become human. The film however, did not feature any music by Daft Punk but instead a selection of songs by other artists of different types of music genres.
Daft Punk went on their second world tour, "Alive 2006/2007". The duo played worldwide to thousands of people. Daft Punk played in a pyramid on stage which was admired for its futuristic design.
In 2008, Daft Punk made their first televised performance at the 2008 Grammy Awards. They performed with Kanye West as he rapped, "Stronger".
In 2010, Daft Punk were chosen to compose the soundtrack to . The duo had a cameo in the film.
In 2013, Daft Punk released their final album Random Access Memories. Columbia Records became their new label after many years with Virgin Records.
They collaborated with Giorgio Moroder, Todd Edwards, Nile Rodgers, Panda Bear, Chilly Gonzales, DJ Falcon, Julian Casablancas, Paul Williams and Pharrell Williams.
Random Access Memories had very little electronic music in it. Instead, Daft Punk used live instruments and minimized the use of synthesizers. It is a tribute to the disco, rock and funk music of the 1970s and 1980s.
The lead single "Get Lucky", featuring Pharrell Williams and Nile Rodgers, was met with critical acclaim and topped many charts around the world. At the 2014 Grammy Awards Get Lucky won Record of the Year and RAM won Album of the Year.
In 2015, a documentary called "Daft Punk: Unchained" was released. It told the history of the band from their beginnings in the early 1990s to the 2014 Grammy Awards.
Paralympic Games
The Paralympic Games are a major international sports event. People with physical disabilities compete in these games. They are called Paralympians. They include people with disabilities that affect movement, amputations, blindness, and cerebral palsy.
There are Winter and Summer Paralympic Games. They are held just after the Olympic Games. All Paralympic Games are governed by the International Paralympic Committee (IPC).
The Paralympics started as a small gathering of British World War II veterans in 1948. They became one of the largest international sport events by the early 21st century.
Paralympians have many different kinds of disabilities, so there are several categories in which they compete. The disabilities are in six broad categories: amputee, cerebral palsy, intellectual disability, wheelchair, visually impaired, and "Les Autres" (This means "the others" in French.) These categories are further broken down which vary from sport to sport.
Paralympians work for equal treatment with able-bodied Olympians. Olympians receive much more money than Paralympians. Some Paralympians have also participated in the Olympic Games.
National Basketball Association
The National Basketball Association (NBA) is the world's top men's professional basketball league. It is one of the major professional sports leagues of North America. There are 30 teams in the league. 29 are in the United States and 1 is in Canada. It is a member of USA Basketball (USAB). The NBA is one of the 4 major North American professional sports leagues. NBA players are the world's best paid athletes. They have the highest average annual salary.
The league was formed in New York City on June 6, 1946. It was called the Basketball Association of America (BAA). The league merged with the National Basketball League (NBL) in 1949. They then were known as the National Basketball Association. The league's head offices are in the Olympic Tower at 645 Fifth Avenue in New York City. Its international offices are in the same place. NBA Entertainment and NBA TV studios are in Atlanta, Georgia.
The NBA is widely considered the top level of competition in the world for basketball. With an average player height of about 6 foot 6 inches, it is also the world's tallest sports league.
In 1946, The Basketball Association of America (BAA) was formed. Its founders were owners of the major ice hockey arenas in the Northeastern and Midwestern United States and Canada. On November 1, 1946, the Toronto Huskies hosted the New York Knickerbockers. This was the first game played in NBA history. There were earlier attempts at professional basketball leagues. Examples are the American Basketball League and the NBL. The BAA was the first league to play in major cities. They played in large arenas. The level of play in the BAA was not very good. Competing leagues and other teams had similar talent. The Harlem Globetrotters are an example.
On August 3, 1949, the BAA combined with the NBL. The National Basketball Association was born. The new league had 17 teams. They came from cities of different sizes. The league got rid of several teams. It reached its smallest size of eight teams in the 1954–55 season. They were the New York Knicks, Boston Celtics, Philadelphia Warriors (now Golden State Warriors), Minneapolis Lakers (now Los Angeles Lakers), Rochester Royals (now Sacramento Kings), Fort Wayne Zollner Pistons (now Detroit Pistons), Milwaukee Hawks (now Atlanta Hawks), and Syracuse Nationals (now Philadelphia 76ers). Teams in small cities moved to larger cities.
Japanese-American Wataru Misaka broke the NBA color barrier in 1947–48. He played for the New York Knicks. But 1950 is recognized as when the NBA integrated. African Americans joined several teams. Those players included Chuck Cooper, Nathaniel "Sweetwater" Clifton, and Earl Lloyd. They joined three different teams. During the 1950s, the Minneapolis Lakers won five NBA Championships. George Mikan was their leader. He played the center position. The Lakers were the league's first dynasty. In 1954, the league introduced the 24-second shot clock. A team must try a shot in 24 seconds. If they cannot, the other team gets the ball.
The NBA contains 30 teams. 15 are in the Eastern Conference and 15 are in the Western Conference. Each conference has three divisions with 5 teams. Teams play other teams in their division often. All teams play all other teams in a season.
The Boston Celtics and the Los Angeles Lakers have won 17 championships each. No other teams have won more championships. Some teams have never won a championship.
29 teams are in the United States. The Toronto Raptors are in Canada. David Stern wants the league to expand to Europe. Some teams have played games in the United Kingdom.
Teams begin training camps in September. This allows the coaching staff to observe their players. Teams play preseason games. These do not count for a team's final season record. The weaker players get cut. Other players stay on the team and get paid. The NBA regular season begins in the last week of October. All teams play 82 games during a normal season. There are 41 home games and 41 road (away) games. Home games offer benefits to teams. They generally play better due to fan support and lack of travel. Teams play every other team during the regular season. The best players play in the NBA All-Star game in February. Fans vote for the starters. The coaches vote for the reserve (substitute) players. There is a pause in the season during the All-Star Game. Teams do not play games for about a week. Other events occur during the All-Star break. These include the Three-Point contest, the Skills course, and the Slam Dunk contest. Players participate in part due to fan interest.
Before the trade deadline, teams can trade players. This can cause changes in the balance of power. Team bosses want to get the best players for their team. Other bosses want to lower their costs. Trades often happen on the last day.
The regular season ends in the middle of April. Individual awards are given to players. The Most Valuable Player (MVP) award is given to the player most important to his team. The Defensive Player of the Year award is given to the player who plays the best defense. There are a few other awards. After the 2015-2016 season, Stephen Curry became the first player to win all votes for the MVP award.
At the end of every NBA regular season, the NBA Playoffs begin. 8 teams from each, the western, and the eastern conference are assigned a seed 1-8. Teams are assigned a seed number as follows: the 3 division champions are assigned 1-3 in order of their regular season records. The remaining seeds are determined simply by regular season record. Home court advantage is always determined by seed; higher seed=home court advantage. In the first round of the playoffs, the 1 seed plays the 8 seed;2 plays 7; 3 plays 6; 4 plays 5. All playoff rounds are best-of-7 series, meaning the first team to win 4 games moves on to the next round. Since 2014 every round follows a 2-2-1-1-1 format. The higher seeded team will have home games 1, 2, 5, and 7. The lower seed is home in games 3, 4, and 6.
To win an NBA championship, a team needs to win four rounds. The fourth round is called the finals. A team from the Eastern Conference plays a team from the Western Conference. The team that wins this series is the NBA champion. The best player in the finals wins the Finals Most Valuable Player award. The finals are played in the same format as the other rounds, 2-2-1-1-1. If both teams are the number 1 seed from their respective divisions, the team with the best record will have home court advantage.
FIFA Women's World Cup
The FIFA Women's World Cup is the most important competition in the sport of Women's association football . The Fédération Internationale de Football Association (FIFA) organizes the World Cup every four years.
The most successful team has been the United States, with 3 titles.
Nathula
Nathula is a mountain pass in the Himalayas. It connects Sikkim in India and Tibet in China. It is at a height of 4,500 metres above sea level.
The Klondike Gold Rush happened in the 1890s when many people went to the Klondike region of the Yukon, in Canada. They hoped to find gold there and become rich. Many of these prospectors came from the United States. Gold was first found in Klondike in a creek called Rabbit Creek. Prospectors named the creek "Bonanza Creek" because of the gold ("bonanza "means a lucky source of wealth).
The city that probably profited most from the Klondike Gold Rush was Dawson City, Yukon in Canada. Four million dollars worth of gold was found there.
However, not that much gold was found in Klondike overall.
Clone High
Clone High is an animated comedy television show about a high school full of clones of famous dead people. It aired on MTV in the USA and Teletoon in Canada. It was produced by Nelvana, Touchstone Pictures, Teletoon Canada, and MTV.
Chinese Civil War
The Chinese Civil War was a civil war fought from 1927 to 1951, because of a difference in thinking between the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) and the Nationalist Kuomintang (KMT). The war was a fight for legitimacy as the government of China. The war began in April 1927, because of the 'Northern Expedition" (國民革命軍北伐) and mostly ended in 1950. Some people say the war has not ended, but no large battles have started since that year. The relations between the Republic of China (ROC) and the People's Republic of China (PRC) are bad because both still say they are the legitimate sovereign government of all of China. The Chinese Civil War was the third largest war in all of time after World War II and World War I.
The war started and stopped several times before the Second Sino-Japanese War, and fighting did not stop during the fighting against the Empire of Japan. The war between the CCP and KMT started again in 1946 after Japan's defeat in World War II. CCP took control of most of China and KMT had only islands. About two million Chinese fled to Taiwan in late 1949. In 1950, no large battles were started.
No agreement was made between the two governments, so some say that the war has not ended. Both governments have many military weapons that is only to be used against the other, both still say they are the legitimate government of China, and each seeks diplomatic relations with other countries as the only legitimate government.
After the fall of the Qing dynasty in the 1911 Xinhai Revolution, the country was thrown into turmoil. In the ensuing power vacuum, a large number of warlords seized control of different parts of the country. In order to defeat them and unify the country, Sun Yat-sen and the KMT sought help from foreign governments.
Though he made pleas to several Western democratic nations, none offered to help. It was only after turning to the Soviet Union in 1921 that Sun found aid. The communist Soviet Union agreed to help the KMT, under the condition that the smaller Chinese Communist Party be allowed to join. In 1923 the Soviet Union, KMT, and CCP made an agreement, the Sun-Joffe Manifesto, that said the Soviet Union would help China have one government and not many governments. Mikhail Borodin traveled to China in 1923 to help change the KMT to make it similar to the Communist Party of the Soviet Union. The CCP and KMT were joined in the First United Front.
In 1923 Chiang Kai-shek travelled to the Soviet Union to study military and politics with the Communist Party of the Soviet Union. In 1924 he became the leader of the Whampoa Military Academy in China. Most help from the Soviet Union was for this school. The school taught the political and military ideas of the Soviet Union to the KMT and CCP. The Soviet Union gave books and guns to use for teaching about war and military things. With the help from the Soviet Union, Sun Yat-sen made an "army of the party". Members of the CCP were also in the school and some were teachers. Zhou Enlai was a teacher in the school.
In this time the KMT agreed to let some communists join the KMT sometimes. In this time the CCP was small in comparison to the KMT. The CCP had 300 members in 1922 and only 1,500 by 1925. The KMT in 1923 had 50,000 members.
Nagorno-Karabakh