AcharyaChanakya/simple-wikipedia huggingface dataset:
The synthesis explains how the ideas of Charles Darwin fit with the discoveries of Gregor Mendel, who found out how we inherit our genes. The modern synthesis brought Darwin's idea up to date. It bridged the gap between different types of biologists: geneticists, naturalists, and palaeontologists.
When the theory of evolution was developed, it was not clear that natural selection and genetics worked together. But Ronald Fisher showed that natural selection would work to change species. Sewall Wright explained genetic drift in 1931.
Co-evolution is where the existence of one species is tightly bound up with the life of one or more other species.
New or 'improved' adaptations which occur in one species are often followed by the appearance and spread of related features in the other species. The life and death of living things is intimately connected, not just with the physical environment, but with the life of other species.
These relationships may continue for millions of years, as it has in the pollination of flowering plants by insects. The gut contents, wing structures, and mouthparts of fossilized beetles and flies suggest that they acted as early pollinators. The association between beetles and angiosperms during the Lower Cretaceous period led to parallel radiations of angiosperms and insects into the late Cretaceous. The evolution of nectaries in Upper Cretaceous flowers signals the beginning of the mutualism between hymenoptera and angiosperms.
Charles Darwin was the first to use this metaphor in biology. The "evolutionary tree" shows the relationships among various biological groups. It includes data from DNA, RNA and protein analysis. Tree of life work is a product of traditional comparative anatomy, and modern molecular evolution and molecular clock research.
The major figure in this work is Carl Woese, who defined the Archaea, the third domain (or kingdom) of life. Below is a simplified version of present-day understanding.
Macroevolution: the study of changes above the species level, and how they take place. The basic data for such a study are fossils (palaeontology) and the reconstruction of ancient environments. Some subjects whose study falls within the realm of macroevolution:
It is a term of convenience: for most biologists it does not suggest any change in the process of evolution. For some palaeontologists, what they see in the fossil record cannot be explained just by the gradualist evolutionary synthesis. They are in the minority.
Altruism – the willingness of some to sacrifice themselves for others – is widespread in social animals. As explained above, the next generation can only come from those who survive and reproduce. Some biologists have thought that this meant altruism could not evolve by the normal process of selection. Instead a process called "group selection" was proposed. Group selection refers to the idea that alleles can become fixed or spread in a population because of the benefits they bestow on groups, regardless of the alleles' effect on the fitness of individuals within that group.
For several decades, critiques cast serious doubt on group selection as a major mechanism of evolution.
In simple cases it can be seen at once that traditional selection suffices. For example, if one sibling sacrifices itself for three siblings, the genetic disposition for the act will be increased. This is because siblings share on average 50% of their genetic inheritance, and the sacrificial act has led to greater representation of the genes in the next generation.
Altruism is now generally seen as emerging from standard selection. The warning note from Ernst Mayr, and the work of William Hamilton are both important to this discussion.
Hamilton's equation describes whether or not a gene for altruistic behaviour will spread in a population. The gene will spread if rxb is greater than c:
At first, sexual reproduction might seem to be at a disadvantage compared with asexual reproduction. In order to be advantageous, sexual reproduction (cross-fertilisation) has to overcome a two-fold disadvantage (takes two to reproduce) plus the difficulty of finding a mate. Why, then, is sex so nearly universal among eukaryotes? This is one of the oldest questions in biology.
The answer has been given since Darwin's time: because the sexual populations adapt better to changing circumstances. A recent laboratory experiment suggests this is indeed the correct explanation.
In the main experiment, nematode worms were divided into two groups. One group was entirely outcrossing, the other was entirely selfing. The groups were subjected to a rugged terrain and repeatedly subjected to a mutagen. After 50 generations, the selfing population showed a substantial decline in fitness (= survival), whereas the outcrossing population showed no decline. This is one of a number of studies that show sexuality to have real advantages over non-sexual types of reproduction.
An important activity is artificial selection for domestication. This is when people choose which animals to breed from, based on their traits. Humans have used this for thousands of years to domesticate plants and animals.
More recently, it has become possible to use genetic engineering. New techniques such as 'gene targeting' are now available. The purpose of this is to insert new genes or knock out old genes from the genome of a plant or animal. A number of Nobel Prizes have already been awarded for this work.
However, the real purpose of studying evolution is to explain and help our understanding of biology. After all, it is the first good explanation of how living things came to be the way they are. That is a big achievement. The practical things come mostly from genetics, the science started by Gregor Mendel, and from molecular and cell biology.
In 2010 the journal "Nature" selected 15 topics as 'Evolution gems'. These were:
The idea that all life evolved had been proposed before Charles Darwin published "On the Origin of species". Even today, some people still discuss the concept of evolution and what it means to them, their philosophy, and their religion. Evolution does explain some things about our human nature. People also talk about the social implications of evolution, for example in sociobiology.
Some people have the religious belief that life on Earth was created by a god. In order to fit in the idea of evolution with that belief, people have used ideas like "guided evolution" or "theistic evolution". They say that evolution is real, but is being guided in some way.
There are many different concepts of "theistic evolution". Many creationists believe that the creation myth found in their religion goes against the idea of evolution. As Darwin realised, the most controversial part of the evolutionary thought is what it means for human origins.
In some countries, especially in the United States, there is tension between people who accept the idea of evolution and those who do not accept it. The debate is mostly about whether evolution should be taught in schools, and in what way this should be done.
Other fields, like cosmology and earth science also do not match with the original writings of many religious texts. These ideas were once also fiercely opposed. Death for heresy was threatened to those who wrote against the idea that Earth was the center of the universe.
Evolutionary biology is a more recent idea. Certain religious groups oppose the idea of evolution more than other religious groups do. For instance, the Roman Catholic Church now has the following position on evolution: Pope Pius XII said in his encyclical "Humani Generis" published in the 1950s:
Pope John Paul II updated this position in 1996. He said that Evolution was "more than a hypothesis":
The Anglican Communion also does not oppose the scientific account of evolution.
Many of those who accepted evolution were not much interested in biology. They were interested in using the theory to support their own ideas on society.
Some people have tried to use evolution to support racism. People wanting to justify racism claimed that certain groups, such as black people, were inferior. In nature, some animals do "survive" better than others, and it does lead to animals better adapted to their circumstances. With humans groups from different parts of the world, all evolution can say is that each group is probably well suited to its original situation. Evolution makes no judgements about better or worse. It does "not" say that any human group is superior to any other.
The idea of eugenics was rather different. Two things had been noticed as far back as the 18th century. One was the great success of farmers in breeding cattle and crop plants. They did this by selecting which animals or plants would produce the next generation (artificial selection). The other observation was that lower class people had more children than upper-class people. If (and it's a big if) the higher classes were there on "merit", then their lack of children was the exact reverse of what should be happening. Faster breeding in the lower classes would lead to the society getting worse.
The idea to improve the human species by selective breeding is called eugenics. The name was proposed by Francis Galton, a bright scientist who meant to do good. He said that the human stock (gene pool) should be improved by selective breeding policies. This would mean that those who were considered "good stock" would receive a reward if they reproduced. However, other people suggested that those considered "bad stock" would need to undergo compulsory sterilization, prenatal testing and birth control. The German Nazi government (1933–1945) used eugenics as a cover for their extreme racial policies, with dreadful results.
The problem with Galton's idea is how to decide which features to select. There are so many different skills people could have, you could not agree who was "good stock" and who was "bad stock". There was rather more agreement on who should "not" be breeding. Several countries passed laws for the compulsory sterilisation of unwelcome groups. Most of these laws were passed between 1900 and 1940. After World War II, disgust at what the Nazis had done squashed any more attempts at eugenics.
Some equations can be solved using algorithms that simulate evolution. Evolutionary algorithms work like that.
Another example of using ideas about evolution to support social action is social darwinism. Social darwinism is a term given to the ideas of the 19th century social philosopher Herbert Spencer. Spencer believed the "survival of the fittest" could and should be applied to commerce and human societies as a whole.
Again, some people used these ideas to claim that racism, and ruthless economic policies were justified. Today, most biologists and philosophers say that the theory of evolution should not be applied to social policy.
Some people disagree with the idea of evolution. They disagree with it for a number of reasons. Most often these reasons are influenced by or based on their religious beliefs. People who do not agree with evolution usually believe in creationism or intelligent design.
Despite this, evolution is one of the most successful theories in science. People have discovered it to be useful for different kinds of research. None of the other suggestions explain things, such as fossil records, as well. So, for almost all scientists, evolution is not in doubt.
These books are mostly about the evidence for evolution.
These books cover most evolutionary topics.
December 31
December 25
Bedfordshire
Bedfordshire is a county of England. Its county town is Bedford. It borders Cambridgeshire, Northamptonshire, Buckinghamshire (with the Borough of Milton Keynes) and Hertfordshire. The highest elevation point is 243 m (797 ft) on Dunstable Downs in the Chilterns. The county motto is "Constant Be", which is taken from the hymn "To Be A Pilgrim" by John Bunyan.
There are forty Sites of Special Scientific Interest (SSSIs) in Bedfordshire, designated by Natural England. Thirty-five are listed for their biological interest, and five for their geological interest.
Three of the sites are also National nature reserves, twelve are in the Chilterns Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty, and eleven are managed wholly or partly by the Wildlife Trust for Bedfordshire, Cambridgeshire and Northamptonshire.
March 20
October 28
American football, referred to as football in the United States and Canada and also known as gridiron, is a team sport. It is played by two teams with 11 players on each side. American football is played with a ball with pointed ends. Points are scored in many ways, usually by one team getting the ball into the end zone of the other team. The game started in the late 19th century as college football, an American version of rugby football.
The main leagues that play American football are the professional National Football League (NFL), and the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA), which plays college football. In the National Football League, players can be paid millions of dollars. In the National Collegiate Athletic Association, players simply play for the pride of their school, scholarships, or for the chance to join a national team. Over a million boys (and a number of girls) play high school football. There is also a closely related sport called Canadian football (CFL).
An American football game is played with a ball called a football. The sport is played on a grass (or artificial turf) field. The field is exactly long and wide. The end zones, one at each end of the field, are long. The players wear protective equipment, including a helmet with face mask, shoulder pads, thigh pads, and often a mouth guard. A team has four chances, or "downs", to advance the ball while the opposing team tries to stop it. Certain players advance the ball by carrying or throwing it. Teams can score by advancing the ball to the other team's end zone or by kicking the ball through a goalpost placed at the back of the end zone. American football is carefully regulated by time and rules, which are enforced by officials, who also determine when a team scores.
A college or professional football game is 60 minutes long, and is divided into 15-minute quarters. In some high schools, the quarters are 12 minutes long, and games for younger children are often shorter still. After the first two quarters, the teams rest during halftime.
In NFL football, if the game is tied after the four quarters, the two teams compete in at least one more 15-minute period called overtime. During overtime, the first team to score points is usually the winner. However, under the current rules, first used for the 2011 postseason, if the team that has the ball first ends its possession by scoring a field goal, the other team has a chance to score. If that team does not score, or if it scores a touchdown, the game ends. If it scores a field goal, the game continues, and the next team to score wins. During the regular season, only one overtime period is played—if neither team scores, or if both teams score field goals when they first have the ball, the game ends in a tie. During the playoffs, the game will continue with as many overtime periods as needed to decide a winner. If the game is tied after each team has had the ball once in overtime, the first team to score wins.
In NCAA football overtime, which is based on the system used for high school football in most U.S. states, the teams take turns trying to score. The game ends when one team scores, and the other team fails to score as many points during its chance.
American football is played on a field long by wide. Most of the game is played on in the middle. It is divided by 20 lines drawn every . The field has two other sets of markings, running between the two end zones along the length of the field, known as "hashmarks". All plays must start between the hashmarks—if the last play ended outside the hashmarks, the ball is moved to the nearest hashmark. At the ends of the field there are scoring areas, called the end zones.
There are also two yellow poles on the end of each field called uprights. Sometimes, if the team can not score a touchdown they might want to kick it through the uprights for three points. The uprights are also used for scoring one point after a team scored a touchdown.
There are many types of players on a football team. For the offensive part of the team, a quarterback throws the football to wide receivers while offensive linemen block to protect him from defensive players. The offensive linemen also block when a running back runs to advance the football. Players on the Defensive line, a linebacker, and defensive backs (cornerbacks and American football safeties) attempt to tackle the offensive player who carries the football.
Some team members only play during certain times. These players belong to the Special Teams. The kicker can kick the ball to the other team or between the uprights, while the placeholder holds the ball steady. The kick returner runs the ball down the field in an attempt to score points after catching the ball.
A touchdown is achieved when a player has legal possession of the ball and the ball crosses an imaginary vertical plane above the opposing team's goal line. After a touchdown, the scoring team attempts a try for 1 or 2 points (see below). A successful touchdown is signaled by an official extending both arms vertically above the head.
A field goal is scored when the ball is place kicked between the goal posts behind the opponent's end zone. The most common type of kick used is the place kick. For a place kick, the ball must first be snapped to a placeholder, who holds the ball upright on the ground with his fingertip so that it may be kicked. Three points are scored if the ball crosses between the two upright posts and above the crossbar and remains over.
Immediately following a touchdown, the scoring team can attempt to kick the ball between the goal posts for 1 extra point. The team can also run or pass the ball into the end zone for 2 points. This is not done very often although it does happen.
A safety is scored if a player causes the ball to become dead in his own end zone. When this happens two points are awarded to the opposing (usually defending) team. This can happen if a player is either downed or goes out of bounds in the end zone while carrying the ball. It can also happen if he fumbles the ball, and it goes out of bounds in the end zone. A safety is also awarded to the defensive team if the offensive team commits a foul which is enforced in its own end zone.
Exhibition season (better known as Pre-Season) is in August. In the exhibition season, the teams get ready for the regular season by having training. Teams have practices to help the team get better and see who will make the team. All of the teams play 4 games before the regular season starts, and the games do not change what team gets to the post season. Because of it, teams do not use their best players much, and use the games as more practice.
The 32 NFL teams are divided into two conferences: the National Football Conference (NFC) and the American Football Conference (AFC). Each of them is divided in four divisions: North, South, West and East. Each division includes four teams.
The season lasts 17 weeks. Each team plays 16 games and has one week off. This week of rest is called a "bye week".
At the end of the regular season, the winners of each division and the next two best teams in each conference play in a tournament. NFC's champion and AFC's champion play the NFL's final game, the Super Bowl. The event is often treated as a National holiday as many stores close for the event. The day of the event is commonly known nationwide as Super Bowl Sunday.
"The Ugly Duckling" is a literary fairy tale by Hans Christian Andersen. Andersen lavished great care on this story, spending a year perfecting it. It was first published in 1844 with "The Angel", "The Sweethearts", and "The Nightingale" in "New Fairy Tales". The critics liked these stories. Andersen considered the story "a reflection of my own life." The moral of the tale: "it does not matter if you were born in a duck yard if you have lain in a swan's egg." The tale has been adapted to various media such as animated movies.
A mother duck hatches six pretty little ducklings. A seventh bird is hatched. He is homely. The other ducks abuse him. He runs away. He is given a home by an old woman. Her cat and hen do not like him. He runs away again. Winter comes and a kind farmer gives him a home. The little bird almost dies. Spring comes. The "ugly duckling" has grown into a beautiful swan. The other swans welcome him as their own. They bow to him. He is happy for the first time in his life.
General relativity
General relativity is a theory of space and time. The theory was published by Albert Einstein in 1915. The central idea of general relativity is that space and time are two aspects of spacetime. Spacetime is curved when there is matter, energy, and momentum resulting in what we perceive as gravity. The links between these forces are shown in the Einstein field equations.
A central idea in general relativity is the "principle of equivalence." An example is that two people, one in an elevator sitting on the surface of the earth, and the other in an elevator in outer space accelerating at 9.8 m/s, will each observe the same behavior of an object they drop from their hand. The object will accelerate to the floor at 9.8 m/s in either case, making it impossible for either to distinguish whether or not they are at rest in a gravitational field or accelerating upward at one . Other versions of this type of "thought experiment" were used to show that light would curve in an accelerating frame of reference. There are several forms of the equivalence principle. These include: Newton's equivalence principle, the weak equivalence principle, the gravitational weak equivalence principle, Einstein's equivalence principle and the strong equivalence principle.
The Sun can be seen as this kind of valley in spacetime, and one of the other objects in the valley (i.e, spacetime) is the Earth. The Earth does not roll directly towards the Sun (or ball) because it is moving too fast. The force pulling the Earth towards the sun is about the same as a second force. This second force is called the centrifugal force. The centrifugal force exists because the Earth moves sideways. This sideways motion makes the distance between the Earth and Sun increase. Since the Earth is being pulled towards the sun and moving away at the same time, it stays at about the same distance. This is also how the Moon orbits the earth. In this second case, Earth is the ball and the Moon is the object. However, this valley example to demonstrate Gravity is insufficient because spacetime fabric is actually Four Dimensional, whereas valley's example implies two dimensional spacetime. Sun and other objects with mass curves four dimensional spacetime fabric. Valley example is just analogy and not 100% reality.
General relativity has predicted many things which were later seen. These include:
Rutland is the smallest county of England. It is surrounded by the counties of Leicestershire, Lincolnshire and Northamptonshire.
The main towns of Rutland are Oakham and Uppingham.
In the mid-1970s, it was the inspiration for Eric Idle's TV show, Rutland Weekend Television.
Adlai Stevenson I
Adlai Ewing Stevenson (October 23, 1835 – June 14, 1914) was an American politician. He was Vice President of the United States under Grover Cleveland, and ran for United States President and several other political offices, but lost. He was also first assistant Postmaster General and a member of the United States House of Representatives from Illinois, as well. His grandson of the same name also was a notable politician and writer. Another grandson, McLean Stevenson was an actor. His other grandson was Illinois Senator Adlai Stevenson III.
Toledo, Ohio
Toledo is a city in Ohio, USA. It was named after Toledo, Spain. It is a large industrial city, and has many factories that make things like car parts and glass. In 1835 and 1836, Ohio and Michigan both claimed to own the city and surrounding territory. Michigan gave up its claim and got the Upper Peninsula in exchange. Toledo is about an hour from Detroit, Michigan. The main highways in and out of Toledo are Interstate 75, Interstate 90, and U.S. 24 (Detroit Boulevard, Telegraph Road). It is the 59th largest city in the United States.
Toledo's manufacturing industry concentrates on automobiles and glass.
Toledo has a humid continental climate ("Dfa" in the Köppen climate classification).
Jerry Reed
Jerry Reed (March 20, 1937 – September 1, 2008) was an American country music singer and actor. Best known for his songs "Amos Moses", "When You're Hot You're Hot" and "Eastbound and Down", he also acted in several movies including "Smokey and the Bandit" and "The Waterboy". He was born in Atlanta, Georgia. He died in Nashville, Tennessee due to complications from emphysema.
1990 (MCMXC) was .
The Bee Gees were a British–Australian pop group. For most of its history, the band consisted of three brothers all of whom were born on the Isle of Man, a British Crown Dependency. The brothers, Barry Gibb (born 1 September 1946), and twins Maurice Gibb (22 December 1949 – 12 January 2003) and Robin Gibb (22 December 1949 – 20 May 2012), started singing at a young age when living in Manchester. In the late 1960s, the band briefly expanded to include Australian born Vince Melouney and Colin Petersen. When the band reformed a couple of years after splitting in 1969, Australian born Geoff Bridgford briefly became a member. The Bee Gees existed for almost 40 years They are most famous for their album, "Saturday Night Fever", the soundtrack for the movie of the same name. They stopped performing after Maurice died. The two other brothers reunited as a duo in 2009. In 2012 Robin died. They had a younger brother, Andy Gibb (1958–1988), who was also a singer.
The Gibb brothers were born on the Isle of Man, then lived in Manchester, England, before moving to Australia in 1958. It was in Australia that the Bee Gees' band was formed. In January 1967, the Gibb brothers returned to England, where their band the Bee Gees started to become internationally famous. In 1967, Colin Petersen and Vince Melouney joined the band but by the end the decade both had left and the brothers themselves had briefly gone their separate ways, only to reform in 1970. Between 1970 and 1972, Geoff Bridgford was a member of the Bee Gees. In 1975, the brothers relocated to the United States.
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Improverts
The Improverts are an improvised comedy group based in Edinburgh, Scotland. They are a part of the Edinburgh University Theatre Company. Their home is the Bedlam Theatre. It has been their home since they were created 18 years ago. The group is similar to "Who's Line is it Anyway?", Comedy Store Players, and Keith Johnstone in that they use short improvised games.
They have taken part in the Edinburgh Fringe Festival almost every year since they were formed. Also they have played every Friday night during the school year (as their main audience is Edinburgh University students).
Because they are always in Bedlam Theatre, the theatre technicians improvise the sounds, music and lights along with the scenes the performers are doing. The sounds can be loud and annoying at times. The technicians show off their very big iTunes library of songs and sound effects. British 80's children's programmes' themes are a favourite of theirs.
Past players have gone on to many different things. They have created an improv group in London, joined the Stand Players' "Who's Lunch is it anyway" free improv show at Edinburgh's The Stand comedy venue and become successful stand up comedians. Some have starred in British sitcoms, television dramas, movies and popular children's programmes
Taipei 101 () is 101-floor building in Taipei, Republic of China (Taiwan). In 2004, it replaced the Willis Tower (which used to be called the Sears Tower) as the tallest completed building in the world. However, in 2010, it was surpassed by the Burj Khalifa in Dubai.
Taipei 101 holds records for:
Taipei 101 does not hold the record for tallest building from ground to pinnacle. The Sears Tower has two television antennas on top of it, making its height from the ground to the top of the taller antenna 527 m (1,729 ft).
Taipei 101 is the recognized symbol of Taipei city, it brings a lot of tourists every day. The location of Taipei 101 is at the southern end of the Xinyi District, the newest area of Taipei city. Besides the tower, the base of the building houses includes a multi-level shopping mall, food court, various restaurants and stores, and an international grocery store. Every New Year's Eve, Taipei 101 is host to an impressive fireworks display that attracts people from all over Taiwan and other neighboring countries like Japan and Singapore to the area.
The Taipei 101 Observatory is open every day from 9AM to 10PM. The observatory is spread over 4 floors where visitors can enjoy the fantastic scenery and learn about the engineering marvel that is Taipei 101, the tallest green building in the world. Visitors can buy the tickets on the 5F Taipei 101 Mall, the general ticket costs NT$500 per each and the student ticket (with valid ID) costs NT$450 per each, all children (under 115 cm) are free. After purchasing the tickets, visitors may take the Guinness World Record breaking high-speed elevator to the observatory on the 89TH floor.
The 88th floor is the Beauty of Taiwan Multimedia Corridor, Super Big Wind Damper, Treasure Sky, the hallway connecting the two decks is designed to setting the natural beauty of Taiwan, providing 270-degree views of well-known scenic locations in Taiwan, leading to the engineering marvel known as a wind damper, a 5.5 meters diameter, 660 ton weight suspended within the building to offset the force of wind and help 101 stand upright. Also included is Treasury Sky, a collection of unique jewel crafts.
The 89th floor is the Indoor Observatory, visitors can learn about the design process and construction of Taipei 101 and other similar large-scale building projects around the world, including a free audio tour in eleven languages, as well as high-powered field glasses, snacks, and professional photography service.
The 91st floor is an outdoor Observatory. The outdoor observatory is accessible by stairs from the 89th floor. From the outside, it's possible to view the spire at the 508-meter-high apex, but tourists need to be careful of the strong winds. Inside the building, on the 91F, is a small theater showcasing films about the building and the annual New Year fireworks display. The 91st floor is only open on days with good weather conditions.
Taipei 101 has some of the most modern safety security of anything ever built, requiring a challenging combination of strength and flexibility, which allow it to withstand winds up to 216 km/h (134 mph), and earthquakes of a magnitude of 9.0. It has higher safer ratings than Taiwan’s nuclear power plants.
The “double stairstep”design reduce the potentially dangerous oscillations caused by high winds by about 30-40%, allowing the structure to stand, even under the force of relentless typhoons. And by now, they’ve become a recognizable design element of the structure.
September 1
This day is the first day of the last third of the year as well as the two thirds point of the common year because there are 243 days before and 121 days after it in common years. There are 244 days before and 121 after it in leap years. The exact time the second third of the year starts is 8:00 a.m. In countries that use summer time the actual exact time of the midpoint in a common year is at 9:00 a.m. for locations in the northern hemisphere, or 7:00 a.m. for locations in the southern hemisphere; this is when 243 days and 8 hours have elapsed and there are 121 days and 16 hours remaining. In a leap year in those countries, the last third of the year starts at midnight. In countries that use summer time, the second third starts at 1:00 a.m. on September, or 11:00 p.m. on August 31 in the southern hemisphere. This is due to summer time having advanced the time by one hour.
February 4
Sergio Aragonés
Sergio Aragonés (1937-) is a popular cartoonist. He was born in Spain and grew up in Mexico. He is most famous for his cartoons for "MAD Magazine" and the comic book "Groo the Wanderer".
Lisa Bonet
Lisa Bonet (born Lisa Michelle Bonet; November 16, 1967), also known as Lilakoi Moon, is an American actress. She is best known for her roles as Denise Huxtable on television series, "The Cosby Show" and "A Different World". She was also married to singer Lenny Kravitz from 1987 to 1993. She is of African American and Ashkenazi Jewish (from Belarus, Moldova, Poland and Russia) descent.
Tobacco is a product prepared from the leaves of the tobacco plant by curing them. The plant is part of the genus "Nicotiana" and of the Solanaceae (nightshade) family.
Native Americans used tobacco before Europeans arrived in the Americas. The earliest know use of tobacco comes from nicotine residue from a pipe in the Southeastern United States. It is Radiocarbon dated at 1685-1530 BC. Europeans in the Americas learned to smoke and brought it back to Europe, where it became very popular. At that time tobacco was usually smoked in a pipe.
The Europeans who moved to America started to farm tobacco so that they could sell it in Europe. This became one of the main causes of the African slave trade. In 1610 a European man called John Rolfe arrived in the American state of Virginia and set up a tobacco farm which made him very rich. Rolfe was the first non-native farmer to use "nicotiana tabacum", which is the type of tobacco most commonly smoked today. He also married Pocahontas, a Native American woman who became famous when she went to live in London.
In the 17th and 18th centuries tobacco made farmers very rich and towns quickly grew in the states of Virginia, North Carolina and South Carolina. In 1883 one third of United States tax money came from tobacco.
In 1864 the first American tobacco factory opened to produce 20 million cigarettes annually. By 1964 the cigarette contained over 500 added chemicals. Today tobacco manufacturers are still not required by law to list the 500+ ingredients.
Tobacco users (especially smokers) and people around them (with passive smoking) risk many very serious and often deadly illnesses, such as cancer, strokes, heart disease, and lung disease. The United States' Centers for Disease Control and Prevention describes tobacco use as "the single most important preventable risk to human health in developed countries and an important cause of premature (early) death worldwide". There are over 4800 chemicals in tobacco, including arsenic. Sixty-four of them are known to cause cancer. Smoking can also make men lose erections, and make their penises a bit smaller.
Jerusalem (; ; ) is one of the oldest cities in the world that people have lived in continuously. It is important to many major religions. Jews consider Jerusalem a holy city because it was their religious and political center during Biblical times and was the place where the Temple of God stood. Christians consider Jerusalem holy because many events in the life of Jesus took place there. Muslims believe that Muhammad rose to heaven from Jerusalem, and the Al-Aqsa Mosque is the first Qibla of Muslims after Mecca.
Jerusalem is the capital city of both Israel and Palestine, under their laws. Most other countries disagree. Most countries have their embassies with Israel in Tel Aviv.
Jerusalem is about 40 miles (64 kilometers) east of the Mediterranean Sea. It is a hilly city with many valleys around it.
Jerusalem is a very old city. It has great importance for three religions: Judaism, Christianity and Islam. The Bible says King David, the second king of Israel, took this city from pagans and settled his palace there. King Solomon, David's son and the next king, built the Temple of Solomon in Jerusalem. Later, as capital of Judah, Jerusalem was destroyed by Nebuchadnezzar II, the king of Babylon. The Palace of King David and the Temple of Solomon were burned, and the Jews were captured and taken to Babylon. Seventy years later, the Persian King Cyrus allowed them to return to Jerusalem and to rebuild the Temple.
Later the area was occupied by Romans. King Herod the Great, who ruled for the Roman Emperor, made the Temple larger to try and win Jewish favor. The Temple was famous for its greatness and beauty.
Jesus died in Jerusalem around 33 CE. In 70 CE, the Jews rebelled against the Romans, but the Romans destroyed the city and the Temple. Jewish people who lived in Jerusalem were caught and became slaves. The Romans renamed Jerusalem with a Latin name. Since then, the Temple has not been rebuilt, and only a part of its wall remains until today.
After the Roman Empire was split into two, the Byzantine Empire ruled Jerusalem. Later, Muslims took over the city from them. The Muslims believed Muhammad went to heaven from Jerusalem.
Later, the Pope in Rome sent the Crusaders from Western Europe to try and take Jerusalem back. They succeeded for a while, but eventually the city fell again to the Saracens. Until the 20th century, Jerusalem was a part of the Ottoman Empire. There were some Jews in Jerusalem all along, even though they were ruled by other people.
The "New City" of Jerusalem is the part outside the old stone walls. People started building the new city in the 1800s. Mishkenot Sha'annanim, Mea Shearim, and the Bukharan Quarter are some of the first neighborhoods in the new city.
After World War I, the Ottoman Empire had been defeated. In June 1922, the League of Nations approved the British Mandate of Palestine. This gave control of the area to the United Kingdom. The land west of the Jordan River was known as Palestine. It was under direct British control until 1948. The land east of the Jordan River was known as Transjordan, and was governed by the Hashemite family. Transjordan gained independence in 1946.
The mandate in Palestine ended at midnight on 14 May 1948. On the next day, the 1948 Arab–Israeli War began. Israel declared independence, the West Bank was annexed by Jordan, and Egypt took control of the Gaza Strip.
In 1949, at the end of the first Arab-Israeli War, Jerusalem was divided between Israel and Jordan. Israel controlled the western part of the city. Jordan controlled the eastern section, including the Old City, a walled section of Jerusalem dating from Biblical times. Israel took control of the entire city during the Six-Day War in 1967.
Jerusalem today is claimed by the state of Israeli as its capital. The United Nations does not agree to Israel saying that Jerusalem is the capital of Israel.
Jerusalem has been sacred to Judaism for roughly 3000 years, to Christianity for around 2000 years, and to Islam for approximately 1400 years. The 2000 Statistical Yearbook of Jerusalem lists 1204 synagogues, 158 churches, and 73 mosques within the city. Despite efforts to maintain peaceful religious coexistence, some sites, such as the Temple Mount, have been a continuous source of friction and controversy.
According to Jewish tradition, Jerusalem is where God told the patriarch Abraham to sacrifice his son, Isaac, to Him. The Jews built the Temple, the centre of Jewish worship in ancient times, at the site of Abraham's sacrifice on the Temple Mount in the Old City. Two buildings, one after the other, the First Temple and the Second Temple, stood at the site. The First Temple housed the Ark of the Covenant, a sacred box holding the tablets inscribed with the Ten Commandments.
The Western Wall is a part of the Second Temple and Judaism's most sacred shrine. It is a stone wall that strengthened the western side of the Temple Mount in ancient times. The wall is sometimes called the Wailing Wall because of the sad prayers Jewish people said there to mourn the destroyed Temple.
Other sites in the city that are sacred to the Jews include King David's tomb on Mount Zion, and the Jewish Cemetery and the Tombs of the Prophets on the Mount of Olives, a hill just east of the Old City. Many sites associated with Biblical figures are sacred to Christians, too.
Many monasteries, convents, shrines, and religious seminaries in Jerusalem mark events in the life of Jesus and in the formation of the Christian Church. According to the Bible, Jesus taught in Jerusalem and performed numerous miracles there. The Last Supper supposedly took place in a room known as the Cenacle (also called Coenaculum) on Mount Zion. The Church of the Holy Sepulcher in the Old City is said to be the place of Jesus's Crucifixion (called Calvary or Golgotha), as well as His burial and resurrection. Several Christian sects own the church, which was originally built by Constantine the Great, then rebuilt and dedicated by the Crusaders in 1149 CE. The building stands at the end of the Via Dolorosa (Way of Sorrows), believed to be the path over which Jesus carried His cross to Calvary. Jesus was last seen by His followers on the Mount of Olives before He went up to heaven. All of these sites attract many religious pilgrims each year.
Jerusalem is Islam's third holiest city, after Mecca and Medina in Saudi Arabia. According to Muslim tradition, Muhammad originally selected Jerusalem as the qibla: the direction Muslims should face during prayer. However, he later told his followers to face Mecca instead of Jerusalem when praying. Muhammad is said to have gone up to heaven from a stone now covered by a golden-domed shrine called the Dome of the Rock. The Dome of the Rock and the ancient Al-Aqsa Mosque are among the holiest sites in Islam. They are the main buildings on the Temple Mount, which Muslims call "Haram al-Sharif" (Noble Sanctuary).
Jerusalem's architecture is a mixture of old and new. The Old City contains architectural examples from each major period in the city's history. Many ancient historical sites and places of worship stand near modern shopping centers and industrial zones. Architecture from the late 1800s and early 1900s shows European influences. Usefulness rather than style characterizes new apartment buildings constructed by the government as housing for immigrants. Many buildings, old and new, have matching exteriors because all construction is required to be faced with a cream-colored limestone called Jerusalem stone, produced by nearby quarries.
Belz Beis HaMedrash HaGadol is the largest synagogue in Jerusalem.
Rocky Mountains
The Rocky Mountains (often 'The Rockies') are a range of mountains in the western United States and Canada. They stretch from the northernmost part of British Columbia, in western Canada, to New Mexico, in the southwestern United States. The Rocky Mountains are more than 3,000 miles long (4,800 kilometers).
The highest point in the Rocky Mountains is Mt. Elbert. Mt. Elbert is 14,433 ft tall (4,401m)
The Rocky Mountains are relatively new, formed from 80 million to 55 million years ago (mya) during the Laramide orogeny. North America began to move westwards as Pangaea broke up. A number of tectonic plates began to slide under the North American plate. The angle of subduction was shallow, resulting in a broad belt of mountains running down western North America. Since then, further tectonic activity and erosion by glaciers has sculpted the Rockies into dramatic peaks and valleys.
The rocks in the Rocky Mountains were formed before the mountains were raised by tectonic forces. The oldest rock is Precambrian metamorphic rock that forms the core of the North American continent. There is also Precambrian sedimentary argillite, dating back to 1.7 billion years ago. During the Paleozoic, western North America lay underneath a shallow sea, which deposited many kilometers of limestone and dolomite.
In the southern Rocky Mountains, near present-day Colorado, these ancestral rocks were disturbed by mountain building approximately 300 mya, during the Pennsylvanian. This mountain building produced the Ancestral Rocky Mountains. They consisted largely of Precambrian metamorphic rock forced upward through layers of the limestone laid down in the shallow sea. The mountains eroded throughout the late Paleozoic and early Mesozoic, leaving extensive deposits of sedimentary rock.
Brooklyn is one of the five boroughs of New York City. It also covers the same area as Kings County. Brooklyn is the second largest borough in land area.
In the early 21st century, about 2.5 million live there. This is more than in any of the other four boroughs.
Brooklyn is the west end of Long Island. The East River separates it from Manhattan in the north. Brooklyn's only land boundary is with Queens in the east. Jamaica Bay separates Brooklyn from Rockaway in the south. The Narrows separates Brooklyn from Staten Island in the west.
Coney Island is the south end of Brooklyn. The Brooklyn Museum is near the middle of Brooklyn, near Prospect Park.
Brooklyn is named after a Dutch town called "Breukelen". Dutch people were the first people from Europe to live in the area. When they got there, there were already some Native American people living there called the Lenape. The Dutch started the town in 1634 as part of the colony of New Netherland.
During the 19th century Brooklyn expanded and filled Kings County. It remained a separate city before the people there voted to join New York City in 1898. Today, many parts of Brooklyn are home to people who are mostly from one culture or ethnicity. Other parts are mixed.
The Brooklyn Bridge is old and famous. It goes over the East River and connects Downtown Brooklyn to Lower Manhattan. The longest bridge in New York, the Verrazano-Narrows Bridge in Bay Ridge connects Brooklyn to Staten Island.
Cornish is a very old language from Cornwall in the southwest of England. Cornish is a Celtic language and is very similar to Welsh and is related to Gaelic.
A long time ago, Cornish was the only language spoken in Cornwall, but more and more people began to speak English, instead of Cornish. In 1550, when the prayer book was written in English instead of Latin, the Cornish people got angry and there was a rebellion. Because many Cornish-speakers died and they would now hear the Bible in English, Cornish was used less and less.
By 1800, only a few people could speak Cornish, and since no one spoke it to one another any more, Cornish became endangered.
People say that a woman called Dolly Pentreath was the last person who could speak Cornish. That is not quite true, but she was one of the last people to use it instead of English.
Some people learned about Cornish by traveling around talking to people who could still speak it and by reading old plays and books. Some people wanted to learn the language and speak it and so in 1904 a learned man, Henry Jenner, wrote a book to help people. Some people then began to learn the language and speak it again.
No one knows how many Cornish-speakers there are now. People think that about 8,000 to 13,000 people probably speak Cornish. Some young people have grown up speaking it. Most people in Cornwall know a few sentences or words in Cornish. In 100 years, Cornish has grown from almost no speakers to many thousands, which is very exciting for many people.
There are now many new books, films and songs in Cornish. The Bible has now been translated into Cornish. There is an event, the open Gorseth, with a story and poetry competition. Sometimes, Cornish is used in churches.
There used to be a problem with Cornish: three different dictionaries had different spellings, and people did not agree about how to write words or say them. That was confusing for people when they have not been speaking for long. In 2008, people who used different types of Cornish came together and agreed on a new standard form of Cornish to be used everywhere.
Welsh could mean many different things:
Welsh could also mean:
Places in the United States (US)
Watergate scandal
The Watergate scandal was a scandal during and after the 1972 Presidential Election.
United States President and Republican Richard Nixon were running for election against Democrat George McGovern. Frank Wills, a security guard, discovered clues that former FBI and CIA agents broke into the offices of the Democratic Party and George McGovern months before the election. These people listened to phone lines and secret papers were stolen.