AcharyaChanakya/simple-wikipedia huggingface dataset:
In his youth van Leeuwenhoek was apprenticed to a draper. Later, a civil service position allowed him to give time to his hobby: grinding lenses and using them to study tiny objects. His simple microscopes were skillfully ground, powerful single lenses capable of high image quality. He looked at protozoa in rainwater, pond water and well water. He also looked at bacteria in the human mouth and intestine. In 1677, he first described the spermatozoa of insects, dogs, and humans.
His observations laid the foundations for the sciences of bacteriology and protozoology. He was the first to see bacteria, protists, spermatozoa, the cell vacuole, blood corpuscles, capillaries, and the structure of muscles and nerves.
Barbie is a fashion doll best known as a toy doll. Starting as just a doll, Barbie became a brand. It is most common in the United States. It is named after a girl named Barbara, who was the toy maker's daughter. Though the brand is most famous for the doll, other merchandise has been created with the Barbie name such as games, movies, videos, clothing, accessories, and books. The clothes and fashion accessories allow girls a taste of high fashion.
Throughout the decades, Barbie has reflected and encouraged feminine growth in the workplace in the United States. She has been a miniature model of women worldwide. The doll has been criticized for causing self-image complexes, yet other companies continue to produce similar dolls. "The Barbie doll is the biggest selling toy in the history of proprietary toy manufacturing." On average, 172,000 dolls are sold by Mattel each day.
Ruth Handler was the creator of Barbie. Her parents were Polish Jewish immigrants. She was the tenth child. Her husband, Elliot Handler was the founder of Mattel in 1945, which is the largest toy company in the world. She originally wanted to name the doll "Barbara", after her daughter, or "Babs" after her daughter's nickname. However, both those names were copyrighted.
Barbie was first released on March 9, 1959 at a toy fair in New York after seven years of battling disagreements. At the time, Mattel was the third largest toy company in the United States. Ruth's display of Barbie was housed at the New Yorker Hotel in a hotel room, since so many businesses brought their toys to put on display. She had to halt the projected production that she assumed she would acquire in business orders at the fair. It was a disappointing day for Ruth and Barbie. In March 1959, Barbie debuted as a teen fashion model on television with more positive response leading the way for the dolls popularity rise.
A blonde Barbie from this decade in mint condition has an appraisal price listing of five thousand-$5,250. The brunette Barbie that was made at the same time is worth $1,000 more than the blonde.
In the 1960s Barbie's friends joined the line up of fashion dolls. Ken was her boyfriend and came to be in 1962. The Ken doll got his name from Ruth's son. Midge was her friend who was a redhead meeting the toy marketplace in 1963, a year after Ken. Allen was Ken's friend. Skipper was her little sister that was produced in 1964. Tutti and Todd were her twin siblings were introduced in 1966. Francie was her adult cousin. In 1967, Francie was changed into the first black Barbie doll causing consumers to believe it reflected the support of interracial marriages. Since this was during Civil Rights' time, she was not very successful. Twelve months later Mattel introduced Christie, the second black Barbie, who was much more accepted. Cara and Julia were also produced as Barbie's black friends. The roles of Barbie evolved as equality for women's rights progressed. The doll started in the 1960s portraying stereotypical female positions like teacher, stewardess, nurse, etc. A series of novels were also written introducing Barbie and her birthplace in the 60's. Bendable legs and swivel hips were introduced on Barbie in 1965. Jack Ryan created them.
Hairstyles of the Barbie's in the 1960s were typically the classic bubble-cut hairstyle of the era taken from the First Lady of the early 60's Jackie Kennedy. The Barbie that is worth the most from this decade according to "Schroeder's Collectible Toys" is Color Magic Barbie made in 1967. Her hair and costume changes color. If it is complete with its cardboard box, it is worth $4,000.
Children could purchase the new bendable Barbie's at a discounted rate if they wanted to trade in the old style in the 1970s. Christie's black boyfriend, Brad was introduced in 1970.
Barbie's facial features were changed in 1971 from eyes cutting from the side and smile without teeth to eyes forward and a wide smile exposing teeth. This change occurred to keep current with the times representing a "forward-thinking peace-and-love generation."
The first doctor Barbie appeared in 1973. Cara's boyfriend Brad reached the toy market in 1975. The flip hairstyle was a popular way for Barbie's hair to be styled in the 70's. The Sears' exclusive Dramatic New Living Skipper Very Best Velvet Barbie made in 1970-71 has the highest list price for the decade in "Schroeder's Collectible Toys" at $1,500.00.
Hispanic and black Barbies were no longer featured as friends of Barbie's in the 1980s. They had reached the Barbie title in their own right. Magic Curl Barbie made its debut in 1982 feauting both black and white races. The first Asian doll produced representing Hong Kong in 1981 came from a mold with a rounder face and almond shaped eyes. A Japanese Barbie hit the market in 1985 as one of the first other nationalities offered with the collection of International Dolls of the World Barbies following its release. Barbie was made into a pilot in 1989. The doll could be viewed as opening the door for female acceptance in otherwise male dominant careers paving the way with astronaut Barbie debuting eighteen years prior to Sally Ride's first female in space endeavor. The 1980s also began the Holiday Barbie collection. The first one was produced in 1988 and its listed value is $325, which is $700 less than what it was worth in the 1990s.
Shani, Asha, and Nichelle were produced to offer greater skin tone and facial feature selection to represent blacks more accurately in 1991.A hit single produced by the band Aqua entitled "Barbie Girl" climbed charts worldwide in 1997. Also in 1997, Puerto Rican Barbie debuted. Barbie's body measurements changed in 1998 due to consumer demand. Her breasts and hips were reduced and waist was widened. Race car driving NASCAR Barbie hit toy store shelves in 1998 and 1999 foreshadowing the first female race car driver Danica Patrick. Barbie was flashy and wore bright colors in the 90's. 1994's Barbie Snow Princess worth $1100 is the highest listed of the decade in "Schroeder's Collectible Toys".
Ruth had died, and could not dip Barbie's hand and footprints in her concrete slab on Hollywood Boulevard in 2002. Instead, Barbara, her daughter for whom the doll was named, did the honors inducting the doll to superstar status. In 2006 a movie, "The Tribe" used Barbie to connect with being Jewish in America. In 2008, Barbie was transformed into a representation of African culture for the hundredth anniversary of the first African American sorority Alpha Kappa Alpha. 2009 brought about changes to the black Barbie adding fuller lips and altered facial features at the request of consumer complaints. Tricelle was given more textured and curlier hair. Chataine Barbie made in 2003 is worth $425 according to "Schroeder's".
Some people believe Barbie gives girls a wrong idea of what they will look like when they grow up. They think the introduction of the doll was wrong because it made young girls believe they had to become skinny in order to be just like Barbie. As in earlier dolls, her head is disproportionately large. Unlike those, her breasts are large and her waist and feet are disproportionately small;. If her doll size proportions were converted into life size body measurements (breast size, waist size, hip size) only 1 in 100,000 women would match them, at least without plastic surgery. Someone shaped like Barbie would suffer back problems due to her breast size. She would be unable to support her weight on her tiny feet and could not walk.
The doll has been blamed for eating disorders, such as anorexia and bulimia. She is not supposed to be taken as a literal interpretation of a teenage girl. Barbie was not built to give girls an inferior complex when comparing themselves to the doll. She was built to be a longer lasting alternative to the easily torn paper dolls for hours of enjoyment reinacting life scenes through a child's creativity and imagination. Barbie is a teen doll, which gives little girls a peek at what might happen in their teen life. This was thought to be bad, because Barbie has lots of boyfriends.
Ruth Handler, Barbie's creator, has been blamed for taking the Barbie doll design from a doll made in Germany in 1955, the Lilli doll that was sold mainly at tobacco shops, for men. Lilli was originally a cartoon character in a tabloid newspaper in Germany created by Reinhard Beuthein in 1952. O.M. Hausser/Elastolin Company had Max Weissbrodt, a doll maker of theirs get a patent for Lilli's limb design. Ruth is rumored to have purchased a few of the dolls while in Switzerland with her family.
The Barbie doll has been in competition with other toy companies' doll designs. Ideal Toy and Novelty Company began making Tammy in 1962, American Character Doll Company challenged Barbie's sales in 1963 with Tressy, and Remco started producing the Littlechap Family in 1964. However, none had the popularity of Barbie. At the time of production, Tammy gave Barbie creators a financial scare. She was based on a movie character played by Debbie Reynolds. Instead of being surrounded with friends and boyfriends, the doll came with a mother and father, which might be why her popularity never surpassed Barbie's.
Barbie is a very big trend. She has had many sisters, boyfriends, and friends. She has "dream houses" and clothes. She has many jobs from teacher to doctor to astronaut. There have been many other dolls like Barbie since Barbie was first produced. Barbie also created MyScene dolls, a spoof of Bratz. The fact is the creator of Barbie, Ruth Handler, fought sexism and overcame her domesticated gender role to accomplish her goals in the business arena as a female by producing the world famous Barbie doll.
Parmesan cheese is the name of an Italian extra-hard cheese made of cow's milk. The original Parmesan cheese is more precisely called Parmigiano-Reggiano. It is produced only in Italy, in the provinces of Parma, Reggio Emilia, Modena, Mantua (partly)and Bologna (partly). It is usually the cheese to go with Spaghetti and other typical Italian pasta, but it also has many other uses. Parmesan is a part of Italian national cuisine and it can be consumed both grated and in slivers. It is hard, sharp and dry.
Parmigiano-Reggiano is DOP / AOC. This means that the way they are made and the region in Italy they come from are strictly controlled.
The brand (Parmigiano Reggiano) is protected, and only in Europe. In many parts of the world, cheese is sold as "Parmesan cheese" that has nothing to do with the true (Italian) Parmigiano Reggiano.
The original Parmesan cheese is one of the most expensive cheeses in the world.
Within the European Union, the term "Parmesan" may only be used, by law, to refer to Parmigiano-Reggiano itself, which must be made in a restricted geographic area, using stringently defined methods. In many areas outside Europe, the name "Parmesan" has become genericized: Any one of a number of hard Italian-style grating cheeses are called 'Patmesan'. After the European ruling that "parmesan" could not be used as a generic name, Kraft renamed its grated cheese "Pamesello" in Europe.
One kind of cheese, which is very similar, but produced in another region in Italy, is Grana Padano. Grana Padano is produced in Lombardy,
Franz Liszt (born Raiding, nr. Sopron, October 22, 1811; died Bayreuth, July 31, 1886) was a Hungarian composer and pianist. Liszt (pronounced like “list”) was one of the most important musicians of the 19th century. He was the greatest pianist of his time and went on lots of tours through Europe where everyone filled the concert halls to hear him. He wrote a lot of music for piano. Many of his piano pieces were harder to play than anything that had been written before. In this way he developed the technique of piano playing, setting new standards for the future. In his compositions he often used new ideas which sounded very modern in his time. He was very helpful to other composers who lived at that time, helping them to become better known by conducting their works and playing some of their orchestral pieces on the piano.
Liszt’s father was an official who worked for Prince Nikolaus Esterházy, the same noble family who employed the composer Joseph Haydn. When he was seven his father started to teach him the piano. He was a child prodigy, and within a year or two he was already playing in concerts. He was so promising that some rich Hungarians said they would pay for his music education.
In 1821 his family moved to Vienna. He had piano lessons from Czerny and composition lessons from Salieri. He soon became famous although he was still a young boy, and he met famous musicians like Beethoven and Schubert. Beethoven is supposed to have kissed him on the forehead.
In 1823 his family moved again, this time to Paris. He wanted to go to the Conservatoire to study music but Luigi Cherubini would not let him in because he was a foreigner (i.e. not French). So he studied music theory privately with Reicha and composition with Paer. Soon he was asked to play the piano everywhere in Paris. He travelled to London. On his second visit there in 1825 he played to King George IV at Windsor.
Liszt continued to travel to other countries. After his father died he became a piano teacher in Paris. He fell in love with one of his pupils. It was the first of many love affairs he had with various women. He read a lot of books to try to educate himself properly. He met Berlioz and he liked the music of Berlioz very much. In 1831 he met the violinist Niccolò Paganini and he was amazed by his virtuoso playing. Liszt was to do for the piano what Paganini had done for the violin. Both men were drawn by cartoonists as devilish characters. Both men wrote music which was incredibly hard for their instruments.
Soon Liszt met a Countess called Marie d’Agoult. He began to have an affair with her. The Countess left her husband and went to live with Liszt in Geneva. They lived together for several years and had three children. When Liszt gave away a lot of his money to help pay for a monument to Beethoven in Bonn he had to earn money by going on tours again, so the countess left him. He still saw her and the children every summer for a few years but finally they separated completely.
Liszt spent eight years in Rome. He wrote a lot of religious music and took orders in the Catholic church. His daughter Cosima, who had married a famous conductor Hans von Bülow, left her husband and lived with Wagner. They had two children together. Liszt and Wagner quarrelled for many years about this.
Liszt spent most of his last years travelling to and fro between three cities: Rome, Weimar and Budapest. He called this his “vie trifurquée” (three-forked life). He died in Bayreuth July 31, 1886.
Liszt had a very strong personality which affected everyone he met. When he played the piano at concerts he was a great showman. People drew caricatures of him playing the piano with his wild mop of hair. He could be very polite and knew how to get on with the aristocracy. He could be very generous, giving both money and time to other musicians and giving praise where it was deserved. He was a powerful, unique character and one of the most important romantic composers of his day. He is known for his dazzling virtuostic piano displays best.
Most of Liszt’s compositions were for piano. He wrote one piano sonata. It is in B minor. Its form is very different from the sonatas of composers like Beethoven. It is a very Romantic work, but it does not tell a story like a lot of Romantic pieces do. Mostly his piano works are shorter pieces which are quite free in form. He often took a theme and transforms it (changes it gradually). He wrote studies which are much more than just pieces to improve one’s piano technique. One collection is called "Transcendental Studies". In Switzerland he wrote "Années de pèlerinage" (Years of Wandering), a collection of pieces to which he gave titles later. Liszt explored all the possible sounds that the piano could make (it was still a fairly new instrument). Sometimes he made it sound like an orchestra. Some of his last piano works are much simpler to play, although the chords would have sounded very modern for his time. They are like the Impressionistic music of Debussy.
Not all Liszt’s piano pieces were original compositions: he also made arrangements or transcriptions. It seems a strange idea to us now to take someone else’s symphony and arrange it for piano. This is what Liszt often did. He took symphonies by Beethoven or songs by Schubert and changed them so that they could be played on the piano. Many people did not have the opportunity to hear concerts very often, and they certainly did not have radios or CDs, so Liszt was making these works more famous, helping them to reach a wider audience. He often made difficult transcriptions which meant that he changed the pieces and added ornamental notes, making a new piece out of an old one.
Liszt’s orchestral music is also very important. He wrote symphonic poems: pieces which tell a story or describe something. The best known one is called "Les préludes". He also wrote two piano concertos.
He wrote a lot of church music. Church music was often quite sentimental in those days, but Liszt tried to make his works help people to feel religious devotion.
In many ways Liszt was typical of the Romantic artist. He was always looking for a spiritual meaning to life. He carried a walking stick with the heads of St Francis of Assisi and Gretchen and Mephistopheles, characters from Goethe’s Faust. He was a 19th-century musician but through his thinking and his music he looked forward to the 20th century.
The New Grove Dictionary of Music and Musicians, ed. Stanley Sadie (1980)
Fandom (website)
Fandom (previously known as Wikia and before that, Wikicities) is an organization for making websites that are wikis. Wikia was started in 2004 by Jimmy Wales, who also started Wikipedia, and Angela Beesley. The name of Wikicities was changed to Wikia on March 27, 2006 to prevent other people from mistaking it for a wiki on cities, and then renamed again on October 4th, 2016 to Fandom for an unknown reason. At the time, it was called "Fandom powered by Wikia" until June 2018. Since October 2018, most of the URLs have changed from x.wikia.com to x.fandom.com this does not include wikis based on serious topics which instead changed to x.wikia.org.
Wikis hosted on Fandom are about something which many people will like. All content on Fandom is released under a free license, such as the GNU Free Documentation License or the Creative Commons. Anybody can change pages on wikis at Fandom, so that no single person "owns" or is "the boss" of a wiki, and so that large communities can be made. The software used is MediaWiki.
Fandom uses advertisements to generate money.
Articles on Fandom are often written in more "in-universe" style; meaning that fictional characters and plots are written as if they are real. Some projects on Fandom are more for people who are very interested in the topic.
In August 2010, they said that a new look was coming, making some people take their wikis off the service.
Fandom uses the MediaWiki software.
Mozzarella
Mozzarella is a kind of fresh cheese. Originally, it was Italian but now it can be found all over the world. Its made of the milk of cows or water buffalos. A cheese produced in a similar way, but with sheep's milk is common in Sardinia, Abruzzo and Lazio. It is sometimes called mozzapecora. Mozzarella of goats' milk can also be found. Its development is more recent, though. The main reason it is produced is that goats' milk is easier to digest than that of cows or buffalos.
Mozzarella is common in Italian cuisine. It can be used on pizza.
Mozzarella can be kept in the fridge for a few days, if its covered in brine.
Mozzarella can come in different moistures.
Limburger cheese
Limburger cheese is a cheese made from cows' milk. Its name comes from the Duchy of Limburg, which is divided between Holland, Belgium and Germany today. Limburger cheese is known for its strong smell, which is caused by the bacterium that lives in its rind. Since about the mid nineteenth century, most Limburger is produced in Germany.
In 2006 a study showing that the malaria mosquito ("Anopheles gambiae") is attracted equally to the smell of Limburger and to the smell of human feet earned the Ig Nobel Prize in the area of biology. This Cheese has now been placed in strategic locations in Africa to fight against malaria, which is spread by mosquitoes.
MyScene
MyScene is a type of doll created by the Mattel Toy Company. They share the product name of Barbie, but they have differences with the head shapes. The line was supposedly started as a rival to the popular Bratz dolls.
The My Scene characters have starred in three DVD movies:
Bora Bora is a small island in the Leeward group of the Society Islands of French Polynesia, an overseas territory of France in the Pacific Ocean. Vaitape is the largest city on the island with 4,000 people. There is an airport on an islet where residents can fly to other islands in French Polynesia.
Bora Bora has one main road which runs around the island.
Appalachian Mountains
The Appalachian Mountains (French: les Appalaches) are a large group of North American mountains. They are partly in Canada, but mostly in the United States. They form an area from 100 to 300 miles wide, running 1,500 miles from the island of Newfoundland in Canada to central Alabama in the United States.
The individual mountains average around 3,000 ft (900 m) in height. The highest is Mt. Mitchell in North Carolina (6,684 ft or 2,037m). Mt. Mitchell is also the highest point in the United States east of the Mississippi River as well as the highest point in eastern North America.
The Appalachian chain is a barrier to east-west travel. Ridgelines and valleys run north-south and travelers must climb them again and again. Only a few mountain passes run east-west. The Erie Canal was built through one of them. In most places the Appalachians are the watershed between the drainage basins of the Mississippi River and the Atlantic Ocean.
The term Appalachia is used to refer to regions associated with the mountain range. It refers to the mountain range and the hills and plateau region around it. The term is often used to refer to areas in the central and southern Appalachian Mountains. These areas usually include all of West Virginia and parts of the states of Kentucky, Tennessee, Virginia, and North Carolina, and sometimes extending as far south as northern Georgia and western South Carolina, as far north as Pennsylvania, and as far west as southeastern Ohio. In 1965 the United States Congress created an Appalachian Regional Commission to include these areas and more, as far west as Mississippi.
The Appalachians today are the worn-down remains of a once huge mountain chain. They first formed about 480 million years ago during the Ordovician. They once were as high as the Alps and the Rocky Mountains.
The birth of the Appalachian ranges, some 480 million years ago (mya), was the first of several mountain-building plate collisions as the supercontinent Pangaea formed. The Appalachians were at the center of the newly formed Pangaea. North America and Africa were connected, and the Appalachians were part of the same mountain chain as the "Anti-Atlas" or Little Atlas Mountains in Morocco. This mountain range, known as the Central Pangean Mountains, extended into Scotland, from the North America/Europe collision (see Caledonian orogeny).
Raven-Symoné
Raven-Symoné Christina Pearman (born December 10, 1985) is an American actress and singer. She was born in Atlanta, Georgia. She moved to Ossining, New York at age three. She played the role of "Olivia" in the last three seasons of "The Cosby Show" (1984).
Pearman is most well known as the person Raven in the TV show "That's So Raven" and other parts in "The Cheetah Girls" and "The Cheetah Girls 2". Pearman goes by the name Raven for most of her acting.
In August 2013 Raven-Symoné commented on legalizing gay marriage, "I was excited to hear today that more states legalized gay marriage. I, however am not currently getting married, but it is great to know I can now, should I wish to". She was dating AzMarie Livingston since 2012, and in October 2015, she announced that she had broken up with her.
Arabian horse
The Arabian horse is a breed famous for beauty and stamina. It is one of the oldest horse breeds in the world. Arabian horses are bred with horses of other breeds to add speed, beauty, endurance, and strong bones. Today, Arabian ancestors are found in almost every breed of riding horse.
The Arabian horse developed in the deserts of Arabia by the Bedouin people. People sometimes brought their horses into family tent for shelter and protection. This close relationship with humans made the Arabian a horse with a kind temper and quick to learn. It also was used as a war horse. This meant that it needed speed and to be very alert. This blend of traits makes it necessary for people today to treat Arabian horses with kindness and respect.
Arabian horses have triangle-shaped heads, a wide forehead, big eyes, large nostrils, and small muzzles (noses). Most have a concave or "dished" profile. They have a slim, arched neck, smooth hindquarters and a naturally high-carried tail. Arabians have strong bone and good feet. They are especially noted for their excellent endurance. Arabians' hair coat colors are bay, gray, chestnut, and black. Arabians can have robicono and/or sabino genes. All Arabians have black skin under their hair coat, except under white markings.
The Bedouin sold many Arabian horses to people from Europe. Other Arabian horses were captured in war and taken to other countries outside of the Middle East. Today, Arabian horses are found all over the world. Arabian horse families are now labeled by where their most recent ancestors were bred, such as "Polish," "Spanish," "Crabbet" (from England), "Russian," "Egyptian", and "Domestic" (in the United States). For example, a horse called a "Polish Arabian" is an Arabian horse who has recent ancestors that were bred at farms in Poland, from horses the Polish people bought from the Bedouin in Arabia many centuries ago.
Arabians compete in many places, including horse racing, horse shows, Endurance riding, show jumping, and more. They also make good pleasure, trail, and working ranch horses for people who do not like competitive events. Arabians also are seen in movies, parades, circuses and other places where horses are used.
There are many legends and myths about Arabian horses. One legend says that the prophet Muhammad selected his five finest mares (female horses), called "Al Khamsa" ("the five") to be the foundation of the Arabian breed. Another legend says the Queen of Sheba gave an Arabian mare to King Solomon, and that is how the breed began. Yet another story says Allah made the Arabian horse from the south wind, saying, "I create thee, Oh Arabian...I give thee flight without wings."
In real history, Arabians are one of the oldest human-developed horse breeds in the world. Pictures of "Proto-Arabian" horses that looked a lot like modern Arabian horses were painted on rocks in the Arabian Peninsula as far back as 2,500 B.C. The ancestors of the Bedouin probably tamed horses not long after they tamed the camel. A horse skeleton was unearthed in the Sinai peninsula, dated to 1700 B.C., and is considered the earliest proof of the horse in Ancient Egypt. It was probably brought by the Hyksos invaders. This horse had a wedge-shaped head, large eye and small muzzle, just like the Arabian horse today.
In the desert, humans were the only source of food and water for the Arabian horse. Where there was no pasture, the Bedouin fed their horses dates, a fruit of the date palm tree, and camel's milk. Arabians needed to live on very little food, and survive a dry climate that was very hot in the day but very cold at night. Weak horses did not live, and the horses who survived the desert also had to survive being ridden for war. Therefore, the Arabian horse became very tough and able to live in a harsh world.
Napoleon rode a gray Arabian stallion named Marengo. George Washington rode a half-Arabian named Blueskin during the American Revolution. A fictional horse, "The Black Stallion," was played by a real Arabian stallion named Cass Ole in the movie that was based on the book by Walter Farley.
In 1864 the Sultan Abdulaziz, founded a new Horse stud with Arabian horses and sent a commission to purchase in Bialocerkiew, the stud of Count Branicki in Poland, whose breeding have a very good reputation. The Commission purchased 92 horses, including some descendants of the 1855 stallion Indjanin imported from England.
Earth's crust
The Earth's crust is the Earth's hard outer layer. It is less than 1% of Earth's volume. The crust is made up of different types of rocks: igneous, metamorphic, and sedimentary rocks.
Below the crust is the mantle. The crust and the upper mantle make up the lithosphere. The lithosphere is broken up into tectonic plates that can move.
The crust is of two different types. One is the continental crust (under the land) and the other is the oceanic crust (under the ocean). The continental crust is thicker, 30 km (20 mi) to 50 km (30 mi) thick. It is mostly made of less dense, more felsic rocks, such as granite. The oceanic crust is thinner, 5 km (3 mi) to 10 km (6 mi) thick. It is made of denser, more mafic rocks, such as basalt.
The temperature of the crust increases with depth because of geothermal energy. Where the crust meets the mantle the temperatures can be between 200 °C (392 °F) to 400 °C (752 °F). The crust is the coldest layer because it is exposed to the atmosphere.
Igneous rocks make up over 90% of Earth's crust by volume. This is not noticeable because they are mostly covered by sedimentary and metamorphic rocks.
A single family of silicates, the feldspars, account for about half of the material in the crust (60% by weight), and quartz is a sizeable proportion of the rest. Other common minerals are mica and hornblende.
Only 8% of Earth's crust is non-silicate minerals, and this includes carbonates, sulfides, chlorides and oxides.
Earth's mantle and crust formed about 100 million years after the formation of the planet, about 4.6 billion years ago. At first the crust was very thin, and was probably changed often as the tectonic plates shifted around a lot more than they do now. The crust would have been destroyed many times by asteroids hitting Earth, which was much more common in the Late Heavy Bombardment.
The oldest oceanic basalt crust today is only about 200 million years. Most of the continental crust is much older. The oldest continental crustal rocks on Earth are cratons between 3.7 and 4.28 billion years old. These have been found in the Narryer Gneiss Terrane in Western Australia, in the Acasta Gneiss in the Northwest Territories on the Canadian Shield, and on the Fennoscandian Shield. A few zircons at least 4.3 billion years old have been found in the Narryer Gneiss Terrane in Western Australia.
The average age of Earth's continental crust is about 2.0 billion years. Most crustal rocks formed before 2.5 billion years ago are in cratons. Such old continental crust and the mantle below it are less dense than other places in the Earth. These are not easily destroyed when the plates shift. The making of new continental crust is linked to times of major orogeny or mountain building. This happens at the same time as the formation of the supercontinents such as Rodinia, Pangaea and Gondwana. The crust forms in part by the coming together of island arcs including granite and metamorphic fold belts. They are kept together partly by the subduction of the mantle below the crust, which makes a mantle on which the crust can float.
A food chain shows the feeding relationship between different organisms in a particular environment and/or habitat. Plants are at the bottom of a food chain because they are producers that make their food from a process called photosynthesis . Organisms that can make their own food are called producers. Consumers are animals that eat the products of producers or other animals. The animal that eats the producer is called the primary consumer and it gains the most amount of energy. The animal that eats the primary consumer is called a secondary consumer which in the primary consumer's energy which is transferred becomes lower due to the primary consumer consuming some energy. The animal that eats the secondary consumer is called a tertiary consumer and so on to fourth, fifth, etc. The direction of arrows between the organisms shows who eats what and what gets eaten by what.
A food chain also represents a series of events and consumption in which food and energy are consumed from one organism in an ecosystem to another. Food chains show how energy is passed from the sun to producers, from producers to consumers, and from consumers to decomposes such as fungi. They also show how animals depend on other organisms for food.
In any ecosystem, many food chains overlap. Different food chains may include some of the same organisms. Several consumers may eat the same kind of plant or animal for food. When this happens, the food chain forms a food web. A food web shows how food chains are related within an ecosystem and how the cycles balanced between an equilibrium
Embryology is the study of embryos and their development. The study of embryology starts with the fertilisation of an egg, and continues until the foetus stage. A broader term, developmental biology, covers the whole period of growth from the egg to adult life.
In mammals (and some other animals) embryos develop inside the mother, in the mother's womb. Otherwise it takes place after the egg is laid. It most animals, there are various stages between the egg and the adult animal. If the stages are well-defined the process is called metamorphosis.
Histology is the study of the microscopic anatomy of cells and tissues of plants and animals, particularly the tissues. It is a part of cytology, and an essential tool of biology and medicine.
Histology is usually done by looking at cells and tissues under a light microscope or electron microscope. The tissue has to be specially prepared beforehand.
The stages below are only described in outline. Laboratories which do histology work from schedules which are much more detailed.
Chemical fixatives are used to preserve tissue from decay. This preserves the structure of the cell and of sub-cellular components such as cell organelles (e.g., nucleus, endoplasmic reticulum, mitochondria). The most common fixative for light microscopy is formalin (4% formaldehyde in saline).
After fixing, the block of tissue is embedded in paraffin wax. This holds and preserves the tissue as a block.
The section is cut into a series of wafer-thin slices, each of which is put on a glass microscope slide. The machine which cuts the block is a mechanical guillotine which can be set to cut at a suitable depth for the tissue in question.
Stains are dyes, chemicals used to make cells and tissues easy to see under a microscope. There are many tissue stains, and each of them has advantages and disadvantages.
This is the most widely used stain in biology and medicine. Haematoxylin colours cell nuclei and eosin colours cell cytoplasm.
Camillo Golgi developed a silver nitrate stain for nerve cells. His idea was used by Santiago Ramón y Cajal in his famous work on the structure of brain tissue.
Electron microscopy is used often as well as light microscopy. This has its own procedures. Its advantage is that it resolves things which light cannot resolve. For example, viruses were first seen by electron microscopy..
Specialised selective stains using immunology or radioactive labelling are now routine. The advantage of using antibodies or radioactive labels is that they stick to "specific kinds of molecules".
Increasingly popular is tagging with a fluorescent stain, which shows up even if a tiny part of a cell is stained. Immunoinfluorescence is the name of this particular technique.
Ann Arbor is a city in the US state of Michigan. It is the county seat of Washtenaw County. According to the 2010 United States Census, Ann Arbor was the 6th largest city in Michigan. In 2010, there were 113,934 people living there. The city is part of the Detroit Metropolitan Combined Statistial Area.
Ann Arbor was started in 1824. It is thought that the city is named after the wife, Ann, of one of the founders. The University of Michigan was moved to Ann Arbor in 1837. (Before that, the University had been in Detroit.) The city grew during the 1800s and 1900s. The only time the city did not grow was the Depression of 1873.
During the 1960s and 1970s, Ann Arbor was an important place for the Civil Rights Movement, the anti-Vietnam War movement, and for left-wing and liberal politics.
Today, Ann Arbor is home to the University of Michigan. The University is very important to the city because 30,000 people work for it. 12,000 of these workers work for the University of Michigan Health System, which are hospitals and clinics run by the University. Ann Arbor's economy is also very high-tech. High-tech companies come to the area because there are many graduates and a lot of research and development money at the University.
Microbiology - (Greek μικρός, mikrós, „tiny“, βίος, bíos, „life“ and λόγος, lógos, „science“) is a science in the composition of biology, which is occupied by the study of microorganisms (bacterium, (archaebacteria), microscopic fungi, protozoa,alga,and viruses). Into the field of the interests of microbiology enter their systematics, morphology, physiology, biochemistry, evolution, role in the ecosystems
and also the possibility of practical use. Bacteriology is a division of microbiology.
In 1665, Robert Hooke saw that cork was made up of little cubes that he named cells. Later Anton van Leeuwenhoek made the important connection that cells are living things when he saw through his early microscope smallest one-celled organisms. Later Christian Ehrenberg found thatprotista or bacteria were different kinds of cells. In the late part of the 1800s Martinus Beijerinck showed that there were small particles called viruses.
Another important change in the study of microorganisms came from the discovery of DNA and RNA. This allowed using a vector to change the inside of a cell without killing it. One recent discovery that changed the study of microbiology is the discovery of transposons or jumping genes. Another one is the discovery of animal genes in the cells.
The branches of microbiology can be classified into pure and applied sciences.  Microbiology can be also classified based on taxonomy, as in the cases of bacteriology, mycology, protozoology, and phycology. There is considerable overlap between the specific branches of microbiology with each other and with other disciplines. Certain aspects of these branches can extend beyond the traditional scope of microbiology
Transposon
A transposon is a sequence of DNA that can move to new positions within the genome of a single cell. The press called them jumping genes, but it is not correct to call them 'genes'.
Transposons were first found by Barbara McClintock while working on maize. She received a Nobel Prize for her work in 1983.
Transposition can create significant mutations and alter the cell's genome size.
Transposons themselves are of two types according to their mechanism, which can be either "copy and paste" (class I) or "cut and paste" (class II).
Class I (Retrotransposons):
They copy themselves in two stages, first from DNA to RNA by transcription, then from RNA back to DNA by reverse transcription. The DNA copy is then inserted into the genome in a new position. Retrotransposons behave very similarly to retroviruses, such as HIV.
Class II (DNA transposons):
By contrast, the cut-and-paste transposition mechanisms of class II transposons do not involve an RNA intermediate.
Transposons are mutagens. They can damage the genome of their host cell in different ways:
Transposons can carry accessory genes, such as antibiotic resistance genes. They can be used to put a gene into the DNA of an organism. This has been done with fruit flies ("Drosophila melanogaster") by putting the transposon into the embryo.
Transposons are found in many forms of life. They may have arisen independently many times, or perhaps just once and then spread to other kingdoms by horizontal gene transfer.
While some transposons may confer benefits on their hosts, most are regarded as selfish DNA parasites. In this way, they are similar to viruses. Various viruses and transposons also share features in their genome structures and biochemical abilities, leading to speculation that they share a common ancestor.
Excessive transposon activity can destroy a genome, which is lethal. Many organisms have developed mechanisms to inhibit them. Bacteria may use gene deletion to remove transposons and viruses from their genomes while eukaryotic organisms use RNA interference (RNAi) to inhibit transposon activity.
In vertebrate animal cells nearly all the 100,000+ DNA transposons in a genome code for inactive polypeptides. In humans, all of the Class I-like transposons are inactive. The first DNA transposon used as a tool for genetic purposes, the Sleeping Beauty transposon system, was a transposon which was resurrected from a long evolutionary sleep.
Transposons may have been co-opted by the vertebrate immune system as a means of producing antibody diversity: The V(D)J recombination system operates by a mechanism similar to that of transposons. This is a system of three genes which get rearranged in the production of vertebrate lymphocytes. The system diversely encode proteins to match antigens from bacteria, viruses, parasites, dysfunctional cells such as tumor cells, and pollens.
The final DNA sequence, and thus the sequence of the antibody, is highly variable, even when the same two V, D, or J segments are joined. This great diversity allows VDJ recombination to generate antibodies even to microbes that neither the organism nor its ancestors have ever previously encountered.
Toowoomba
Toowoomba (also called 'Garden City' by people who live there) is a city in South East Queensland, Australia. It is 132 km west of Brisbane, and two hours drive from the Gold Coast and Sunshine Coast beaches. About 115,000 people live there, which makes Toowoomba Australia's second largest city that is not on the coast, after Canberra.
Every year in September, Toowoomba holds its annual Flower Festival. When this is taking place, the town, especially its CBD are decorated with flowers. People who live there may also open their gardens for public judging for the garden competitions. Another attraction is the parade, where one would see floats with flower themes. Many people from all over the nation visit the festival, and a popular way to arrive is on the specially operating retired steam train.
Another major event held in Toowoomba is the Easterfest. It is a large religious festival that thousands of people come to, to see many famous singers perform. Many put up tents on in Queens Park.
Toowoomba is also known for its historical buildings, such as the town hall, The Empire Theatre, and the Cobb & Co Museum. The town hall was the first in Queensland to be built for a town hall. The Empire Theatre was built as a silent movie house in 1911. A fire nearly destroyed the building, but it was built again, and reopened in 1933. Now, it is the biggest regional theatre in Australia. The Cobb & Co Museum began in the 1880s as a small mail run. It moved both mail and passengers to Brisbane and further.
Toowoomba is also home to some notable private schools, including Toowoomba Grammar School (which is a GPS school), Downlands College, and The Glenny School, none of which are 'co-educational'.
During the 2010-2011 Queensland floods, several people were drowned in their cars when water flooded the main shopping centre.
Albury, New South Wales
Albury is a city in New South Wales, Australia. It is on the Hume Highway that runs between Sydney and Melbourne. The Murray River separates Albury from Wodonga. Albury is on the north side of the Murray River. The river is also the border between Victoria and New South Wales. It is about 550 km from the state capital Sydney, but only 312 km from the Victorian capital Melbourne. Albury is believed to have been named after Aldbury in Hertfordshire.
The Australian Aboriginal people called the area Bungambrewatha. There are a number of historical aboriginal sites including rock paintings. There are also scarred trees, where the bark has been removed to make shields and canoes. The rich river flats would have provided food for native animals, and the wetlands would have been home to large numbers of water birds.
The first Europens to arrive in the area were the explorers, Hamilton Hume and William Hovell in 1824. They made their mark in a tree on the riverbank which later became the spot where people heading south would cross the river. Crossing the river was easy in summer when the water level was low. By 1844 a ferry was built to carry people over the river all year. There were soon many farmers moving into the area with large flocks of sheep. Some of the first in Albury were William Wyse and Charles Ebden.
Francisco de Goya
Francisco José de Goya y Lucientes (30 March 1746 – 30 April 1828) was a Spanish painter. He painted many portraits of the Spanish Royal Family. His most famous paintings are "Charles IV of Spain and His Family" and "The Third of May 1808". He regularly painted the famous Duchess of Alba.
Goya was born in Fuendetodos, in the region of Aragón, Spain, in 1746. His parents were José Benito de Goya y Franque and Gracia de Lucientes y Salvador. He spent his childhood in Fuendetodos. His father's work was gilding (putting gold onto picture frames). In about 1749, the family moved to a house in the city of Zaragoza. Goya went to school at Escuelas Pias. He became best friends with Martin Zapater. Through their lives, they wrote many letters to each other. Because of these letters, historians know a lot about Goya's life. When he was 14 Goya became an apprentice to the painter José Luzán.
Goya later moved to Madrid where he studied with Anton Raphael Mengs, a painter who was popular with Spanish royalty. Goya and Mengs did not like each other, and Goya got bad marks in his examinations. Goya tried to join the Spanish Royal Academy of Fine Art in 1763 and 1766, but failed.
He then traveled to Rome. In 1771 he won second prize in a painting competition in the city of Parma. Later that year, he returned to Zaragoza. He got work painting frescos in several buildings including the dome of the Basilica of the Pillar. He studied with the painter Francisco Bayeu y Subías. His painting began to show the style which later made his famous.
Goya married Bayeu's sister, Josefa, in 1774. Francisco Bayeu was a member of the Spanish Royal Academy of Fine Art. This helped Goya to get work with the Royal Tapestry Workshop. He worked there for 5 years, and designed 42 patterns. Many of his designs were made into tapestries and used to decorate the bare stone walls of the royal palaces, such as El Escorial. The Spanish Royal family saw his works and later gave him work as a portrait painter. He also painted an altarpiece (Holy picture) for the Church of San Francisco El Grande. Because of this picture, Goya was at last made a member of the Spanish Royal Academy of Fine Art.
In 1783, the Count of Florida blanca, commissioned Goya (gave Goya the paid work) to paint his portrait. Then King Charles III of Spain and other important people wanted Goya to paint their portraits. Goya became friends with Crown Prince Don Luis, and lived in his house. From 1788, in the reign of Charles IV, Goya became even more popular.