AcharyaChanakya/simple-wikipedia huggingface dataset:
Normally a shy animal, they change their behaviour in spring, when hares chase one another around meadows. This may be competition between males to attain dominance (and hence more access to breeding females). During this spring frenzy, hares can be seen "boxing"; one hare striking another with its paws (probably the origin of the term "mad as a March hare"). For a long time, this was thought to be intermale competition, but closer observation has shown it is usually a female hitting a male to prevent copulation. When a doe is ready to mate, she runs across the countryside, starting a chase that tests the stamina of the following males. When only the fittest male remains, the female stops and allows him to copulate.
This is a species of hare found in cold climates in North America. As with the Arctic fox, its hair is white in winter, and brown in the summer. These are different morphs. This ability gives it camouflage, which it needs because it is the favourite food of the Canadian lynx.
ESSEC
The ESSEC is an important school teaching business to adults in France. It was created in 1907 in Paris, but it has moved to Cergy-Pontoise, a city west of Paris, in 1973.
In 2006, ESSEC set up a campus in Singapore, Asia. Twice a year, about 50 ESSEC students go and study there.
ESSEC is now one of the most famous Business Schools and Grandes Écoles in France. ESSEC is frequently ranked first nationally.
National symbols
National symbols are patriotic symbols representing nations and countries. Sometimes, symbols are used for cultural or ethnic groups that do not have their own country yet.
National symbols try to unite people or send a message by representing the national people, values, goals, or history. People often honor their nation, country, or group by celebrating their national symbol.
Computer bus
A computer bus (often simply called bus) is part of most computers. Its role is to transfer data, signals, or power between some of the components that make up a computer.
The "size" or "width" of a bus is how many bits it carries in parallel. Common bus sizes are: 4 bits, 8 bits, 12 bits, 16 bits, 24 bits, 32 bits, 64 bits, 80 bits, 96 bits, and 128 bits. Computers use such buses to link:
Drives are usually connected by Serial ATA or the earlier ATAPI bus. USB and Firewire connections go to printers and other peripheral devices.
Diego Ramírez Islands
The Diego Ramírez Islands are a group of islands. They are in the Drake Passage, about 100 km southwest of Cape Horn. The Ildefonso Islands are 93 km to the north-northwest. There is a group of 6 islands to the north, then there is a waterway of 3 km, then there is another group to the south. There is a weather station in one of the islands. The islands are an important nesting place for birds.
The islands belong to Chile, and are named after Diego Ramírez. They were first sighted on 12 February 1619 by Marco Ramirez of the Garcia de Nodal expedition, and named after the cosmographer of the expedition. They were the southernmost landmass known at the time. They kept this status for 156 years. In 1775, James Cook discovered the South Sandwich Islands, which are much farther south.
The Chilean Navy built a meteorological station above "Caleta Condell", a small cove on the northeast side of "Isla Gonzalo" (Gonzalo Island), in 1957, and resupply it several times each year. This is the southernmost manned outpost of South America (including islands), even if the South Sandwich Islands are regarded as part of South America. The Argentinian station on Thule Island was taken down in June 1982 after the Falklands War. The next southerly manned outpost of South America is the lighthouse of Cape Horn. Cruise ships sometimes pass by on their way to and from Antarctica.
The archipelago has 2 groups. The North group is smaller and is named as "Rocas del Norte". There are 5 islands in this group, "Islote Cabezas", "Islote Peñailillo", "Isla Norte", "Islote Martínez" and "Islote Mendoza". In the South group are many islands, for example; "Islote Santander", "Islotes Vergara", "Isla Bartolomé" (the principal island), "Islote Pontevedra", "Islote García", "Isla Gonzalo" (the second longest) and "Islote Ester".
All the islands have moss on the ground, and they have a cold climate all year, with much rain every month. Because of how far south they are, there is a strong wind from the west.
Performing music from memory
Performing music from memory means knowing a piece of music well enough to be able to play or sing it without the written music.
Although some people can learn music by ear, most people who are taught to play musical instruments learn new pieces by reading the printed music which is in front of them on a music stand. When someone has learned to play a piece of music well enough to perform it, it is good if they can learn to play it without the printed music. This is called “playing from memory” or “playing by heart”. When a musician is practising a piece of music so that it can be played from memory this is called memorizing the music.
Most Classical musicians will agree that it is good to play from memory when performing as a soloist. It means that the player understands the music really well, and he is able to concentrate completely on the way he plays the music (the interpretation). In some music competitions the competitors are expected to play from memory. A pianist playing a recital will usually play everything from memory. It is particularly important for singers who are performing songs (Lieder) to sing without music because they can then communicate directly with the audience using the expression on their faces. Some conductors conduct from memory. If they do, they ought to know every single note for every single instrument from memory. There are some conductors who have such amazing memories that they can do this.
Some people find it easier to memorize music than others. There are different ways of practising to help memorize music: by memorizing a few bars at a time, by studying the printed music away from the instrument, or by “thinking” through the piece away from the instrument.
Some people have a “photographic memory” and can see in their mind the music as printed on the paper. Some people rely on aural memory (hearing it in one’s imagination). There is also muscular memory (the fingers "knowing" what to do). Probably most people use some combination of all these methods.
When people perform from memory they are often worried that they might have a memory lapse (forget how the music goes). It can happen, of course, even to the greatest musicians. The famous violinist Bronislaw Huberman and the pianist Eugen d’Albert were once performing Beethoven’s "Kreutzer Sonata". Both were playing from memory. One of them kept going wrong in the same place, playing something that had happened earlier, so that they played the middle bit three times before eventually managing to finish the piece. However, this is quite common, and can happen to anyone.
People who learn musical instruments should try to memorize some of their pieces. Many famous musicians have a large repertoire (a collection) of pieces that they can play from memory.
"Pianoforte Diplomas" by Geoffrey Tankard (Sevenoaks 1973)
Polyrhythm happens when two different rhythms are played at the same time in music. African, Latin, and Afro-Cuban music often use polyrhythms.
Polyrythm is another word for layering and adding volumes to the piece of music. It happens when one person starts playing a rhythm and then other people start joining in, adding dynamics to it. It happens in Africa during festivals and occasions along with a call and response style of playing.
Theme Hospital is a simulation computer game developed by Bullfrog and EA Games. It was published in 1997. The game is quite humorous.
In the game, the player must build and operate a hospital. There are different rooms you can build. These are to diagnose the patient and to treat the illness.
Some illnesses are quite unusual. One is the bloaty head disease where the patient's head blows up. Another is the slack tongue disease, where the patient has an unusually long tongue.
Pontin's
Twin prime conjecture
The twin prime conjecture is a mathematical theory. It says that it is possible to find two twin primes that are as big as wanted.
Twin primes are prime numbers that differ by two. For example, 3 and 5 are both prime and differ by two. They are twin primes. 23 is prime, but it is not a twin prime. The primes nearest to 23 are 19 and 29. Twin primes were discovered by Euclid in 300 B.C.
Since Euclid's time mathematicians have wondered whether there are an infinite number of twin primes. Many mathematicians are still trying to find the answer.
Mud is a mixture of soil, silt, loam or clay, mixed with and water. It is a type of soil that is also called "clay soil". Others include the sandy soil, or sand, and garden soil. Wet mud has a soft wet texture.
Young children sometimes play in puddles of mud. Mud is usually brown.
Some animals including worms, frogs, snails, clams, and crayfish live in mud. Pigs and elephants use it to cool themselves in hot weather. Some people enjoy making mud pies out of mud.
Great river systems like the Amazon bring down to the delta immense amounts of mud which ends up in the sea outside the fan of the river mouth. Mudrock is what the mud may become millions of years later. Mudrocks make up fifty percent of the sedimentary rocks in the geologic record, and are easily "the most widespread deposits on Earth".
The Zutons
The Zutons are a rock band from Liverpool, England. They formed in 2001. They are on the Deltasonic record label. The band were nominated for the British Breakthrough Act award at the 2005 BRIT Awards.
The band has 5 people in it:
Their first album, "Who Killed... The Zutons?", was released on 18 October 2004, and got to number 9 in the United Kingdom album chart. It came with a printed 3-D cover, and special glasses to view the cover. Many fans wore the glasses to concerts. The album was a nominee for the 2004 Mercury Music Prize.
The new album Tired of Hanging Around was released on April 17, 2006 and reached 2 in the UK album charts. The band went around the UK doing concerts in May 2006 following the release of this album. Their second UK tour will begin in November 2006.
Dwarf planet
Dwarf planet is the name used to classify some objects in the solar system. This definition was made on August 24, 2006 by the International Astronomical Union (IAU), and can be described as; "a dwarf planet is a body orbiting the Sun that is big enough to round itself by its own gravity, but has not cleared its orbital path of other rival bodies". At the same meeting the IAU also defined the term planet for the first time. Some astronomers think that the term "dwarf planet" is too confusing and needs to be changed.
The seven dwarf planets, in order from their distance from the Sun are:
The dwarf planets, unlike the terrestrial and gas giant planets, are in more than one region of the solar system. Ceres is in the asteroid belt. The high orbital eccentricity of Pluto puts it mostly outside Neptune's orbit, but partly inside. The others are in the trans-Neptune region.
NASA's "Dawn" and "New Horizons" missions reached Ceres and Pluto, respectively, in 2015. "Dawn" had already orbited and observed Vesta in 2011.
There are many other dwarf planets in the solar system. Most of them are also Kuiper belt objects.
Blue peafowl
The blue peafowl or Indian peafowl ("Pavo cristatus") is a bird native to the Indian subcontinent.
Green peafowl
The green peafowl ("Pavo muticus") is a bird that is native to Southeast Asia.
Nintendo Virtual Boy
The Nintendo Virtual Boy was a mostly-portable (easily moved) game console which had two screens that showed only red and black graphics. To use the system, one had to put one's face close to the system so that each eye could see only one screen. By showing each eye a different image, the system could create a 3D effect.
The way the system displayed images was not by LCDs, as some would think. At the time, LCDs could not be used because they had two problems when they were first tested on the console: they would blur if anything moved on the screen, and users would see double instead of depth. Instead, a vertical line of 224 very bright, but very small, LEDs were used for each eye. These LEDs flashed on and off very fast in certain patterns. This line of LEDs was then magnified by a lens, and a vibrating mirror would reflect each line at a certain time into each eye, creating a full image due to the human eye's persistence of vision. Unfortunately, due to the quick flashing of the LEDs, many users felt sick, became dizzy, or had headaches after playing for a long time. To help this, an "automatic pause" feature was added, which stopped the game play every 30 minutes for the player to rest his or her eyes.
The Virtual Boy was first sold in 1995, but was not popular. Consumers did not like the console's high price, monochrome graphics, eye and neck strain, and need for a stand. Many were saving money for the soon-to-be-sold Nintendo 64. Nintendo lowered the price many times, but the system did not sell well and was discontinued (Nintendo stopped making them) in 1996. Only 22 games were released in Japan and North America.
Popular games for the system include "Mario Tennis" and "Virtual Boy Wario Land" (Known as "Wario Cruise" in Japan).
The Virtual Boy was made by Gunpei Yokoi, who also made the Game Boy and "Game & Watch".
People rumored that Gunpai Yakoi made the Virtual Boy as a parting gift, but unfortunately it failed.
There was a Japan version of the Virtual Boy, (Family Computer 3-D System) it played in color and indeed, played in 3-D.
Duke University
Duke University is a private university in Durham, North Carolina, founded in 1838. It was formed by Methodists and Quakers in the present-day town of Trinity. The school moved to Durham in 1892.
It has advanced research. Some famous people including former President of the United States, Richard Nixon went to the school. In its 2012 edition, "U.S. News & World Report" ranked the university's undergraduate program 10th among national universities.
Duke has good libraries, such as Bostock Library. It also has a famous medical school and law school. The school's colours are blue and white and its president is Richard Brodhead.
Duke University owns 220 buildings on of land. This includes the Duke Forest.
Duke has 26 varsity sports teams, known as the Blue Devils. Duke's athletic programs are considered among the very best in the NCAA. Duke's teams play in the Atlantic Coast Conference.
Its Men's Basketball Team under coach Mike Krzyzewski has won the NCAA Tournament four times, and bought out the 2015 title as well. In football The Blue Devils have won seven ACC Football Championships. They have had ten players honored as ACC Player of the Year (the most in the ACC), Duke's teams play in the Atlantic Coast Conference.
Existentialism is a way of thinking that focuses on what it means for people to exist. It is a philosophical movement. It became well-known in books and movies of the 19th and 20th centuries. Existentialism is known for dealing with nihilistic problems, but is generally still a kind of . It says that humans have will and consciousness, but they live in a world that does not. The premise that people must make choices about their life while knowing they are mortal is what existentialism is all about.
It was started by the Danish philosopher Søren Kierkegaard (18131855).
Kierkegaard was a very religious man, but existentialism in the 20th century became more and more atheistic. Most of its main thinkers and writers were in mainland Europe. For example, Jean-Paul Sartre spent most of the Second World War in a German prison camp, reading the philosophy of Martin Heidegger. When he came out he gave a lecture called "Existentialism and Humanism". This early lecture may be easier to read than his later work.
Many religions and philosophies (ways of thinking about the world) say that human life has a meaning (or a purpose). But people who believe in existentialism think that the world and human life have "no meaning unless people give them meaning": ‘existence precedes [is before] essence’. This means that we find ourselves existing in the world, and then we give ourselves meaning, or 'essence'. As Sartre said, "We are condemned to be free". This means that we have no choice but to choose, and that we have full responsibility for our choices. Another way to put it is that we are always making choices even if we don't realize it.
Existentialists believe that our human 'essence' or 'nature' (way of being in the world) is simply our 'existence' (being in the world). More simply put, the 'essence' of a human, or what makes a human a 'human', is not due to nature or uncontrollable circumstances; rather, human essence is really just what we choose to make it. This means that the only nature we as humans have is the nature we make for ourselves. As a result of this, existentialists think that the actions or choices that a person makes are very important. They believe that every person has to decide for themselves what is right and wrong, and what is good and bad.
People who believe in existentialism ask questions like ’what is it like to be a human (a person) in the world?’ and ’how can we understand human freedom (what it means for a person to be free)?’ Existentialism is often connected with negative emotions, such as anxiety (worrying), dread (a very strong fear), and mortality (awareness of our own death). Some existentialists, like Sartre and Heidegger, think that thinking about these emotions helps people to choose the way that they want to live their lives.
Existentialism is sometimes confused with nihilism. It is different from nihilism, but there is a similarity. Nihilists believe that human life "does not" have a meaning (or a purpose) at all; existentialism says that people must choose their own purpose.
Many of the main sources for existentialism were written in other languages and only later translated, mostly after the 1950s.
Ingmar Bergman made a movie called "The Seventh Seal" in 1957. It shows the doom and gloom of the late Middle Ages caused by the Black Plague, famine, the Hundred Years' War between France and England, and papal schism.
The movie "Taxi Driver" (which has the actor Robert De Niro) from 1976 has existential ideas in it. The main character feels sad and lonely, because he cannot understand the world.
Jean-Luc Godard's "Vivre sa vie (film)" and Federico Fellini's 8 1/2 are prime examples of the Existentialism fashion in the European early 50's that influenced American films such as Easy Rider or The Graduate in the 1960s.
King of the Hill was an American animated cartoon that ran from 1997 to 2010 on FOX. It featured a husband, a wife, a son, and their live-in niece. FOX, the network running the series, would not be showing new episodes anymore after its 13th and final season. The final four episodes aired in May 2010.
Hairdresser
A hairdresser's job is to organise hair into a particular style or "look". They can cut hair, add colour to it or texture it. A hairdresser may be female or male. Qualified staff are usually called "stylists", who are supported by assistants. Most hairdressing businesses are unisex, that is, they serve both sexes, and have both sexes on their staff.
Male hairdressers who simply cut men's hair (and do not serve females) are often called barbers.
Qualifications for hairdressing usually mean a college course, or an apprenticeship under a senior stylist. Some aspects of the job are quite technical (such as hair dying) and require careful teaching.
Eppie Lederer
Esther "Eppie" Pauline Friedman Lederer, better known as Ann Landers (July 4, 1918 – June 22, 2002), was an American writer. She is best known for writing the famous advice column "Ann Landers." For almost 45 years, it was a part of many newspapers across North America. In it, people wrote for advice and she answered.
Lederer and her twin sister Pauline Esther Friedman Phillips, writer of the advice column "Dear Abby", were daughters of Russian Jewish emigrants.
Northern bluefin tuna
Northern bluefin tuna are the largest kind of tuna fish. They live for 11 to 26 years. It is one of the largest, fastest, and most colorful of all the world’s fishes.
Their name comes from the Latin: "Thunnus Thynnus"
The normal size is 6.6 ft (2 m) at about 1,100 lb (500 kg). The I.G.F.A. record for a bluefin caught on rod and reel is 1,496 lb.
Bluefins feed on mackerel, herring, mullet, whiting, squid, eels, and crustaceans. They are very powerful and fast and can swim at speeds up to 50 mph.
The following are percentages of tuna caught in different regions in the world.
An Automaton (one automaton, several "automata") is a concept from mathematics. Sometimes the concept is called "state machine". It is like an abstract machine.
Such a machine can be given "input", which is either rejected, or accepted. It's like a vending machine. When something is bought, coins (or money) needs to be inserted into the machine. If these are the right coins, they are accepted, and the requested item is dropped so it can be removed. If the coins are wrong, they are rejected.
Internally, the automaton has different "states" it can be in. Feeding it input may (or may not) change its state. That way, the automaton goes through all the input, consuming one item (which mathematicians call a symbol) at a time. When no symbol is left, the automaton is in a certain state. This may be an "final state". In this case the input is accepted. Otherwise, the input is rejected.
If the machine has a countable, finite number of states, it is called "finite state machine". A diagram that shows all the states, and transitions of such a machine is called finite state diagram.
Like in real life, there are machines that are too complex to understand. The mathematician and computer scientists therefore ask themselves if a certain automaton is "minimal". If it is not minimal, there must be another automaton with fewer states that can do the same thing. An example of an automaton is the turing machine.
A Vending machine is an automatic machine that sells food or drink or other items. Vending machine foods include snacks such as potato chips, chocolate bars, and candy. Hot vending machine drinks include coffee, tea, and hot chocolate. Cold vending machine drinks include juice, bottled water, soft drinks. Other merchandise includes newspapers or cigarettes. Vending machines in bathrooms sometimes sell condoms, mouthwash, or toothpaste and toothbrushes.
The machines usually work, when some money (usually coins or paper money) is put in a slot. Then, a button needs to be pushed, or a lever pulled. If there is enough money, the selected item will be dropped to a tray, where it can be taken out by the person making the purchase. Ticket vending machines will print the ticket. Older vending machines were all mechanical, but most newer ones are partly electronic. Many modern vending machines can accept debit or credit cards in addition to cash.
Bar (business)
A bar is a building or business where alcoholic drinks (such as beer, wine, or liquor) are served. Bars are also found in pubs and nightclubs. They may also serve snack food. In most countries, bars are regulated and licenced by the regional or local governments, which establish laws regarding the opening hours and serving policies. In Canada and the United States, a liquor tax is placed on the sales of alcoholic beverages.
Drink coasters are used in bars and restaurants to protect the table surface from alcohol.
Cape Horn (; ) is a cape. It was named for the city of Hoorn in the Netherlands. It is the southernmost land area of the Tierra del Fuego archipelago of southern Chile. Many people see Cape Horn as the southern tip of South America. Cape Horn is the most southerly of the great capes. The Drake Passage is directly to the south of it. For many years, it was a major milestone on the clipper route by which sailing ships carried trade around the world. The waters around the cape are very dangerous because of strong winds, large waves, and icebergs. These reasons have made it notorious as a sailors' graveyard.
Today, the Panama Canal has greatly reduced the need for cargo ships to travel via the Horn. However, sailing around the Horn is widely regarded as one of the major challenges in yachting, and a number of recreational sailors continue to sail this route, sometimes as part of a circumnavigation of the globe. Several prominent ocean yacht races, notably the Vendée Globe, sail around the world via the Horn, and speed records for round-the-world sailing follow the same route.
An iceberg is a large piece of ice floating in the sea. They are generally found in cold water near the North or South Pole. Icebergs are especially common during spring, when ice has begun to melt. About 90% of an iceberg is below the water line and ten percent above. Just by looking at the part you can see, it is hard to tell how the part underwater looks, and how close you can get before crashing into it.
Icebergs break off from larger structures made of ice, like glaciers or ice shelves. These are formed by snowfall in very cold places where it will not melt in the summer. The snow builds up and compacts into ice. This is gradually pulled downhill by gravity and into the sea. The ice then falls off and makes icebergs. The icebergs can drift in the sea for years before they have melted completely.
The first person to give a correct scientific explanation of this phenomenon was Mikhail Lomonosov, around 1750. The density of ice is about 0.92 kg per liter, that of sea water is about 1.025 kg per liter. For this reason, 920 parts of the 1025, or about 90 percent, of the iceberg's volume need to be below the water line. Lomonosov grew up on the shore of the White Sea in the European part of Russia. He studied in Marburg, and is credited with introducing the word "iceberg" into the Russian language.
Icebergs are very dangerous to ships, and many ships have sunk after crashing into icebergs. The most famous one was RMS "Titanic" in 1912.
The largest iceberg people know about was called B-15. It broke off from the Antarctic ice shelf in the year 2000, and was as large as the island of Jamaica (over 10,000 km). It soon started to break up into smaller pieces, some of which still remain in 2008.
Icebergs are affected by global warming.
Circumnavigation originally meant going around something, by ship. Usually, it means people going around the world. The first known circumnavigation was done by Fernão de Magalhães (Ferdinand Magellan), from 1519 to 1522. Magellan took five ships and went west, from Spain. He discovered a waterway which is now named after him, the Strait of Magellan. Magellan died in a fight with natives on the Philippine island Mactan in April 1521. The voyage was completed under command of Juan Sebastián Elcano. Elcano returned to Sanlúcar de Barrameda, where the voyage had started, with 18 survivors and valuable cargo in 1522. This proved that the earth was a globe.
A thought experiment is an experiment that takes place in the mind of a scientist. Unlike with a real-life experiment where change is actually seen and perhaps measured, thought experiments are done just to show a special way of thinking. Anyone can do a thought experiment. All you need is your mind because all the steps take place in your mind.
The usual goal of a thought experiment is to explore the consequences of the principle in question. Like so: "if this were true, what would follow from it?"
Thought experiments are notable in the history of science. Hans Christian Ørsted was the first to use the German term ' (means 'thought experiment') about 1812.
Posing hypothetical questions had been done for long time (by scientists and philosophers). However, people had no way of talking about it.
Breaking Benjamin is a hard rock band from Pennsylvania. The band is best known for their songs "Polyamorous", "So Cold", "Sooner or Later," "The Diary of Jane," and "Breath." The band was formed in 1998 by lead vocalist Benjamin Burnley and drummer Jeremy Hummel. The band has released five albums: ""Saturate""(2002), ""We Are Not Alone""(2004), ""Phobia""(2006), ""Dear Agony""(2009), ""Dark Before Dawn""(2015) and Ember (2018)
The band's album ""Dark Before Dawn"" was released on June 23rd, 2015.
This album has made 5 singles which are ""Failure"", ""Angels Fall"", ""Ashes of Eden"" ""Defeated"" and ""Never Again""
Headlands and bays
A headland is an area of land that is surrounded by water on three sides. Very often, the land areas are called "cape"s. A bay is an area of water. It is surrounded by land on three sides. The water areas are also called "gulf"s.
A bay is a large body of water in the land next to a sea or lake between two headlands. The waves coming to the shore in a bay are usually constructive waves, and because of this, many of them have a beach. A bay may be metres across, or it could be hundreds of kilometres across. A bay often contains beaches.
Bays form where weak rocks, such as sands and clays, are eroded, leaving bands of stronger rocks, such as chalk, limestone, or granite, forming a headland, or peninsula. Headlands and bays are formed when there are parallel sections of softer and harder rock perpendicular to the coast. The sea erodes the softer rock faster than the harder rock, forming a bay. The harder rock that is left protruding into the sea is the headland.
They also can be made by people mining off the coast.
Drake Passage
The Drake passage is a body of water. It lies between the Atlantic and Pacific oceans. To the north is Cape Horn and the South American continent, to the south are the South Shetland Islands, now part of the British Antarctic Territory. It is part of the Southern Ocean. It is named after the English privateer Sir Francis Drake, who accidentally discovered it. He never sailed the passage, because sailing the Strait of Magellan was less dangerous.
The Drake passage is also the shortest route from Antarctica to the rest of the world. The only islands in the passage are the Diego Ramirez Islands, about 60 km south of Cape Horn.
The passage is also known for very rough seas. Waves of 10 m are not uncommon here.
The passage is also good for seeing Whales, Dolphins, seabirds, and penguins.
In old books, the passage is called Drake Strait.
A glacier is a large body of ice and snow. It forms because the snow in an area does not all melt in summer. Each winter, more snow is added. The weight of all the snow creates pressure. This pressure turns the lower parts of the snow into ice. After this happens for many years, the glacier will start growing large. It becomes so heavy that gravity causes the ice to move. It flows downwards like water but very slowly. A glacier only moves about per year. New snowfalls replace the parts that flow away.
Glaciers are the largest sources of fresh water on Earth. The largest bodies of salt water are the Oceans
Glaciers will only form in places that are cold enough and get enough snow over time. This can take a long time. It often takes tens or hundreds of years for a glacier to form. There are two kinds of glaciers: "continental glaciers" and "alpine glaciers". Alpine glaciers are also called "mountain glaciers".
Glaciers are very important. They have a large effect on the environment. They do this because they are very large and heavy. When they move, they erode mountains and land. Also, since they froze long ago, snow crystals and air bubbles inside are kept in good condition. These can provide a large amount of information for scientists. Recently glaciers have been melting more than they did in the past. Many scientists think this is happening because global warming is changing the climate.
Glaciers are blue in color. This is because water is very good at absorbing light. Only the strongest light, with the most energy, is able to escape. Blue is the color of light that has the most energy. Because of this, blue is the only color of light that can escape without being absorbed. The thicker the glacier is, the more blue it appears.
Sight-reading
Sight-reading (or sight-singing for singers) is the ability to play music that one has never seen before. It is important to be able to read music well in order to sight-read.
Many people who learn to play an instrument will take examinations from time to time. One of the tests that is usually required for an examination is some sight-reading.
People who find it hard to read music will find it hard to sight-read. The best way to improve is by regular practice. People who play in orchestras will need to be good sight-readers because they often have to play music that they have never seen or heard before.
People who learn the piano often find sight-reading hard because they have to read two staves at once (one for each hand). Playing through lots of easy music is a good way to improve. Playing piano duets with a friend is also great fun.
When someone is reading aloud their eyes are looking several words ahead of the word they are speaking. In the same way a good sight-reader will try to look ahead of the notes he is playing. The player is "anticipating" (thinking about what is going to happen next). In this way he can try to make the music expressive, even if it means leaving out some of the notes.
A good sight-reader will be able to see the printed music and imagine what the notes should sound like. In this way he will not need to keep looking at his fingers to check whether he is playing the correct notes.
Some pianists are very good at sight-reading. The pianist John Ogdon was able to read extremely difficult modern music at first sight.
Child prodigy
Puerto Rican
A Puerto Rican is a person from Puerto Rico or anyone who is descended from some one who was originally from Puerto Rico. Puerto Ricans are American citizens, even though Puerto Rico is only a territory of the United States and not an official state. People from Puerto Rico can also be known as a "Boricua," "Borinquen," "Puertoriqueño," or the most known slang of "Boricua."
The name of "Boricua," and "Borinqueños" came from the islands original name of "Boriken", meaning "Land of the Brave People". This name was created by the Taino-Arawak people, who were highly advanced. Taino-Arawak ancestors date back to 4,000 B.C.
•Marc Anthony, singer
•Giannina Braschi, poet, novelist
•Neil deGrasse Tyson, scientist
•Jennifer Lopez, singer, actress
•Ricky Martin, singer, activist
•Renee Marques, playwright
•Lin-Manuel Miranda, creator of Broadway musicals
•Sonia Sotomayor, Supreme Court judge
The toothbrush is a tool to clean teeth. The toothbrush has a small brush at the end of a handle. Toothpaste, which often contains fluoride, is commonly added to a toothbrush to help clean the teeth. Both toothpaste and toothbrushes come in many different colours. Toothpastes can also come in many different flavours. Nice toothbrushes (especially electrical) can make toothbrushing fun and help your child on the way to perfect oral health.
Toothbrushes were first invented by a prisoner. Before anyone had thought of a toothbrush, people kept their teeth clean by chewing on a stick until one end got soft and frayed like a brush. Sometimes they dipped a finger in chalk or salt and then rubbed their teeth. Toothpicks were another way to take care of teeth, and toothpicks were very fancy then. They were made of gold or jewels, and people would stick them in their hats or hang them on necklaces when they were not using them.
The first brushes came from China, where the Chinese made them out of hairs pulled from the back of wild hogs. The kind of toothbrush we know came from William Addis. He worked on the toothbrush while he was in jail. First, he saved a bone from one of his meals and poked some holes in it. The prison guard gave him some bristles. Joseph tied the bristles into little bundles, cut them to make them even, put glue on the ends, and stuffed them into the holes. The company he started still make millions of toothbrushes every year.
The word toothbrush came from the two parts of the word, first a noun and then a verb or noun. The action of brushing teeth with a toothbrush is basically the use of the invention of Joseph Addis.
70s BC
20s BC
Homeostasis is self-regulation, a basic property of all self-organising systems. In biology, it is the keeping of a stable internal environment.
Homeostasis is life's ability to stay balanced, when the environment changes. Animals keep their body in a stable condition. They do so by regulating their inner equilibrium . For example, they adjust their pH, temperature, amount of oxygen or carbon dioxide in the blood and so on. In living things, the study of how they keep in a stable condition is called physiology. Mostly, our physiology works unconsciously throughout life. We have many negative feedback systems which adjust our physiology so that we stay alive. These systems are self-organising and do not need to be learnt. They are inherited.
The concept was described by Claude Bernard, and the term was later coined by Walter Cannon in 1926, 1929, and 1932. Walter Cannon thought these were the features of homeostasis:
Examples of homeostasis:
In mammals, the main organs involved with homeostasis are:
The brain is also central to homeostasis. It controls behaviour, and the basic function of behaviour is to support life by taking action.
Pulmonary embolism
A pulmonary embolism is a clot of material (an embolus) that blocks blood from getting to the lungs. It is usually caused by a blood clot that starts somewhere else in the body and travels to the lungs. However, it can also be caused by clumped cancer cells, fat, or bone. Rarely, while giving birth, a woman can get a clot of amniotic fluid.
Symptoms of a pulmonary embolism start suddenly, as soon as the clot starts blocking blood flow to the lungs. Blood is supposed to pick up oxygen in the lungs and then carry that oxygen to the rest of the body. If blood cannot get through to the lungs, it cannot pick up oxygen or deliver it to the body. Every part of the body needs blood and oxygen to survive.
Often, the first sign of a pulmonary embolism is syncope (fainting), because the brain is not getting enough blood and oxygen. Other symptoms include:
The worst kind of pulmonary embolism is caused by a "saddle embolus". This kind of embolus blocks the pulmonary artery, which carries blood from the right side of the heart to the lungs. This makes it impossible for any blood to get through to the lungs. Since no blood can get out to the rest of the body, the person's blood pressure drops and they can go into shock. A saddle embolus is a very serious medical emergency. Many people with this type of embolus die.
There are many risk factors that make it more likely for a person to get a pulmonary embolism. For example:
There are a few treatments for pulmonary embolism. The choice of which treatments to use depends on how serious the pulmonary embolism is. Treatments include:
A toilet is a place where humans get rid of waste that comes from their bodies (urine and feces). Most toilets use water and to flush the waste through plumbing into a sewage system. However, some modern toilets do not use water, and are called dry toilets.
A room that has a toilet can be called a "restroom" or "bathroom" in the United States. In other places it may be called the toilet or the water closet (WC).
Almost all modern buildings have at least one toilet. In the home, a toilet may or may not be in the same room as a shower or a bathtub. Some toilets are outside, in an "outhouse".
In developing countries, many people do not have a toilet in their home. More than 4.5 billion people do not have access to toilets.
A public toilet may or may not cost money to use. Toilets that cost money are called "pay toilets".
Public bathrooms often have many toilets with walls between them. This makes areas called "stalls" (US) or "cubicles" (UK). Bathrooms for men often also have separate urinals. Urinals can either be on the wall for a single user, or a basin or trough for many men to use at the same time. Urinals on walls sometimes have small walls or dividers for privacy reasons.
Outdoor public toilets (in the street, around parks, etc.) are a form of street furniture. These toilets are in individual cubicles. Some are simple and have little or no plumbing. Others are less simple, and some toilets even clean themselves after every use.
Some toilet-cubicles are mobile and can be put in place where and when they are needed. These toilets are called "portable toilets". Portable toilets are commonly used at large outdoor events like concerts, festivals or carnivals.
Every day, toilets use 141 billion liters of water to flush waste, so scientists try to make toilets that do not need so much water. In 2019, one group made a chemical to put onto toilets to make them very slippery so that the waste flushes away with only a little water. The scientists hope their invention will be used by many people one day.
Stegosaurus (meaning "roof-lizard") was a type of plant-eating dinosaur which lived in what is now western North America.
"Stegosaurus" lived in the Upper Jurassic period around 155 to 145 million years ago. It is one of the most easily recognized dinosaurs, with its distinctive double row of kite-shaped plates on its back, and the long spikes on its tail. The armor was necessary as it lived with such meat-eaters as "Allosaurus" and "Ceratosaurus".
"Stegosaurus" was originally named by Othniel Charles Marsh in 1877, from fossils found near Morrison, Colorado. These first bones became the first species of Stegosaur named: "Stegosaurus armatus".
Several different "Stegosaurus" species have been found.
"Stegosaurus" was the largest stegosaur, reaching up to 12 m (39.4 ft) in length and weighing up to 5,000 kg (5.5 short tons). However, 7 to 9 m was a more usual length.
The skull of "Stegosaurus" was long and narrow. Because of its short front legs, its head was close to the ground, probably no higher than 1 m (3.3 ft). It ate low-growing plants because of this. It had no front teeth, but it did have a horn-covered beak. Stegosaurian chewing teeth were small and triangular and did little grinding as they lacked wear surfaces.
Unlike most dinosaurs, it did not have a lacuna (hole) in its skull between the nose and eye.
It has often been said that the "Stegosaurus" brain was the size of a walnut. Actually, it had a brain several times the size of a walnut. The bundle of nerves near the base of the tail that controlled reflexes in the back of the body was larger than the brain and is sometimes said to be a "second brain". These issues are discussed in Dinosaur brains and intelligence.
"Stegosaurus" had very short forelimbs in relation to its hind legs. The back legs each had three short toes, while the front legs had five toes. All four limbs were supported by pads behind the toes.
"Stegosaurus" was a member of the Thyreophora, or armored dinosaurs, a family of dinosaurs which includes the ankylosaurs.
"Stegosaurus" has been declared the State Dinosaur of Colorado. It has also appeared in many movies and TV shows.
Psittacosis
Psittacosis is a bacterial disease that can be caught from birds such as parrots, pigeons, and parakeets. The disease is not common, with only 50 reported cases in the United States each year.
Psittacosis usually gives flu-like symptoms, such as fevers, chills, headaches, muscle aches, and a dry cough. The disease can also look like pneumonia on an x-ray. In rare cases, Psittacosis can cause endocarditis - swelling of joints, and swelling of the cornea.
Psittacosis can be easily treated with antibiotics, especially with Tetracycline. The disease rarely kills people, with only 1% of those who get the disease dying.
Gregorian chant
Gregorian chant is an important form of plainchant, used mainly in the Roman Catholic Church. With plainchant, all people sing the same music in unison, most of the time. Sometimes, there is a second part, called "organum", which often uses the same melody, but at an interval. This interval is often a fourth or a fifth.
Gregorian chant developed mainly in western and central Europe during the 9th and 10th centuries, but people wrote new songs and changed the old ones later. Many people believe an old story, which says that Pope Gregory the Great wrote the songs. Most people who study the history of music believe that kings such as Charlemagne brought music from Rome to their kingdoms in France and Germany. When Charlemagne's people sang these songs, they changed the songs. This new music became Gregorian chant.
Usually men and boys sang Gregorian chant in churches, and holy women and men sang Gregorian chants in their daily prayers. In Roman Catholic churches, prayers and songs follow an order called the "Roman Rite." Gregorian chant is the music used in the "Mass" and the "Office" of the Roman Rite. The "Mass" is the part of the Roman Rite where Catholics receive what they believe to be the body and blood of Christ. The "Office" is the part of the Roman Rite where holy men and women pray at special times every day. In the past, people sang different songs in parts of Europe, but Gregorian chant replaced almost all of them. Although the Roman Catholic Church no longer requires people to sing Gregorian chants, it still says that Gregorian chant is the best music for prayer.
Christians have sung songs without music since the earliest days of the Church. Before the mid-1990s, many people believed that the Jewish songs called the "Psalms," which are in both the Jewish and Christian Bible, were an important part of early Christian music and prayer. People who study the history of music and religion no longer believe this, because most early Christian songs were not from the Psalms, and Jews did not sing Psalms for many centuries after their most important holy place, the Second Temple, was destroyed in the year 70. However, some parts of Jewish music and prayer ended up later in Gregorian chant. The organized order of prayers called "canonical hours" come from Jewish tradition. The words "amen" and "alleluia" come from the Hebrew language. The prayer "sanctus, sanctus, sanctus," which means "holy, holy, holy," comes from the Jewish prayer "kadosh, kadosh, kadosh."
The New Testament, tells how Jesus and his friends sang together: "When they had sung the hymn, they went out to the Mount of Olives" (Matthew|26.30). Other writers from those early centuries such as Pope Clement I also said that Christians sang religious songs, but they don’t tell us what the music sounded like. The "Oxyrhynchus hymn," a 3rd-century song from Greece has lasted with written musical notes, we do not know if this song is connected to plainchant.
The sorts of songs, which Catholics later sang in the Roman Rite, started to appear in the 3rd century. The "Apostolic Tradition", a book about Christian traditions in early Rome, says that Christians sang "Alleluia" in early holy meals called ""agape" feasts." Chants of the Office started in the early 4th century, when holy men in the deserts started the tradition of singing all 150 psalms every week. Sometime around 375, Christians in Eastern Europe started singing religious songs back and forth between two groups; in 386, St. Ambrose brought this tradition to Western Europe. Singing back and forth is called "antiphonal" singing.
Most people think that the liturgy of the Roman Mass was put together during the 7th century. In 785-786 Pope Hadrian I sent some Roman chants to the court of Charlemagne. Later this music developed into the system of eight modes. This music, together with some new chants to complete the liturgical year, became known as "Gregorian." This chant was probably named after Pope Gregory the Great.
When Charlemagne had become Holy Roman Emperor he made everyone in Europe use this Gregorian chant. By the 12th and 13th centuries all other kinds of chant disappeared, even the Roman form (now known as Old Roman chant).
Gregorian chants are divided into three types based on the number of notes sung to each syllable. "Syllabic" chants mostly have one note per syllable. In "neumatic" chants there are mostly two or three notes per syllable, while "melismatic" chants have lots of notes for one syllable. Some of the chants are recitative and some are free melody. When two choirs stand in different parts of the church and sing alternately these are called "Antiphonal chants". "Responsorial chants" are ones with a refrain sung by the choir, which alternate with a psalm verse sung by a soloist.