AcharyaChanakya/simple-wikipedia huggingface dataset:
Georges Head was later chosen as the best place to spy and fire mines which were laid underwater. In 1888 Georges Head battery was upgraded for the latest in harbour defences in the form of submarine bombs. Minefields were laid across the main shipping channels of Port Jackson from 1876 to 1922 and a base was built at Chowder Bay for the submarine miners. From Georges Head, miners watched for ships entering the harbour. Their job was to explode the mine closest to an approaching enemy ship. Each underwater mine was attached to an electric cable that ran up the cliff to the firing post.
The work of the submarine miner was secretive, technical and dangerous. During a demonstration in 1891, a crowd of several thousand watched as a terrible accident killed four miners and injured another eight.
Virgin Records is a British record label. It was started by Richard Branson, Simon Draper, and Nik Powell in 1972. They sold it to Thorn EMI. In 2006, they came together with Capitol Records to become Capitol Music Group.
In 2013, the British Virgin Records joined Mercury Records to start a new label: Virgin EMI.
Death Cab for Cutie (Death Cab or DCFC) is an American indie band. The band was started in 1997 in Bellingham, Washington. The band members are Ben Gibbard (singer, guitar), Dave Depper (singer, guitar), Chris Walla (guitar, production), Nick Harmer (bass) and Jason McGerr (drums).
The band's name was taken from the song "Death Cab for Cutie", written by Neil Innes and Vivian Stanshall and performed by their band the Bonzo Dog Doo-Dah Band in The Beatles' 1967 film "Magical Mystery Tour".
Dave Matthews Band (DMB) is a band from the United States. In 1991, Dave Matthews started the band in Charlottesville, Virginia. The other band members are Stefan Lessard, Boyd Tinsley, and Carter Beauford. Saxophone player LeRoi Moore was in the band until he died in 2008. Since 1998, they usually performed with Butch Taylor, too. Rashawn Ross also performed with the band from 2006-2007. Dave Matthews Band has written 235 songs (included cover songs). They have sold over 31 million albums in the United States, and are one of the Top 100 Highest Selling Music Acts of all time. The Dave Matthews band has a unique style that stretches across many genres. Thus, they have a fan-base that stretches across many generations and types of people.
Fuzûlî
Fużūlī (فضولی) was the pen name of the poet Muhammad bin Suleyman (محمد بن سليمان) (c. 1483 – 1556). He is one of the greatest contributors to the Dîvân tradition of Turkish literature,
Fuzûlî wrote his collected poems (dîvân) in three different languages: Azerbaijani Turkish, Persian, and Arabic. Although his Turkish works are written in Azerbaijani, he knew both the Ottoman and the Chagatai Turkish literary traditions as well. He was also very able in mathematics and astronomy.
Fuzûlî was born around 1483 in what is now Iraq; he was probably born in either Karbalā’ or an-Najaf. Fuzûlî's ancestors had been of nomadic origin, but his family had long since settled in towns.
Fuzûlî was educated by his father—who was a mufti in the city of Al Hillah — and then by a teacher named Rahmetullah. It was during this time that he learned the Persian and Arabic languages in addition to his native Azerbaijani.
One of the few things that is known of Fuzûlî's life during this time is how he arrived at his pen name. In the introduction to his collected Persian poems, he says: "In the early days when I was just beginning to write poetry, every few days I would set my heart on a particular pen name and then after a time change it for another because someone showed up who shared the same name". Eventually, he decided upon the Arabic word "fuzûlî"—which literally means "impertinent, improper, unnecessary"—because he "knew that this title would not be acceptable to anyone else".Despite the name's pejorative meaning, however, it contains a double meaning—what is called "tevriyye" (توريه) in Ottoman Divan poetry — as Fuzûlî himself explains: "I was possessed of all the arts and sciences and found a pen name that also implies this sense since in the dictionary "fuzûl" (ﻓﻀﻮل) is given as a plural of "fazl" (ﻓﻀﻞ; 'learning') and has the same rhythm as "‘ulûm" (ﻋﻠﻮم; 'sciences') and "fünûn" (ﻓﻨﻮن; 'arts')".
In 1534, the Ottoman sultan Süleymân I conquered the region of Baghdad, where Fuzûlî lived, from the Safavid Empire. Fuzûlî now had the chance to become a court poet under the Ottoman patronage system, and he composed a number of poems in praise of the sultan, and as a result, he was granted a stipend. But he did not really get it. Therefore he citicized bureaucracy in one of his best-known works, the letter "Şikâyetnâme" (شکايت نامه; "Complaint"):
The loss of his stipend meant that Fuzûlî never became secure. He died during a plague outbreak in 1556, in Karbalā’, either of the plague itself or of cholera.
Suleiman I or Suleyman I (6 November 1494 – 5/6 September 1566), was the tenth Sultan of the Ottoman Empire. He became sultan when he was 26 years old. He reigned for 46 years, from 1520 to 1566, which was longer than any other Ottoman sultan. He is known in the West as Suleiman the Magnificent and in the Islamic world, as the Lawgiver (in Turkish "Kanuni"; , "al‐Qānūnī"), because he reconstructed the Ottoman legal system. He also led many wars in Europe, including wars in Hungary, the Mediterranean, and parts of North Africa.
Kālidāsa
Kālidās (Devanāgarī: कालिदास), was the author of "Meghadoot", "Shākuntal", and other works in Sanskrit. He has a similar place in Sanskrit as a poet and a dramatist, as Shakespeare in English.
Kālidās's plays and poetry are based on Hindu mythology and philosophy.
There is very little known for certain about the life of Kālidās. It is not clear where he lived, and the time he might have lived is anywhere from 130 BC to 600 CE.
Kālidās did not mention in his works any king as his patron.
Kālidās wrote three plays: "Mālawikāgnimitra" ("Mālavikā and Agnimitra"), "Abhijñānashākuntala" ("The Recognition of Shakuntala"), and "Vikramorwasheeya" ("Pertaining to Vikram and Urwashi"). Abhijñānashākuntala, that is regarded as a masterpiece was the first to be translated into English and German.
"Mālawikāgnimitra" tells the story of King Agnimitra, who falls in love with the picture of an exiled servant girl named Mālavikā. When the queen discovers her husband's passion for a servant girl, she becomes very angry and orders that this girl is sent to prison; but it turns out that the girl is a princess, therefore the affair is accepted in the end.
"Abhijñānashākuntala" tells the story of a king, "Dushyanta", who meets in the forests "Shakuntalā", the adopted daughter of a wise man who lives with him in a cottage in the forests.
Dushyanta and Shakuntalā fall in love with each other and get married. Dushyanta stays with Shakuntalā in the forests for while until he gets called back to his court for some pressing matter. After many difficulties there follows a happy end.
"Vikramōrwasheeya" is more mystical than the above two plays.
Kālidās wrote two very good epic poems, "Raghuvamsha" ("Dynasty of Raghu") and "Kumārasambhawa" ("Birth of Kumar Kartikeya"), and the lyrical "Meghadoota" ("Cloud Messenger") and "Rutusamhāra" ("The Exposition on the Seasons").
Some historians credit Kālidās with a few other works, including the following; however, scholars commonly believe that they were the creations of some other authors writing under the name Kālidās:
Water organ
The water organ or hydraulic organ is a kind of pipe organ. As in the pipe organ, the sound is made by air blowing through the pipes, but power to make the air blow does not come from bellows or from electricity as in the modern organ, but from water, for example from a waterfall.
A hydraulis is an early type of pipe organ that was powered by water. It was invented in the 3rd century B.C., probably by the Hellenistic scientist Ctesibius of Alexandria. It was the world's first keyboard instrument. Many centuries later it developed into the modern pipe organ.
The water organ works by having water and air arriving together in the camera aeolis (wind chamber). Here, water and air separate and the compressed air is driven into a wind-trunk on top of the camera aeolis, to blow the organ pipes. Two perforated ‘splash plates’ or ‘diaphragms’ stop the water spray from getting into the organ pipes.
The water, having been separated from the air, leaves the camera aeolis at the same speed as it enters. It then drives a water wheel, which in turn drives the musical cylinder and the movements attached. To start the organ, the tap above the entry pipe is turned on and, given a continuous flow of water, the organ plays until the tap is closed again.
During the Renaissance many Italian gardens had water organs. The most famous water organ of the 16th century was at the Villa d'Este in Tivoli. It was about 6 metres high and was powered by a beautiful waterfall. It could play three pieces automatically, but there was also a keyboard.
A User interface allows a user to interact with a machine. User interfaces mainly provide two things:
Many machines can be very dangerous. A machine should have a user interface that can be handled easily, even if the person operating the machine has panicked. The user interface should therefore be intuitive, and simple to use. An example of such a user interface is that of the kill switch. A kill switch must shut off the machine at all costs - the idea is to avoid injury or harm to people. This is very different from shutting off the machine at the end of the shift, or when it is no longer needed.
According to EN ISO 13850, the kill switch has to be red on a yellow background.
The colors used to mark different states are close to those used by signals used on the road.
There may be additional symbols, for example:
In many cases, such symbols are better, because some people are color blind. They need to be explained, like warnings, though.
Pizza Hut is an American pizza restaurant, or pizza parlor. Pizza Hut also serves salads, pastas and bread sticks. In 2008, Pizza Hut serves chicken wings as a part of the Wingstreet restaurant franchise logo. Pizza Hut is an American restaurant chain and international franchise founded in 1958 by Dan and Frank Carney. The company is known for its Italian-American cuisine menu, including pizza and pasta, as well as side dishes and desserts.
Pizza Hut was founded in 1958 in Wichita, Kansas, by Dan and Frank Carvey. The first Pizza Hut location was at a intersection in Wichita.
An intersection is where two or more roads come together. Intersections are also known as "junctions". At an intersection, there can be stop signs on one or both sides of the intersection. There can also be a traffic light.
There are two major types of intersections.
Package or packaging can mean:
Artibonite (department)
Artibonite is one of the ten departments (French: "départments", singular "départment") of Haiti. It is named Artibonite because the Artibonite river flows across the department from east to west. Its capital is Gonaïves.
The independence of Haiti was proclaimed in the "Place d'Armes" of Gonaïves on 1 January 1804 by Jean Jacques Dessalines.
The "Départment de l'Artibonite", with an area of 4,895 km², is the largest department of Haiti.
The main river of the department is the Artibonite. Other rivers are Ennery, de l'Estère, Montrouis, Quinte.
The mountain chains here run from west to east and the most important are the "Chaine de Terre-Neuve" and the "Montagnes Noires" (in English, "Black Mountains"). There is also part of the "Chaine des Mattheux".
It is bordered to the northwest by the Nord-Ouest Department, to the north and northeast by the Nord Department, to the east by the Centre Department and to the south by the Ouest Department. The Gulf of Gonâve is to the west.
The department had, in the 2003 census, a population of 1,299,398 persons: 625,690 men and 673,708 women, with 422,476 (32.51%) living in cities and towns.
The main cities are Gonaïves (the capital) and Saint-Marc.
The department is divided into five "arrondissements" (like districts) and 15 "communes" (like municipalities). The "arrondissements" and their "communes" are:
Most of the rice of Haiti is grown in the Artibonite department, along the valley of the River Artibonite.
Bohemianism
The word Bohemian was first used in Paris to mean a Gypsy because many people thought that Gypsies came from Bohemia. The word was then used in the late 19th century (1800s) for poor painters, writers, musicians and actors who often travelled to Paris from other towns and tried to earn money. Paris was a famous town for painters, writers, and musicians to gather, to learn from each other and to enjoy the life of the city. Many of them lived at Montmartre, not far from the "Moulin Rouge". One of the most famous painters to live in Montmartre was Henri Toulouse-Lautrec. He loved to paint the can-can dancers and prostitutes. He did many posters to advertise the nightclubs. The posters are now famous works of art.
In the 20th century the word "Bohemian" spread to other countries and was used to describe the lives of many different artists of different sorts. The sort of behaviour that was thought of as "Bohemian" included whether a person had a regular job, how they dressed, their political views, their religious views, their sexual behaviour and the entertainment they liked.
People who were called "Bohemians" were often very poor, because they tried to live by painting, acting or writing. It was hard to make a living. They generally wore old or second-hand clothing, and could not afford a good hair-cut. They often shared the room in the roof of a house, which was cheap, because it was cold in winter, hot in summer and often had birds living there as well. In some ways the life of a bohemian artist was difficult, but it gave people freedom to express themselves, that was often not found in more conservative society, where everyone worried about what other people thought of them, and cared a lot about things like clothes and houses. Sometimes students from richer families would come to live a "Bohemian life style", so that they could feel the same freedom to express themselves.
During the 20th century, many cities apart from Paris have areas where people have lived Bohemian lifestyles. One of the problems is that these areas often become fashionable for rich people. This soon drives away the poor artists and students, because they can no longer afford the rent.
Bohemian areas in different cities are:
Henry Willis (born: 27 April 1821, London - died: 11 February 1901, London) was a British builder of pipe organs. He built a very large number of organs, many of them for big cathedrals and concert halls in Britain, such as St. Paul's Cathedral, Truro Cathedral, and the Royal Albert Hall. He also built an organ for Queen Victoria at Windsor Castle. Many of the organs that he built are in other parts of the world, especially in countries that belonged to the British Empire.
Many organists who gave organ recitals liked Henry Willis’s organs because they had lots of different sounds which helped to make the organ sound like an orchestra. He made organs for churches where the architects were getting rid of the central screen so that the organ could be heard better in the main part of the church (the nave). He used ideas that had been created by the French organ builder Cavaillé-Coll and by Barker. He made several inventions himself, including the thumb piston, which made it possible for an organist to change the combination of stops without taking his hands off the keyboard.
Four generations of the Willis family continued the family tradition of organ building until 1997, when Henry Willis IV retired and the new Managing Director of the firm was not a member of the Willis family. The Company, founded in 1845, Henry Willis & Sons, Ltd. still makes organs in Liverpool.
Drug addiction, also called substance dependence or dependence syndrome, is a condition where a person feels a strong need to take a drug. Addiction also involves other behaviours. These include finding it difficult to control the need to use the drug and feeling the use of the drug to be more important than more normal things such as family or work. When the person does not use the drug for an amount of time, they may suffer from withdrawal.
When a person is addicted, they are usually addicted to a class (a specific kind) of drug. For example: Heroin is a drug that is in the Opiate class. Which means that a person addicted to Heroin may also be seen to have an addiction to other opiates such as Morphine.
A person who may easily become addicted to drugs is said to have an addictive personality. The Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders defines drug addiction as a mental disorder. Drug addiction is often linked with other mental disorders.
The health effects of drug abuse are not just a concern for the individual using drugs. In the case of a woman who is abusing drugs while pregnant, the long-term health of the child can be adversely affected as well. A study from Pediatrics reports that babies born to women who abuse drugs during pregnancy may have physical, emotional, and mental health issues during childhood and even throughout their lives, including:
Aristide Cavaillé-Coll
Aristide Cavaillé-Coll (born Montpellier, 4 February 1811; died Paris, 13 October 1899) was a French organ-builder. Most organists think of him as the greatest organ-builder of the 19th century, and one of the greatest who ever lived. He invented many new mechanical devices and his organs changed the way that composers could write for the instrument. César Franck, Alexandre Guilmant, and Charles-Marie Widor, in particular, were strongly influenced by the new type of organ that he was building.
Cavaillé-Coll grouped the stops of the organ into different families, so that the result was similar to the families of instruments in an orchestra. He made the lowest of the manuals (keyboards) the most important one. It was called the “Great” (French: “Grande Orgue”). The other manuals - there were usually two others, but sometimes three - could be “coupled” to the Great. He made changes to the English swell box, improved its operation, and divided the windchests on which the pipes were resting. This made it possible to have louder reed stops because of the higher wind pressure.
Gottfried Silbermann
Gottfried Silbermann (born Kleinbobritzsch, 14 January 1683; died Dresden, 4 August 1753) was a very important German builder of keyboard instruments. He built harpsichords, clavichords, organs, and pianos. His organs were some of the best instruments in the south of Germany, some of them still exist. He had different ideas about organ building from Arp Schnitger who was an organ builder in the north of Germany. Silbermann also built some of the earliest pianos.
Gulf of Gonâve
The Gulf of Gonâve () is a large gulf along the western coast of Haiti. It is at . Port-au-Prince, the capital city of Haiti, is on the coast of the gulf. Other cities on the gulf coast include Gonaïves, Saint-Marc, Miragoâne, and Jérémie.
Several islands are in the gulf; the largest is Gonâve Island, followed by the much smaller Cayemites. The Artibonite River flows into this gulf.
Gonâve Island splits the gulf in two channels (a channel is a narrow part of the sea): the "Saint-Marc Channel" to the north and the "Gonâve Channel" to the south.
Arp Schnitger
Arp Schnitger (born Oldenburg, 2 July? 1648; buried in Neuenfelde, near Hamburg, 28 July 1719) was a very important German builder of pipe organs. He mostly worked in Northern Europe, especially the Netherlands and Germany, where a number of his instruments survive to the present day. His organs are different from those of Gottfried Silbermann who worked in south Germany. Arp Schnitger had great influence on later organ builders, in particular in the 20th century when people wanted a change from the Romantic 19th century organs and tried to make instruments that sounded like they had done in the Baroque period.
Jenny the Kitty is a Japanese character of a cat. It was made in 1974 by a Japanese company named Sanrio. Her real name is Kitty White. The character has a large head. She usually has a red bow between her ears. She has no mouth. Sanrio said that she was not given a mouth because she communicates by using the heart instead of speaking one particular language. Jenny the Kitty is known all over the world.
Jenny the Kitty became very popular with young school-girls during the 1980s. Because a Japanese singer, Kahara Tomomi, who was very popular among young school-girls said openly that she loved Jenny The Kitty on the TV. In the 1990s Sanrio made more products with the picture of the cat which would appeal to teenagers and young women. During the later part of the first decade of the 21st century, Hello Kitty began targeting boys and young men with Jenny the Kitty for Boys. The character uses darker colours and a dark bow when it is targeted to males.
Jenny the Kitty has become very successful. The character's picture is on over fifty thousand products sold in most countries. Sanrio’s amusement park Puroland opened in 1990. It is visited by more than 1.5 million visitors each year. Jenny the Kitty has been an animated character, such as in "Jenny The Kitty’s Furry Tale Theatre", shown on United States television during 1987 and 1991.
Famous stars such as Mariah Carey and Britney Spears were photographed with products which had her picture. Hello Kitty is an example of a Japanese K"awaii" (cute in English) character.
Kitty was born in London England on November 1st, and to this day she lives in there with her family. She likes the apple pie her mother makes. Her mother has her wear a ribbon on her left ear, in order to tell the difference between twins Kitty and Mimmy. She enjoys baking cookies and playing the piano; she aspires to be a pianist or a poet when she is older. Her height is as same as five apples and her weight is as same as three apples. Her boyfriend is Daniel Starr.
She is the twin sister of Kitty White. She wears a yellow ribbon on her right ear. She is shy and feminine.
He is Kitty's childhood friend, born on May 3rd. He is often called "Dear Daniel", resembling "Jenny the Kitty". He has a naive and sentimental personality. His favorite foods are cheesecake and yogurt, and his talents include dancing and playing the piano. He wishes to be a photographer someday.
Mary is Kitty and Mimmy's mother. She is very generous and good at cooking, cleaning and washing. Her birthday is September 14th.
George is Kitty and Mimmy's father. He is very reliable and humorous man. His birthday is June 3rd.
Herman's Hermits were a rock band from England. They were part of the "British Invasion" of bands during the 1960s, and were most popular in that decade. Their business manager was an American named Allen Klein, who also worked for Donovan, The Animals, and later The Rolling Stones and The Beatles.
None of the members was really named Herman. Lead singer Peter Noone (pronounced "noon") was nicknamed Herman, because his bandmates thought he looked like Sherman, from "The Rocky and Bullwinkle Show". Noone was an actor before he became a singer. The other band members were Derek "Lek" Leckenby (guitar), Keith Hopwood (guitar, keyboards), Karl Green (bass guitar) and Barry Whitwam (drums). The band began as amateurs, playing at parties for friends, but turned professional as they improved. They made records, appeared on television, and also made movies.
The Hermits's hit records included "I'm Into Something Good", "Can't You Hear My Heartbeat?", "There's A Kind Of Hush (All Over The World)", "I'm Henry VIII, I Am", "Listen People", and cover versions of "Silhouettes", "Sea Cruise", and "The End Of The World". "Hold On" was the title song of their first movie. "Mrs. Brown, You've Got A Lovely Daughter" was a hit song first, that was later fitted to a movie storyline.
Herman's Hermits stopped having hits as music trends changed, but their old songs were well loved. They are still played today. The band members went on to other careers in the 1970s. Peter Noone went back to acting, but still appeared as a singer.
In the 1980s, Leckenby and Whitwam formed a new band, to tour under the old name. The singer sounded like Noone, and many fans did not know the difference. Other original members also sometimes rejoined. During the 1990s, Noone took over the name for his band, that appeared with him at oldies concerts.
Grand'Anse (department)
Grand'Anse, or "Grande Anse", is one of the ten departments (French: "départments", singular "départment") of Haiti. Its capital is Jérémie.
The "Départment de la Grand'Anse" has an area of 2,091 km². It is bordered to the north by the Gulf of Gonâve, to the east by the Nippes Department, to the south by the Sud Department, and by the Caribbean Sea to the west.
The "Massiff de la Hotte", an important Haitian mountain range, runs from west to east along the south of the department, with the Plymouth, Macaya and Casetaches mountain ranges. Because of this, rivers here are short; some of them are Baradères, Dame-Marie, de la Grande-Anse, de Nippes, des Roseaux and Voldrogue.
The department is divided into three "arrondissements" (like districts) and 11 "communes" (like municipalities). The "arrondissements" and their "communes" are:
Nippes is one of the ten departments (French: "départments", singular "départment") of Haiti.
It is the newest and smallest Haitian department; it was created in 2003 with the eastern part of the Grand'Anse Department. It has an estimated population of 266,379 (2003) and its capital city is Miragoâne.
Nippes has an area of 1,219 km². It is bordered to the south by the Sud Department, to the east by the Ouest Department, to the west by the Grand'Anse Department and to the north by the Gonâve Channel, the southern part of the Gulf of Gonâve.
Lara Veronin
Lara Veronin is a Russian-Taiwanese-American singer born on 2 May 1988. She is famous for being the lead vocalist of the C-Pop band Nan Quan Mama. The band's first album Treasure Map and second album Nan Quan Mama, Version 2 both peaked at #4 on the Taiwanese Album Charts. She has also appeared as a featured voicalist on Jay Chou's sixth album November's Chopin on the track "Coral Sea".
Veronin was born and raised in Monterey Park, California, America and moved to Taiwan in her teens. Her father is a Russian American, and her mother a Taiwanese. She speaks fluent English and Mandarin as shown in her songs, but says she is unable to speak Russian.
Reportedly, Veronin's talent was discovered when she met C-pop singer Jay Chou at a restaurant where she was working. He was interested in her voice and recruited her for his band, Nan Quan Mama. Her role as the lead singer of Nan Quan Mama gave her instant fame.
She gained greater recognition as her songs "靠近一點點 Kao Jin Yi Dian Dian" and "Say You Love Me" were chosen to be theme songs for It Started With A Kiss, a Chinese romantic comedy television series in 2005.
In 2006, Veronin was cast in the television series "Engagement for Love", co-starring Alex To and Ambrose Hsu.
As of now, Veronin is studying in college in Taipei while continuing her music career.
Her musical style is often disputed (argued about). This is because most of her songs when she performs solo are in the alternative or pop-rock genre, but when she performs as a vocalist in the band Nan Quan Mama, she often sings blues- and soul-influenced dance music.
Super Girl (TV series)
Super Girl (; "lit. Super Female Voice") is an annual national singing contest in People's Republic of China for female competitors. The official name is The Mengniu Yoghurt Super Girl Contest, after the company that sponsored the show. It is now one the most popular entertainment shows in China. However, after the third season, the show was banned by the Chinese government. The show was the feature of a 2007 documentary titled Super, Girls!, produced and directed by independent Chinese filmmaker Jian Yi on the 2006 Super Voice Girls contest, released at the Cambridge Film Festival. An ARTiSIMPLE Studio production, "Super, Girls!" is the only independent feature-length documentary ever made about the "Super Girls."
The competition was open to any female regardless of age, origin or appearance. The audition sessions had females ranging from 4 to 89 years old. The 2005 season of the contest attracted more than 120,000 applicants during the preliminary selection rounds, held in the provinces Hunan, Sichuan, Guangdong, Henan and Zhejiang. Many applicants travelled long distances to take part in the competition. Each contestant was allowed 30 seconds to perform to judges and find out if they were selected for the preliminary regional rounds. To prevent another overwhelming audition season, the minimum age of 18 was later set during the 2006 season.
Following the selection of contestants in the five regions, the competition began with the preliminary rounds. Preliminaries were held in each of the five locations where auditions were located. Vviewers were able to watch each of the preliminaries and vote for their favorite singers. Voting was conducted by telephone and SMS.
The regional preliminaries are followed by a weekly broadcast single-elimination (knockout) tournament held in Changsha, Hunan. The least voted two face-off subsequently in a "PK." The term "PK" comes from "Player Kill," a reference to kill-or-be-killed online games. The singer with the least number of votes is then eliminated. The last event is contested between the final 3.
Judges for the competition were selected from different backgrounds in society. "Audience judges" were selected in addition to several professional judges.
The original version of the show was known as "Super Boy" and aired in 2003 on Hunan Entertainment Channel, a local broadcaster based in Changsha, Hunan. The show was a success and the counterpart "Super Girl" aired at the beginning of 2004 and became the most viewed show in Hunan. However, the programme's impact was limited as the channel does not broadcast outside the province.
On May 6, 2004, "Super Girl" was introduced to a national audience by its producer Liao Ke through Hunan Satellite Television. In addition to broadcasting the original episodes created by Hunan Entertainment Channel, the network also developed this show in other 3 cities: Wuhan in Hubei, Nanjing in Jiangsu and Chengdu in Sichuan. This show attracted an average of 10,000 contestants in each city and received nationwide attention.
Hunan Satellite Television introduced a second season of "Super Girl" on March 19, 2005. The preliminary rounds were filmed in five cities: Changsha in Hunan Province, Guangzhou in Guangdong Province, Zhengzhou in Henan Province, Hangzhou in Zhejiang Province, and Chengdu in Sichuan Province. By the middle of the season, the competition captivated a nationwide audience and became one of the most watched television entertainment shows in China with tens of millions of viewers.
The final episode of the 2005 season was one of the most popular shows in Chinese broadcast history, drawing more than 400,000,000 viewers, more than CCTV's New Year's Gala earlier that year. The final peaked at 280,000,000 viewers at a given time, higher than the 12,000,000-viewer figure for the finals of "Pop Idol". Despite the show being condemned by CCTV as being "vulgar and manipulative", season 3 of the show was launched and finished in early October 2006.
On January 18, 2006, China National Philatelic Corporation released a postage stamp issue featuring 2005 winner Li Yu Chun. The set was shortly earlier than Li's twenty-second birthday in her commemoration.
On May 11, 2009, "The Oprah Winfrey Show", a worldwide famous television show, invited Zhang Liangying, who ranked 3rd overall in the 2005 contest, to make an American television singing debut. The subtitle of the show was "The World's Got Talent" and Zhang Liangying was the only east Asian singer in the show.
Some who were not chosen as winners have also been able to enter the recording industry through other means. Ji Min Jia, who ranked fifth overall in the 2005 contest, worked in Los Angeles in 2006 to help with production of the title song for Japanese anime series "The Galaxy Railways". On March 15, 2007, Japanese recording group Hello! Project announced Li Chun, one of the top 50 contestants in the 2006 Changsha regional, as one of two new members of Chinese ancestry of its pop group Morning Musume.
The contest has also inspired television producers to create other talent search shows.
One of the main factors contributing to the show's popularity was that viewers are able to participate in the judging process by sending SMSs with their mobile phones to vote for their favorite contestants. During the 2005 regional contest in Chengdu alone, 307,071 message votes were cast for the top three contestants, each vote costing ¥0.5 to ¥3.
Over 800,000,000 text messages were sent during the third season of "Super Girl", and fan clubs began to appear throughout the country. After the large response to the ability to vote, the Chinese government banned the show from continuing to a fourth season. The show was the feature of a 2007 documentary titled "Super, Girls!", produced and directed by independent Chinese filmmaker Jian Yi on the 2006 Super Voice Girls contest, released at the Cambridge Film Festival. An ARTiSIMPLE Studio production, "Super, Girls!" is the only independent feature-length documentary ever made about the "Super Girls."
While some culture and media experts praised "Super Girl" in blazing "a trail for cultural democracy" and breaking elitism in China's entertainment industry, others stated that "the show represented a superficiality in society, propelled by behind-the-scenes manipulation and state-of-the-art pomp and circumstance".
Mengniu reportedly paid ¥14,000,000 to Hunan Television for rights to sponsor the show's broadcast outside Hunan province beginning with the 2005 season. The 2005 contest was estimated to have drawn in a total of ¥766,000,000. Indirect business impact of the competition was estimated at several billion yuan.
Television advertisement slots cost an average of ¥33,400 for 15 seconds in 2006, compared to the average of ¥28,000 in 2005. Advertising sales were expected to reach ¥200,000,000, nearly double that of the previous year.
The first season of "Super Girl" aired from 6 May to September 22, 2004. Although the winners of the competition were not promised recording contracts, the top three winners signed such deals.
The second season of "Super Girl" aired from March 19 to August 26 in 2005. There was much controversy about the Li Yu Chun being the season's grand champion as she had the most votes even though she had "the weakest voice among the top finalists". Despite the heavy criticism that arose during the competition season, the three 2005 finalists have been considered the most successful singers from the entire show.
The third season of aired from April 2 to September 30, 2006. Shang Wen Jie's selection as grand champion over Tan Wei Wei, who is a professional vocalist from Sichuan Conservatory of Music, raised questions at each candidate's public appeal. Speculations arose that Shang, who appeared to be a copycat of Li Yu Chun's image, was voted grand champion due to the appeal of her Cinderella story.
Voluntary (music)
In music a voluntary is a piece of music, usually for organ, which is played as part of a church service.
The word “voluntary” can be used for the title of a piece of music. The title was often used by English composers in the late Renaissance or Baroque periods for a piece of organ music that was free in style, i.e. it did not have to be composed in a strict form such as sonata form or a fugue. It was meant to sound as if it was being improvised (the word voluntary in general means “free”, i.e. not “forced to do something”).
Composers such as Orlando Gibbons, John Blow and Henry Purcell wrote voluntaries, although sometimes they preferred to use other titles such as "fancy" (an English form of the Italian word "fantasia"), or even "fugue". However, these "fugues" were not composed in the proper fugue style: they just started off with imitation as in a fugue, but continued in a freer style.
Some voluntaries were called "double voluntaries". These were pieces written for organs with two manuals (keyboards). The pieces contrasted a loud manual with a soft one.
Some voluntaries were known as "trumpet voluntaries". These were voluntaries which had a tune which was played (with the right hand) on a stop called a “trumpet” or a “cornet”. Two very famous trumpet voluntaries, often played at weddings, are the trumpet voluntary by Henry Purcell and the one by Jeremiah Clarke (which people used to think was composed by Purcell). In the 18th century the composer John Stanley wrote many trumpet voluntaries.
Aalen
Aalen (pronounced ) is a town in the German state of Baden-Württemberg. It is the capital of the Ostalbkreis district, and its largest town.
Bad Wörishofen
Bad Wörishofen ] is a spa town in the district Unterallgäu, Swabia, Bavaria.
It is known for the water-cure of Sebastian Kneipp (1821 – 1897), a Catholic priest, who was living there for 42 years. Many hotels and boarding-houses are in the town where guests can be treated using Kneipp's methods. There is a new spa complex out of town, called Therme Bad Wörishofen.
Cult movie director Rainer Werner Fassbinder was a native of Bad Wörishofen.
Bürgermeister
The German word Burgermeister often spelled in English as "Burgomaster" or "Burgomeister" means "master of the citizens".
A Burgermeister is chairman of the executive council (or cabinet) in many towns and cities in Germany. In France, the person is called a "maire". In the Netherlands the person is called the "burgemeester". The title is usually translated into English as "Mayor", but the position of mayor is not quite the same as the Burgermeister.
"Ober-" is put in front of many title to show that it is higher than another, especially in military.
Area codes in Germany
Area codes in Germany () for telephones have two to five digits, not counting the first zero. The first or "leading" zero must be dialled when calling from inside Germany and not when calling from outside Germany. The area code is not needed when dialling another telephone in the same area, unless one of the telephones is a mobile phone. Usually shorter area codes are used by larger cities, and longer area codes to smaller towns.
The first digit (after the leading zero) shows the region:
(0)1 are special numbers such as mobile phones (015, 016, 017), shared cost service (0180), televoting numbers (013) and 010 for dial-around services. The OLD codes 0130 for free phone numbers and 0190 for premium-rate numbers are now moved to 0800 and 0900 to meet international standards.
German automobile number plates
German automobile number plates ("Kfz-Kennzeichen") show the place where the automobile carrying them is registered. When a person changes their main home in Germany, or buys a new automobile, they must buy new number plates.
Number plates can be bought which are valid all year round or between 2 to 11 months within any 12 months. This allows changing between summer and winter automobiles, such as a convertible and a sedan/saloon without having the time and money wasted for de- and re-registering.
The present number plate format, used since 1994, uses black print on a white background and first provides information about the country where the automobile is registered within the European Union. German licence plates show a "D" (for "Deutschland"="Germany") on the blue strip on the left, which shows the European Union's flag, 12 golden stars in a circle on blue ground.
After that, there are between one and three letters for the city or region where the automobile is registered, such as B for Berlin. These units usually coincide with the German districts, in few cases an urban district and the surrounding district share the same letter code. Usually if an urban district and a rural district share the code, the number of the following letters is different. For example, the urban district (Straubing) SR has one letter after the code (SR - A 123). The surrounding district Straubing-Bogen has two letters (SR - AB 123) after the code. It depends on the number of registered automobiles (or citizens) whether the City or the district has two letters, because there are more possibilities with two letters, so the part with more citizens usually has two letters. For example, the urban district Regensburg has more citizens than the rural district Regensburg, so the city has two letters after the code R.
The number of letters in the city/region code usually shows the size and location of the district: the largest German cities generally only have one letter codes (B=Berlin, M=München (Munich), K=Köln (Cologne), F=Frankfurt am Main), most other districts in Germany have two or three letter codes. Districts in eastern Germany usually have more letters, for two reasons:
This is only a rule of thumb, there are a number of exceptions e.g. Germany's second largest city Hamburg (HH, Hansestadt Hamburg, because of its historical membership in the Hanseatic League) or the west German district Ammerland (WST, Westerstede is the capital of the district).
The reason for this scheme is however not to display size or location, but simply to have enough combinations available within the maximum length of eight characters per plate.
After the location name there are the emission test and vehicle safety test stickers (see below), followed by one or two letters and one to four numbers. These letters and numbers can be chosen by the vehicle owner or if they prefer, random ones can be allocated by the licensing office. The total quantity of letters and numbers on the plate is never higher than eight. One letter with low numbers are normally reserved for motorcycle use since the plate space of these vehicles is smaller.
Various combinations that could be considered politically unacceptable—mainly due to implications relating to Nazi Germany—are disallowed or otherwise avoided. The district Sächsische Schweiz uses the name of its main town, Pirna, in its code "PIR", to avoid the use of "SS", the name of the nazi group; similarly "SA" is also unused. This is why automobiles for the government and parliament in Saxony-Anhalt are registered with LSA (Land Sachsen Anhalt). In 2004 in Nuremberg, an automobile owner was refused a number plate beginning N-PD because of the connection to the political party, the NPD.
Banned combinations include the Nazi abbreviations HJ ("Hitlerjugend", Hitler Youth), NS ("Nationalsozialismus", National Socialism), SA ("Sturmabteilung"), SS ("Schutzstaffel") and KZ ("Konzentrationslager", concentration camp). Some registration offices have overlooked this rule by mistake, however; there are a few automobiles registered carrying prohibited codes, such as "B-SS 12". Some counties also allow these combinations if they are the initials of the owner (e.g., Norbert Schmidt might be able to get XX-NS 1234), but in this case, if the automobile is sold and re-registered in the same county by the new owner, the number can be changed (otherwise the number stays with the automobile until it registered in a different area).
Certain types of vehicle bear special codes:
The German Federal President's license plate is 0-1, the Chancellor's 0-2, the Foreign Secretary's 0-3. The plate of the President of the Bundestag is an exception: it shows 1-1. This is to show that the Bundestag's President is not part of the government but still ranks higher in importance than the Chancellor. These vehicles are tax-exempt and need not to be insured since the German government acts as insurer.
588 Achilles
588 Achilles is an asteroid found on February 22, 1906 by the German astronomer Max Wolf. It was the first of the Trojan asteroids to be found, and is named after Achilles, the fictional hero from the Iliad. It orbits in the L Lagrangian point of the Sun-Jupiter system. After a few such asteroids were found, the rule was made that the L point was the "Greek camp", while the L point was the "Trojan camp", though not before each camp had acquired a "spy" (624 Hektor in the Greek camp and 617 Patroclus in the Trojan camp).
Mwai Kibaki
Mwai Kibaki (born November 15, 1931) is a Kenyan politician. He was the 3rd President of Kenya, from 2002-2013.
Kibaki was the first President of Kenya to belong to a party other than KANU (Kenya African national union). After he became President he has done many good things. Kenya saw economic growth of 6%. He however had complaints from people who think the changes that were too slow to come. Many Kenyans living in the diaspora have begun to return to Kenya as the promise of the future has created high paying jobs. These jobs are appealing to foreign educated Kenyans.
In 2007, many people were angry at him. They thought he changed the election results so that he would win. They started to destroy houses and other property.
Kibaki's term ended in April 2013. He was succeeded by Uhuru Kenyatta as President.
He was married to Lucy Kibaki from 1962 until her death in April 2016.
Socialist International
The Socialist International (SI) is a worldwide group which wants to establish democratic socialism. Most of its members are democratic socialist, social democratic, and labour political parties.
Its name is from the Second International, which was formed in 1889 and dissolved on the eve of World War I in 1914.
Some of the Second International's most famous actions were its 1889 declaration of 1 May as International Labour Day and its 1910 declaration of 8 March as International Women's Day. The Second International was split by the outbreak of World War I. A small part carried on as the International Socialist Commission. The International re-formed in 1923 (as the Labour and Socialist International), and was re organised again, in its present form, after World War II. Many social democratic and socialist parties had been suppressed in Nazi-occupied Europe.
Since World War II, the SI helped social democratic parties to re-start themselves when dictatorship gave way to democracy in Portugal (1974) and Spain (1975).
Until its 1976 Geneva Congress, the Socialist International had few members outside Europe and no formal involvement with Latin America. In the 1980s, most SI parties gave their backing to the Nicaraguan Sandinistas (FSLN), whose left-wing government had incited hatred from the United States. Since then, the SI has admitted as member-parties not only the FSLN but also the centre-left Puerto Rican Independence Party, as well as the ex-Communist parties such as the Italian Democrats of the Left (Democratici di Sinistra (DS)) and the Front for the Liberation of Mozambique (FRELIMO).
The Party of European Socialists, a European political party active in the European Parliament, is an associated organisation of the Socialist International.
In 2006, George Papandreou, leader of the Panhellenic Socialist Movement, became the president of the Socialist International.
The following parties are full members:
The following parties are consultative parties:
The following parties are observer parties:
ISO 3166-1 alpha-3
ISO 3166-1 alpha-3 codes are three-letter country codes in the ISO 3166-1 standard to represent countries and dependent territories. They are published by the International Organization for Standardization (ISO) as part of its ISO 3166 standard. They were first included as part of the ISO 3166 standard in its first edition in 1974.
They are used in ISO/IEC 7501-1 for machine-readable passports.
Below is a complete list of the current officially assigned ISO 3166-1 alpha-3 codes, with country names being English short country names officially used by the ISO 3166 Maintenance Agency (ISO 3166/MA):
The following alpha-3 codes can be user-assigned: from AAA to AAZ, from QMA to QZZ, from XAA to XZZ, and from ZZA to ZZZ. These code elements are at the disposal of users who need to add further names of countries, territories or other geographical entities to their in-house application of ISO 3166-1, and the ISO 3166/MA will never use them in the updating process of the standard.
Reserved code elements are codes which, while not ISO 3166-1 codes, are in use for some applications in conjunction with the ISO 3166 codes. The ISO 3166/MA therefore reserves them, so that they are not used for new official ISO 3166 codes, thereby creating conflicts between the standard and those applications.
The following alpha-3 codes are subject to an exceptional reservation: