AcharyaChanakya/simple-wikipedia huggingface dataset:
Stan, Kyle and Wendy Testaburger meet at Stark's Pond and Wendy suggests that they use the device in Cartman's rear-end to contact the aliens, the boys tie Cartman to a tree and a big satellite dish emerges from Cartman's rear-end. The spaceship appears and Ike leaps to safety. The aliens then begin to talk to the cows seeing them as the smartest species on the planet and Cartman is abducted once again, but is returned to the bus stop the next day.
Gin and Juice
Jordan Hendry
Jordan Hendry (born February 23, 1984 in Nokomis, Saskatchewan) is an Canadian professional ice hockey defenceman that currently plays for Straubing Tigers of the DEL.
He played college ice hockey with the University of Alaska Fairbanks Nanooks. Hendry has played in the National Hockey League with the Chicago Blackhawks from four seasons and the Anaheim Ducks for 2 games. He has also played for HC Lugano of the National League A.
Hendry won the Stanley Cup with the Chicago Blackhawks on June 9, 2010 which he took to his hometown of Nokomis.
Harriet Beecher Stowe (June 14, 1811 – July 1, 1896) was an American abolitionist and writer. Her novel "Uncle Tom's Cabin" (1852) showed the lives of African-Americans slaves. It was very popular as a novel and a play, and had a great influence in the United States and Britain, helping people who did not like slavery and making many people disagree with slavery.
Stowe was born Harriet Elisabeth Beecher in Litchfield, Connecticut, on June 14, 1811. Her parents were religious leaders Lyman Beecher (a leader of the Second Great Awakening) and Roxana (Foote) Beecher. Her mother died when Harriet was five years old. She had a sister, Catharine Beecher, who was an educator and author, and three brothers Henry Ward Beecher, Charles Beecher, and Edward Beecher.
Harriet went to the girls' school run by her sister Catharine. She received an education in the classics, including study of languages and mathematics. At 21, she moved to Cincinnati, Ohio to join her father. He had become the president of Lane Theological Seminary. She also joined the literary salon and social club called the Semi-Colon Club.
Harriet married Calvin Ellis Stowe on January 6, 1836. He was a widower and professor at the seminary. They had seven children together, including twin daughters. Calvin Stowe was a critic of slavery. The Stowes supported the Underground Railroad. They briefly sheltered several fugitive slaves in their home.
In 1850, the Stowe family moved to a house near the campus of Bowdoin College in Brunswick, Maine. Calvin Stowe was teaching in the college. On March 9, 1850, Stowe wrote to the editor of the antislavery journal "National Era". She told him that she was planning to write a story about slavery. In June 1851, the first installment of her book, "Uncle Tom's Cabin", was published in the "National Era". She originally used the subtitle "The Man That Was A Thing". It was changed to "Life Among the Lowly". Installments were published every week from June 5, 1851, to April 1, 1852.
For the newspaper serialization (published in parts) of her novel, Stowe was paid only $400. "Uncle Tom's Cabin" was published in book form on March 20, 1852, by John P. Jewett with an initial print run of 5,000 copies. Each of its two volumes included three illustrations and a title-page designed by Hammatt Billings. In less than a year, the book sold an unprecedented 300,000 copies. By December 1851, sales began dropping off. A cheap edition was published to stimulate more sales.
Americans were captivated by the book. It provoked more debate about abolition and slavery. Southerns hated the book. Within a year of the book's publication, 300 babies were named "Eva" in Boston alone.
After the start of the American Civil War, Stowe went to Washington, D.C. She met President Abraham Lincoln on November 25, 1862. Stowe's daughter Hattie reported, "It was a very droll time that we had at the White House I assure you ... I will only say now that it was all very funny—and we were ready to explode with laughter all the while."
Lincoln greeted Stowe by saying, "So this is the little lady who made this big war."
Harriet's own accounts are vague, including a letter reporting the meeting to her husband: "I had a real funny interview with the President."
Harriet Beecher Stowe died on 1 July 1896 in Hartford, Connecticut. She is buried in the cemetery at Phillips Academy in Andover, Massachusetts.
Joe McElderry
In mathematics, the absolute value or modulus of a real number , written as or formula_1, is the non-negative value of  when the sign is dropped. That is, for a positive , for a negative  (in which case is positive), and .
For example, the absolute value of 3 is 3, and the absolute value of −3 is also 3. The absolute value of a real number may be thought of as its distance from zero. It can be defined as follows:
Similarly, the absolute value (or modulus) of a complex number may be thought of as its distance from the origin. It is defined by the equation
For any real number , the absolute value of  is denoted by (a vertical bar on each side of the quantity), and is defined as
The absolute value of  is always either positive or zero, but never negative.
From an analytic geometry point of view, the absolute value of a real number is that number's distance from zero along the real number line. The absolute value of the difference of two real numbers is the distance between them.
In calculus, the absolute value function is differentiable except at 0. It is everywhere continuous.
In linear algebra, the norm of a vector is defined similarly as the distance from the tip of the vector to the origin. This is similar to the way the absolute value of a complex number is defined.
The square-root notation without sign represents the "positive" square root. So, it follows that
which is sometimes used as a definition of absolute value.
The absolute value has the following four main properties:
Other important properties of the absolute value include:
Two other useful properties related to inequalities are:
These relations may be used to solve inequalities involving absolute values. For example:
For a complex number formula_7, where x is the real part of z and y is the imaginary part of z,
Stefani Joanne Angelina Germanotta (born March 28, 1986), known professionally as Lady Gaga, is an American recording artist, songwriter, activist, record producer, businesswoman, fashion designer, philanthropist, and actress. She has a contralto vocal range. Her albums are "The Fame", "The Fame Monster", "Born This Way", "Artpop", "Cheek to Cheek", "Joanne", and "Chromatica". In the US, she has earned five number-one singles and six number-one albums. She has won 12 Grammy Awards, an Academy Award, three American Music Awards, and various BRIT Awards.
Gaga is known for her versatility in music. She got her stage name from the song "Radio Ga Ga" by the band Queen. She won a Golden Globe Award for her acting role in the television series "American Horror Story: Hotel" in 2016. Gaga played the female lead, Ally, in the 2018 movie "A Star Is Born", where she stars alongside Bradley Cooper.
Lady Gaga was born Stefani Joanne Angelina Germanotta at Lenox Hill Hospital Northwell Health in Upper East Side, New York City, on March 28, 1986. She is the oldest child of Joseph Germanotta, an internet businessman, and Cynthia (née Bissett). She has a younger sister named Natali, who is a fashion student. Lady Gaga is of Italian (her paternal grandfather was from Naso, in the province of Messina and he came up to the United States on 1908) and French Canadian ancestry. She learned to play piano at the age of four. She wrote her first piano song at 13. She started performing live by age 14. At the age of 11, Gaga went to the Convent of the Sacred Heart. This is a private Roman Catholic school on Manhattan's Upper East Side. Her family wasn't rich. She has said that her parents "both came from lower-class families, so we've worked for everything my mother worked eight to eight out of the house, in telecommunications, and so did my father." In high school, Gaga played lead roles in "Guys and Dolls" and in "A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum". Gaga said her high school life was "very dedicated, very studious, very disciplined". She also said that it was "insecure". She said in an interview that, "I didn’t fit in, and I felt like a freak."
Gaga was 17 when she went to New York University's Tisch School of the Arts. She lived in a NYU dorm on 11th Street. She studied music. She helped to write essays on art, religion, social issues and politics. Gaga felt that she was more creative than some of her classmates. "Once you learn how to think about art, you can teach yourself," she said. By the second semester of her sophomore year, she left school to focus on her musical career. Her father agreed to pay her rent for a year, if she agreed to go back to Tisch if she failed. "I left my entire family, got the cheapest apartment I could find, and ate shit until somebody would listen," she said. Gaga has said she has had bulimia and anorexia since she was 15.
In 2005, Gaga began a band called the Stefani Germanotta Band. The band played in local dive bars during 2005-2007 where they performed her debut EP, "Red and Blue". Gaga revisited these locations during her Dive Bar Tour during 2016.
Gaga started her creative team, the Haus of Gaga, in 2008. On August 19, 2008, her first album "The Fame" was released. Her debut album spawned the hit singles "Just Dance" (featuring Colby O'Donis), "Poker Face", "LoveGame", and "Paparazzi". The first two singles became number-one hits for Gaga in the United States, Canada, United Kingdom, Australia, and several other countries. Gaga's follow-up EP, "The Fame Monster", was released on November 18, 2009 and contained the singles "Bad Romance", "Telephone" (featuring R&B singer Beyoncé), and "Alejandro". They became hits worldwide, with all seven of these songs peaking within the top ten of the US "Billboard" Hot 100, and the first six singles managed to reach number one on "Billboard"'s Mainstream Top 40/Pop Songs chart.
Gaga released her second studio album, "Born This Way", on May 23, 2011. Before that, Gaga released the song of the same name on February 11, 2011. The song entered the charts at number 1 in America, becoming her third number-one single there. "Born This Way" became Gaga's first number-one album in the United States, selling over one million copies there in its first week. Following the song "Born This Way", the singles "Judas", "The Edge of Glory", and "Yoü and I" reached the top ten in the US. The album's final single, "Marry the Night", became a top-thirty hit there.
In 2012, Gaga bought 55 items from an auction for Michael Jackson's possessions. She also released her first fragrance, Fame. The liquid of the perfume is black but sprays clear, which is "like the soul of fame."
On November 6, 2013, her third studio album, "Artpop," was released and became Gaga's second American number-one album. The song "Applause" was released as "<nowiki>Artpop'</nowiki>"s lead single and reached number 4 in the US and Canada, while peaking within the top ten around the world. The second single, "Do What U Want", featuring R&B singer R. Kelly, was released as the album's second single, peaking at number 13 in America, number 9 in the UK, and number 3 in Canada. A remixed version of the song featuring American singer Christina Aguilera was released on New Year's Day, 2014. Gaga released the third single, "GUY.", in March 2014. It peaked at number 76 on the "Billboard" Hot 100.
In September 2014, Gaga released a collaborative album with jazz artist Tony Bennett titled "Cheek to Cheek". Two singles have been released, "Anything Goes" and "I Can't Give You Anything but Love".
In 2015, Gaga was supposed to be the artist to perform the first concert in space; however, this never came into fruition. She performed a tribute to British singer-actress Julie Andrews at the 2015 Academy Awards. Gaga became engaged to her boyfriend of nearly four years, actor Taylor Kinney, over the weekend of Valentine's Day, 2015. However, the couple broke up in July 2016.
Throughout that year, Gaga toured with Tony Bennett to promote "Cheek to Cheek". Gaga also starred in the FX series, "American Horror Story: Hotel".
At the end of 2015, Gaga released the single "Til It Happens to You", co-written with songwriter Diane Warren (who has written songs for Céline Dion, Cher, and Aerosmith, among others) for the documentary "The Hunting Ground", which documents sexual abuse on college campuses. The song was nominated for a Grammy Award for Best Song Written for Visual Media, along with an Academy Award for Best Original Song. She performed the song at the 2016 Academy Awards with 50 sexual assault survivors.
For her role in "American Horror Story", Gaga won a Golden Globe Award.
Gaga performed the National Anthem of the United States at Super Bowl 50 on February 7, 2016.
Gaga released her fifth studio album, "Joanne", on October 21, 2016. The style of the album is very different compared to her previous music. It entered at number one on the "Billboard" 200, and it became Gaga's fourth number-one album of the 2010's decade (2010-19). She worked with producer RedOne again on "Joanne", along with artists like Mark Ronson, Beck, and country songwriter Hillary Lindsey. The album includes the singles "Perfect Illusion" and "Million Reasons". The first single reached the top twenty around the world. The second reached as high as #52 in the US when it first charted.
Gaga performed in the Super Bowl LI (51) Halftime Show on February 5, 2017, in Houston, Texas. This became the most-watched halftime show in history across all platforms (the second-most watched on television, behind Katy Perry's 2015 halftime show). After Gaga's performance, "Million Reasons" entered the "Billboard" Hot 100 again at number four, tying the record for the highest re-entry on the Hot 100. It became her 14th top-ten hit and her 10th top-five in the US. It was later certified Platinum by the RIAA.
After Beyoncé announced that she could not perform the Coachella Festival due to her expecting twins, it was revealed that Gaga would perform instead. She performed her old hits along with a new song, "The Cure", that was released the next day. It reached number one on the iTunes charts of 62 countries on the day it was released.
From August 2017 to February 2018, Gaga performed on the Joanne World Tour. Some shows in November, along with the final ten shows on the tour, were canceled due to Gaga's fibromyalgia. A Netflix documentary about her life, called "Gaga: Five Foot Two", was released on September 22, 2017. The documentary won the award for Best Music Documentary at the 2018 MTV Movie & TV Awards.
On November 19, 2017, Gaga performed "The Cure" from the Joanne World Tour during the 2017 American Music Awards. She won the award for Favorite Pop/Rock Female Artist later that night.
Gaga starred in a remake of the film "A Star Is Born" alongside Bradley Cooper, which was released on October 5, 2018. Two singles from the movie's soundtrack were released: "Shallow" (with Bradley Cooper) and "Always Remember Us This Way". "Shallow" topped charts in Australia and the UK while initially reaching the top five in the US and Canada. It won two Grammy Awards for Best Song Written for Visual Media and Best Pop Duo/Group Performance. The soundtrack entered at number one on the "Billboard" 200 album chart, giving Gaga the most number-one albums in the 2010's decade for a woman (with five US number-one albums).
Gaga is currently performing in a residency show in Las Vegas at the MGM Park Theater, called Lady Gaga Enigma. It began on December 28, 2018.
In February 2019, it was reported that Gaga and Christian Carino, her boyfriend of two years, had called off their engagement. Later that month, Gaga won her first Academy Award, known as an Oscar, in the Best Original Song category for "Shallow". She performed the song alone at the 61st Grammy Awards but joined with Cooper at the Oscars. After the Oscars performance, the song became Gaga's fourth number-one hit on the "Billboard" Hot 100 and Cooper's first.
On March 12, 2019, Gaga responded on Twitter to tabloid rumors that she was pregnant, writing, "Rumors I'm pregnant? Yeah, I'm pregnant with #LG6," referring to her sixth studio album.
On May 6, 2019, Gaga was one of the chairpersons of the Met Gala, a yearly dinner held by "Vogue" editor-in-chief Anna Wintour at the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York City. It is known for its celebrity guests and themes. The 2019 theme was "Camp: Notes on Fashion". Gaga wore four layers: a long fuchsia coat with a hair bow, a black gown, a fuchsia dress, and black lingerie.
In July 2019, Gaga revealed her beauty collection, called Haus Laboratories. It was released for pre-order on its website and Amazon, whose Prime Day sale occurred July 15 and 16 of that year.
A song by Gaga, titled "Stupid Love", leaked online in January 2020. Gaga later released the final version of the song on February 28, 2020, as the first single from her upcoming sixth studio album, revealed to be called "Chromatica". The song entered the top ten of charts in several countries. It became Gaga's sixteenth top-ten and twelfth top-five hit on the "Billboard" Hot 100 when it debuted at number five. "Chromatica" was planned for release on April 10, 2020, but was postponed to May 29 because of the global coronavirus (COVID-19) outbreak.
On April 18, 2020, Gaga performed the song "Smile" as part of the TV special "One World: Together at Home", which featured appearances from many entertainers, such as Jennifer Lopez, Beyoncé, Taylor Swift, and Elton John. The program, which was organized by Gaga and Global Citizen in an effort to raise money for those affected by COVID-19, raised over $127 million. It earned the Guinness World Record for "Most Money Raised for Charity by a Remote Music Festival."
On May 22, a week before the album's new release date, she released "Rain on Me", a duet with Ariana Grande, as the album's second single. It entered at the top of the "Billboard" Hot 100, giving Gaga her fifth number-one song in the US.
"Chromatica" entered at the top of the "Billboard" 200 album chart in the US, giving Gaga her sixth US number-one album. She also earned six number-one albums faster than any other female in "Billboard" history. Scheduled for 2020, the Chromatica Ball Tour was rescheduled for 2021 and then rescheduled a second time until 2022 because of the coronavirus pandemic.
On August 30, 2020, at the MTV Video Music Awards, Gaga won the first Tricon Award, along with Artist and Song of the Year and Best Collaboration and Best Cinematography for "Rain on Me". With these five wins, Gaga's career VMA awards total 18.
Gaga released a short film for the "Chromatica" song "911" on September 18, 2020.
Gaga won Favorite Electronic Dance Music (EDM) Artist at the 2020 American Music Awards, becoming the first female artist to do so.
Gaga performed the US national anthem at the inauguration of President Joe Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris on January 20, 2021.
On March 14, 2021, "Rain on Me" won the Grammy Award for Best Pop Duo/Group Performance. "Chromatica" was nominated for Best Pop Vocal Album.
Gaga appeared in the 2021 Apple TV+ documentary series "The Me You Can't See", which was executive-produced by Oprah Winfrey and Prince Harry. It discusses the topic of mental health. In one episode, Gaga revealed that she had been raped and left pregnant by a music producer at the age of 19 and was threatened that her music would be burned if she did not take off her clothes.
On February 24, 2021, it was reported that Ryan Fischer, a friend of Gaga, was in Hollywood walking Gaga's three French bulldogs: Asia, Gustav, and Koji. Two men exited a white car, and Fischer was shot four times in the chest; Gustav and Koji were stolen. Asia was rescued by the Los Angeles Police Department. Fischer was sent to the hospital, and it was announced later that he would fully recover. Gaga, while filming a movie in Italy, announced a $500,000 reward for anyone who turned in the dogs.
Two days later, the dogs were turned in to a Los Angeles police station, unharmed, and returned to one of Gaga's representatives.
Gaga has a striking fashion sense. The "New York Post" said her early look was like "a refugee from "Jersey Shore"" with "big black hair, heavy eye makeup and tight, revealing clothes." Gaga has naturally brown hair. She bleached her hair blonde so she wouldn't look like Amy Winehouse.
Much of Gaga's early success is due to her gay fans. She is often called a "rising gay icon." Early in her career she had trouble being played on the radio, and stated, "The turning point for me was the gay community. I've got so many gay fans and they're so loyal to me and they really lifted me up. They'll always stand by me and I'll always stand by them. It's not an easy thing to create a fanbase."
Art Garfunkel
Plattsburgh, New York
WTC can mean:
George Rodrigue
George Rodrigue (March 13, 1944 – December 14, 2013) was a Cajun artist who grew up in New Iberia, Louisiana. He went to an all-boys high school and then later studied at two art colleges, one in Louisiana and one in California. He later trained in New York. He began by painting outdoor scenes at family gatherings, using an oak tree as his main subject in hundreds of paintings. Later he started abstract painting of Louisiana legends and the history of its people.
He is best known for his Blue Dog series of paintings. He modeled the Blue Dog after his own pet named Tiffany. She had died a couple years before the first painting was ever made. That first painting was made for the cover of a scary book. It was a little eerie, the subject being a pale scruffy dog with red eyes. Eventually they became friendlier images of the Blue Dog. He died of prostate cancer on December 14, 2013, aged 69.
JSGF
Ocean pollution
Ocean pollution is pollution in the sea. It is a form of water pollution.
Marine pollution occurs when harmful effects result from the entry into the ocean of chemicals, particles, industrial, agricultural and residential waste, noise, or the spread of invasive organisms. Most sources of marine pollution are land based. The pollution often comes from nonpoint sources such as agricultural runoff, wind-blown debris and dust. Nutrient pollution, a form of water pollution, refers to contamination by excessive inputs of nutrients. It is a primary cause of eutrophication of surface waters, in which excess nutrients, usually nitrogen or phosphorus, stimulate algae growth.
Many potentially toxic chemicals adhere to tiny particles which are then taken up by plankton and benthos animals, most of which are either deposit or filter feeders. In this way, the toxins are concentrated upward within ocean food chains.
When pesticides are incorporated into the marine ecosystem, they quickly become absorbed into marine food webs. Once in the food webs, these pesticides can cause mutations, as well as diseases, which can be harmful to humans as well as the entire food web.
Toxic metals can also be introduced into marine food webs. These can cause a change to tissue matter, biochemistry, behaviour, reproduction, and suppress growth in marine life. Also, many animal feeds have a high fish meal or fish hydrolysate content. In this way, marine toxins can be transferred to land animals, and appear later in meat and dairy products.
Every time we wash a car or use fertilizer on our lawns we are polluting the ocean. People often think that water pollution comes from big factories, but most of the pollution comes from everyday people doing everyday things. This kind of pollution is called "nonpoint-source pollution" because we cannot point out where it came from directly. All waste water, in time, enters a body of water (usually a stream). Every stream leads to a river, and every river leads to an ocean.
Because so many people use oil, large ships must take billions of barrels of it across the oceans. If it is not handled carefully, these trips can be very bad. In 1989, the United States experienced a large oil spill in Prince William Sound, a waterway on the Alaskan coast. The "Exxon Valdez", a very big ship, hit a reef and spilled more than 260,000 barrels of oil. The results were very bad. A great number of animals were covered in oil and began dying immediately. Animals that ate these oil-filled animals also died. Many Alaskans who lived by fishing these animals lost their businesses. Even though many animals were saved, and the Exxon Oil Company spent 2.5 billion dollars trying to clean up the oil, Alaska's wildlife still suffers.
Ocean Pollution
Oceanic pollution is the process where harmful or potentially harmful substances get into the ocean where they affect the existence of the sea organisms. Most of the harmful materials such as industrial, agricultural wastes as well as air pollution come from land. Pollutants get into the ocean through rivers from urban centers sewage and drainage systems. In the land runoffs, the pollutants include soil from farms, agricultural chemicals such as fertilizers, constructions as well as mining fields that are carried into the ocean by the rain or river water. All these pollutants are consumed by fish and other sea animals and eventually ending up in the fish we eat. The accumulation of these chemicals in the bodies of human beings can cause serious health issues. In order to reduce ocean pollution, tighter regulations should be placed on industries and sewage to ensure that the wastes of the industries are treated before being let into the rivers.
Humans have done much to harm the ocean, but we are starting to try to help them. Countries promise each other to clean up the ocean and save the ocean's resources.
Stewie Griffin
Stewie Griffin is a character in the television comedy "Family Guy". At age 1, he is the youngest child of Lois and Peter Griffin. He has two older siblings. They are an American family although Stewie is the only one in his family with an English accent. Seth MacFarlane, is the man responsible for voicing (imitating) and creating the voice for Stewie Griffin.
Tikkakoski
Tikkakoski is a town in Jyväskylä, Finland. In 2010, 6,000 people live in Tikkakoski. 2,321 of them live in Tikkakoski's downtown.
Family Computer Disk System
The Family Computer Disk System was a disc add-on for the Nintendo Entertainment System that was only released in Japan despite being announced in America. It used floppy disks which made it very easy for piracy to occur.
ColecoVision
Fashion in the 15th century
Fashion in the 15th century, in Europe was characterized by a series of extremes and extravagances, from the voluminous gowns called houppelandes with their sweeping floor-length sleeves to the revealing doublets and hose of Renaissance Italy. Hats, hoods, and other headdresses assumed increasing importance, and were swagged, draped, jewelled, and feathered. Full-bodied houppelandes with voluminous sleeves worn with elaborate headdresses are characteristic of the earlier 15th century.
As Europe continued to grow more prosperous, the urban middle classes, skilled workers, began to wear more complex clothes that followed, at a distance, the fashions set by the elites. National variations in clothing seem on the whole to have increased over the century.
Wool was the most popular fabric for all classes by far, followed by linen and hemp. Wool fabrics were available in a wide range of qualities, from rough undyed cloth to fine, dense broadcloth with a velvety nap; high-value broadcloth was a backbone of the English economy and was exported throughout Europe. Wool fabrics were dyed in rich colours, notably reds, greens, golds, and blues, although the actual blue colour achievable with dyeing with woad (and less frequently indigo) could not match the characteristic rich lapis lazuli pigment blues depicted in contemporary illuminated manuscripts such as the Très Riches Heures du duc de Berry.
Silk-weaving was well-established around the Mediterranean by the beginning of the century, and figured silks, often silk velvets with silver-gilt wefts, are increasingly seen in Italian dress and in the dress of the rich throughout Europe. Stately floral designs featuring a pomegranate or artichoke motif had reached Europe from China in the previous century and became a dominant design in the Ottoman silk-producing cities of Istanbul and Bursa, and spread to silk weavers in Florence, Genoa, Venice, Valencia and Seville in this period.
Fur was worn, mostly as a lining layer, by those who could afford it. The grey and white squirrel furs of the Middle Ages, vair and miniver, went out of style except at court, first for men and then for women; the new fashionable furs were dark brown sable and marten. Toward the end of the century, wild animal furs such as lynx became popular. Ermine remained the prerogative and hallmark of royalty.
A Markov chain is a model of some random process that happens over time. Markov chains are called that because they follow a rule called the Markov property. The Markov property says that whatever happens next in a process only depends on how it is right now (the state). It doesn't have a "memory" of how it was before. It is helpful to think of a Markov chain as evolving through discrete steps in time, although the "step" doesn't need to have anything to do with time.
Markov chains can be discrete or continuous. Discrete Time Markov Chains are split up into discrete time steps, like t = 1, t = 2, t = 3, and so on. The probability that a chain will go from one state to another state depends only on the state that it's in right now. Continuous Time Markov Chains are chains where the time spent in each state is a real number. The amount of time the chain stays in a certain state is randomly picked from an exponential distribution, which basically means there's an average time a chain will stay in some state, plus or minus some random variation.
An example of a Markov chain are the dietary habits of a creature who only eats grapes, cheese or lettuce, and whose dietary habits conform to the following (artificial) rules:
This creature's eating habits can be modeled with a Markov chain since its choice depends on what it ate yesterday, not additionally on what it ate 2 or 3 (or 4, etc...) days ago. One statistical property one could calculate is the expected percentage of the time the creature will eat cheese over a long period.
Another classical example of a Markov chain is the 1995 model of cocaine use in Los Angeles designed by the . The model is governed by a series of equations, which describe the probability of a person being a non-user, light user (L) or heavy user (H) of cocaine at time "t"+1, given their prior probabilities at time "t":
"L(t+1)" = "I"("t")"-aL(t) +fH(t)-bL(t)"
"H(t+1)" = "bL(t)-fH(t)-gH(t)"
"I(t)"+"L(t)"+"H(t)"=1
Mary Anning (21 May 1799 – 9 March 1847) was an early 19th-century British fossil collector, dealer and paleontologist. She earned her living finding and preparing fossils, in the rich Jurassic marine strata at Lyme Regis, Dorset where she lived. She made many important finds. These included the first ichthyosaur skeleton to be correctly identified ("Temnodontosaurus platyodon"); the first two plesiosaur skeletons ever found ("Plesiosaurus dolichodeirus"); the first pterosaur skeleton found outside Germany ("Dimorphodon macronyx"); and some important fish fossils.
Her observations played a key role in the discoveries that belemnite fossils contained fossilized ink sacs, and that coprolites, known as bezoar stones at the time, were fossilized faeces. When the geologist Henry De la Beche painted "Duria Antiquior", he based it largely on fossils Anning had found. He sold prints for her benefit. Her work played a key role in the growth of scientific biology in the early 19th century. It showed without question that previously unknown forms of life had existed in the Jurassic seas, all of which were long extinct.
Anning's sex and social class—her parents were poor religious dissenters (non-Anglican Protestants)—prevented her from fully participating in the scientific community of early 19th century England, dominated as it was by rich Anglican gentlemen. Some of the men she worked with and for did give her full credit for her contributions, but some did not.
Although she became well known in geological circles in Britain, Europe, and America, and she made a great deal of money from her best finds, she struggled financially for much of her life. In 1818 Anning came to the attention of Thomas Birch, a rich fossil collector, when she sold him an ichthyosaur skeleton. A year later, he was disturbed by the poverty of the Anning family, which was at the point of having to sell their furniture to make ends meet. Birch arranged for the sale by auction of his own fossil collection, and the proceeds (some £400) were given to the Annings. Besides providing much needed funds, the public auction raised the profile of the Anning family in the geologic community. Later, she lost £300 (a huge sum) in 1835 on unwise investments, but was saved by a government pension of £25 per year. This was organised by another of her friends, William Buckland. Her early death was caused by breast cancer.
Tourists used to visit Lyme Regis, which had become a popular seaside resort. As their father had before them, Mary and her brother Joseph Anning set up a table of 'curiosities' near the coach stop at a local inn to sell their wares to tourists. After Joseph made an important find of an ichthyosaur skull in 1810 and Mary found the associated skeleton a year later, they became known to the geologists and amateurs interested in fossils. Their passion for fossils grew to be the main source of income for their family.
Her stock in trade were invertebrate fossils such as ammonite and belemnite shells, which were common in the area and sold for a few shillings. Vertebrate fossils were much rarer, and exceptional specimens like an almost complete ichthyosaur skeleton could sell for much more.
The source of these fossils were the coastal cliffs that surround Lyme which are part of a geological formation known as the Blue Lias. This formation consists of alternating layers of limestone and shale, laid down as sediment on a shallow seabed early in the Jurassic period (about 210-195 million years ago). The cliffs are one of the richest fossil locations in Britain.
As Mary Anning continued to make important finds her reputation grew. In 1826, at the age of 27, she managed to save enough money to buy a home with a glass store front window for her shop, called "Anning's Fossil Depot". The move was covered in the local paper, which noted that the shop currently had a fine ichthyosaur skeleton on display. Many geologists and fossil collectors from Europe and America visited Anning at Lyme to purchase specimens. These included the geologist George William Featherstonhaugh who purchased fossils for the newly opened New York Lyceum of Natural History in 1827. King Frederick Augustus II of Saxony visited her shop in 1844 and purchased an ichthyosaur skeleton for his extensive natural history collection.
Lady Harriet Silvester visited Lyme in 1824. She remarked in her diary:
... the extraordinary thing in this young woman is that she has made herself so thoroughly acquainted with the science that the moment she finds any bones she knows to what tribe they belong. She fixes the bones on a frame with cement and then makes drawings and has them engraved. . . It is certainly a wonderful instance of divine favour – that this poor, ignorant girl should be so blessed, for by reading and application she has arrived to that degree of knowledge as to be in the habit of writing and talking with professors and other clever men on the subject, and they all acknowledge that she understands more of the science than anyone else in this kingdom.
As time passed, her confidence in her knowledge increased, and in 1839 she wrote to the "Magazine of Natural History" to question their claim that a hooked tooth of the prehistoric shark "Hybodus" represented a new discovery. She had discovered years ago the existence of fossil sharks with both straight and hooked teeth. The extract from the letter that the magazine printed was the only thing that Anning ever published.
Mary Anning is the subject of the old tongue-twister, "She sells sea shells on the sea shore." It was composed in 1908, more than a half century after her death, by Terry Sullivan who was inspired by her life story. The lyrics have changed over time, but the original text was:<br>
She sells seashells on the seashore<br>
The shells she sells are seashells, I'm sure<br>
So if she sells seashells on the seashore<br>
Then I'm sure she sells seashore shells.<br>
Anning's life story was seen as inspirational by a number of writers in the 20th century. Most of this material was intended as inspirational literature for children, and tended to focus on her childhood and early career, neglecting her later accomplishments. Much of it was also romanticized and not always historically accurate. She appeared as a character in historical novels, perhaps most notably in "The French Lieutenant's Woman" (1969) by John Fowles, which was made into a feature film in 1981. Fowles observed critically that no British scientist had named a species after Anning in her lifetime.
However, in the 1840s the Swiss-American expert on fossil fish Louis Agassiz did name two fossil fish species, "Acrodus anningiae", and "Belenostomus anningiae", after her, and another after her friend Elizabeth Philpot. Agassiz was grateful for the help the two women had given him in examining and understanding fossil fish specimens, during his 1834 visit to Lyme Regis.
Cyberbullying is the misuse of electronic information and mass media, such as e-mail, SMS, weblogs, cellphones and defamatory websites, to harass or attack a person or a group. It can cause emotional damage. Cyberbullying can include sending threats and unwanted sexual messages.
Some schools have started programs to teach students about cyberbullying and how to deal with it.
In 2006, a 13 year old girl in Missouri killed herself after receiving mean messages on MySpace from a woman pretending to be a teenage boy. The state of Missouri then made using technology like the Internet or text messages to harass someone illegal.
In New Hampshire, a law was passed in 2010 that said that schools must have rules against cyberbullying.
On October 12, 2012, a Canadian girl named Amanda Todd killed herself. A few years before this happened, she showed her breasts on a video chat, and a man later messaged her saying that if Todd did not show more parts of her body then he would post the pictures he had taken of her from the video chat to the Internet. She faced alot of bullying on the internet afterwards.
Bach-Werke-Verzeichnis
Bach-Werke-Verzeichnis (BWV) is a list of all the pieces of music by Johann Sebastian Bach that are known. In English it means Bach Works Catalogue.
The catalogue was made by Wolfgang Schmieder in 1950. He took all the music that is known by Johann Sebastian Bach (some of Bach's music has been lost) and gave each piece a number. Each piece of music by Bach therefore has a BWV number. For example, the "Mass in B minor" is BWV 232. Giving each piece a number helps musicians to know exactly which piece of music we are talking about. For example, there are several Preludes and Fugues in G major, but putting "Prelude and Fugue in G major BWV550" makes it clear which one it is.
The BWV numbers are not listed chronologically (in the order they were written). They are grouped according to what kind of music it is: all the cantatas together, all the concertos together, etc.
Some pieces of music may be written by Bach, but we are not sure. Those doubtful pieces of music are listed separately as "BWV Anhang" (BWV appendix). Some of what Schmieder wrote in 1950 has been updated because some new music by Bach has been discovered. Other pieces of music have now been proved not to be by Bach.
Bach, like many composers from long ago, did not use opus numbers, because very few of his works were published during his lifetime.
Some older books write "S" instead of "BWV" (S for Schmieder), but Schmieder did not want this. He wanted Bach's name to be used, not his own.
Han Fei Zi
Han Fei Zi (281 BC – 233 BC) was an early Chinese philosopher. He is part of a group said to have created of doctrine of the "School of Law" or Legalism.
Thomas Anders
Thomas Anders (born Bernd Weidung, 1 March 1963, Koblenz, West Germany) is a German singer, composer and record producer. Anders was the lead singer of Modern Talking, a famous German pop duo, between 1984–1987 and 1998–2003.
Despite the title, this DVD misses some videos by Thomas Anders: "Heißkalter Engel", "Es geht mir gut heut' Nacht", "Can't Give You Anything (But My Love)" and "Soldier".
Américo
Domingo Jonhy Vega Urzúa (December 24, 1977, Arica, Chile), commonly known as Américo, is a Chilean singer. He became known when he started leading the band "Américo y la Nueva Alegría". He is the son of the boleros singer Melvin "Corazón" Américo, who sings duets with his wife, Marcela Toledo.
The Holodomor (, which means "murder by hunger") was a man-made famine that happened in Ukraine in 1932 and in 1933. At that time, Ukraine was a part of the Soviet Union. About seven million people starved to death in the Holodomor.
Joseph Stalin was the leader and dictator of the Soviet Union, which was a communist country. He made farmers in the Soviet Union change the way they farmed, then he tried to make the farmers work harder for the government-owned farms, for less money. Many people in the Ukraine did not want to go along with this. When the Ukraine had a famine, Stalin refused to help the people in the Ukraine. Instead, the government took food away from people. It became illegal (against the law) to pick up food from the ground of fields. The government also tried to stop people from moving around the country to look for food.
Scholars and politicians using the word Holodomor say the man-made aspects of the famine, was a genocide; some consider the huge loss of life comparable to the Holocaust. They argue that the Soviet policies were an attack on the rise of Ukrainian nationalism and therefore is a genocide.
Other scholars say that the Holodomor was an unexpected consequence of the rapid and massive industrialization started by Stalin, that brought radical economic changes to the farmers and the country, and which was not done on purpose.
Castling is a special move in chess that uses both a rook and the king. In castling, the king is moved two squares toward the rook, and the rook moves past the king to the square right next to where the king has moved. Castling takes one move, and is the only way for a player to move two of his own pieces on the same move. Castling can be done on either side of the board. Castling can either be done on the king-side (also known as castling short) or on the queen-side (also known as castling long).
Castling is only possible if each of the following things are true:
Good players castle in most of their games. It is normally a good idea because it often moves the king into a safer place. The middle of the board is normally not a very safe place for the king to be early in the game. It also makes it easier to get the rook into the game. Castling king-side is generally viewed as being safer, while castling queen-side is viewed as being more aggressive.
False consensus
False consensus or the effect of the false consensus is the tendency for people to assume that everyone else thinks the same way they do.
It is a cognitive bias in which a person overestimates the "agreement grade" that the other people have with them. In other words, people tend to think that others agree with them. Most of the time, a person thinks that their own attitudes, beliefs, values and habits are the most common ones. In reality, the person's thoughts may not be shared by others.
Another effect which can occur with false consensus is called pluralistic ignorance. In pluralistic ignorance, people support a norm or a belief in public, even though they really think it is wrong.
Cherry cake
A cherry cake is a soft, creamy cake with firm bread and ripe cherries inside it. It is served with cherry icing, made of icing sugar, butter, and water. Sometimes, pink food coloring is added to the icing, to make it look like it is made of cherries.
Cherry cakes may also be presented with sprinkled icing, and desiccated coconut.
Walnut cake
Walnut cake is a cake made of walnuts. It is a lightly golden, thick, creamy cake made of coffee cream and chocolate hazelnut spread. Unfilled Walnut cakes can be preserved and for one month.
Walnut cakes may also be served with a punnet of strawberries, reserving four berries for decoration. Also, strawberry cream can be spread over the top and sides of the cake.
Eudimorphodon
Eudimorphodon is a recently discovered pterosaur, and comes from shale laid down Upper Triassic rocks in Italy.
A nearly complete skeleton was found in 1973. This showed it was a member of the long-tailed sub-order of pterosaurs, the Rhamphorhynchoidea. "Eudimorphodon" was small in size, with 110 teeth packed into a jaw only 6 cms long. Teeth at the front are fangs, further back the teeth are small and multipointed, many with five cusps. This is unique among pterosaurs, whose teeth are usually of a simple conical form.
Stomach contents showed it had eaten a small fish, "Parapholidophorus". The top and bottom teeth of "Eudimorphodon" came into direct contact with each other when the jaws were closed, especially at the back of the jaw. The teeth were multi-cusped, and tooth wear shows that "Eudimorphodon" was able to crush or chew its food to some degree. Wear along the sides of these teeth suggests that "Eudimorphodon" also fed on hard-shelled invertebrates.
Juvenile "Eudimorphodon" had somewhat different and fewer teeth, and may have eaten insects.
An unsolved puzzle is the flexibility of the tail, which lacks the very long stiffening vertebral extensions other long-tailed pterosaurs have. This flexibility is a basal trait; its functional significance in this genus is unknown. However, it is known that the stiffened tail of "Rhamphorhynchus"-like pterosaurs is a device which adds stability to their flight. Without this stability, the animal would be more manoeuvrable, but their flight would need more control by the brain.
Myall Creek Massacre
Nuclear chemistry
Nuclear chemistry is the part of chemistry dealing with radioactivity and other parts of atoms.
Rise Against
Rise Against is an American melodic hardcore band from Chicago, Illinois. Rise Against formed in 1999. Their current members are Tim McIlrath (vocals, guitar), Joe Principe (bass guitar), Brandon Barnes (drums), and Zach Blair (guitar). All of the members are straight edge (except Barnes), and the band supports PETA (People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals). They are also vegans. The band is currently signed to Geffen. Geffen is a record label owned by Universal Music Group. As of 2009, Rise Against has had six studio albums, two EPs, and one DVD.
Rise Against spent its first five years signed to the record label "Fat Wreck Chords," on which it released two studio albums. The band got reviewer popularity with its first two releases on Geffen, "Siren Song of the Counter Culture" (2004) and "The Sufferer & the Witness" (2006). These two albums made many high-charting singles, like "Swing Life Away", "Prayer of the Refugee", and "The Good Left Undone". Their newest studio album, "Appeal to Reason" (2008), was released in North America on 7 October. It got to number three on the U.S Billboard 200 and made the three singles, "Re-Education (Through Labor)", "Audience of One", and "Savior".