AcharyaChanakya/simple-wikipedia huggingface dataset:
Paleolithic peoples suffered less famine and malnutrition than the Neolithic farming tribes that followed them. This was partly because Paleolithic hunter-gatherers accessed to a wider variety natural foods, which allowed them a more nutritious diet and a decreased risk of famine. Many of the famines experienced by Neolithic (and some modern) farmers were caused or amplified by their dependence on a small number of crops. It is thought that wild foods can have a significantly different nutritional profile than cultivated foods. The greater amount of meat obtained by hunting big game animals in Paleolithic diets than Neolithic diets may have also allowed Paleolithic hunter-gatherers to enjoy a more nutritious diet than Neolithic agriculturalists. It has been argued that the shift from hunting and gathering to agriculture resulted in an increasing focus on a limited variety of foods, with meat likely taking a back seat to plants. It is also unlikely that Paleolithic hunter-gatherers were affected by modern diseases of affluence such as Type 2 diabetes, coronary heart disease and cerebrovascular disease, because they ate mostly lean meats and plants and frequently engaged in intense physical activity, and because the average lifespan was shorter than the age of common-onset of these conditions.
Large-seeded legumes were part of the human diet long before the Neolithic agricultural revolution, as evident from archaeobotanical finds from the Mousterian layers of Kebara Cave, in Israel.<ref name="doi10.1016/j.jas.2004.11.006"></ref> There is evidence suggesting that Paleolithic societies were gathering wild cereals for food use at least as early as 30,000 years ago. However, seeds, such as grains and beans, were rarely eaten and never in large quantities on a daily basis.<ref name="doi:10.1080/11026480510032043"></ref> Recent archeological evidence also indicates that winemaking may have originated in the Paleolithic, when early humans drank the juice of naturally fermented wild grapes from animal-skin pouches. Paleolithic humans consumed animal organ meats, including the livers, kidneys and brains. Upper Paleolithic cultures appear to have had significant knowledge about plants and herbs and may have, albeit very rarely, practiced rudimentary forms of horticulture. In particular, bananas and tubers may have been cultivated as early as 25,000 BP in southeast Asia. Late Upper Paleolithic societies also appear to have occasionally practiced pastoralism and animal husbandry, presumably for dietary reasons. For instance, some European late Upper Paleolithic cultures domesticated and raised reindeer, presumably for their meat or milk, as early as 14,000 BP. Humans also probably consumed hallucinogenic plants during the Paleolithic period. The Australian Aborigines have been consuming a variety of native animal and plant foods, called bushfood, for an estimated 60,000 years, since the Middle Paleolithic.
People during the Middle Paleolithic, such as the Neanderthals and Middle Paleolithic Homo sapiens in Africa, began to catch shellfish for food as revealed by shellfish cooking in Neanderthal sites in Italy about 110,000 years ago and Middle Paleolithic "Homo sapiens" sites at Pinnacle Point, in Africa around 164,000 BP.<ref name="NYTIMES/10/08/07"></ref> Although fishing only became common during the Upper Paleolithic, fish have been part of human diets long before the dawn of the Upper Paleolithic and have certainly been consumed by humans since at least the Middle Paleolithic. For example, the Middle Paleolithic "Homo sapiens" in the region now occupied by the Democratic Republic of the Congo hunted large -long catfish with specialized barbed fishing points as early as 90,000 years ago. The invention of fishing allowed some Upper Paleolithic and later hunter-gatherer societies to become sedentary or semi-nomadic, which altered their social structures. Example societies are the Lepenski Vir as well as some contemporary hunter-gatherers such as the Tlingit. In some instances (at least the Tlingit) they developed social stratification, slavery and complex social structures such as chiefdoms.
Anthropologists such as Tim White suggest that cannibalism was common in human societies prior to the beginning of the Upper Paleolithic, based on the large amount of “butchered human" bones found in Neanderthal and other Lower/Middle Paleolithic sites. Cannibalism in the Lower and Middle Paleolithic may have occurred because of food shortages. However, it may have been for religious reasons, and would coincide with the development of religious practices thought to have occurred during the Upper Paleolithic. Nonetheless, it remains possible that Paleolithic societies never practiced cannibalism, and that the damage to recovered human bones was either the result of ritual post-mortem bone cleaning or predation by carnivores such as saber tooth cats, lions and hyenas.
Bolas
Bolas (from Spanish "bola", "ball", also known as "boleadoras") are a throwing weapon made of weights on the ends of interconnected cords, designed to capture animals by entangling their legs. They are used by the gauchos in South America today, but have been found in excavations of pre-Hispanic settlements, especially in Patagonia, where indigenous peoples used them to catch guanaco and ñandu.
Gauchos use boleadoras to capture running cattle or game. The thrower gives the balls momentum by swinging them and then releases the boledoras. The weapon is usually used to entangle the animal's legs, but when thrown with enough force might even break the bone.
There is no uniform design; most bolas have two or three balls, but there are versions of up to 8 or 9 balls. Some bolas have balls of equal weight,othes vary the knot and cord. Gauchos use bolas made of leather cords with wooden balls or small leather sacks full of stones in the ends of the cords.
Bolas can be named depending on the amount of weights used:
Cord may refer to:
Howard Robard Hughes, Jr. (December 24, 1905 – April 5, 1976), was an American businessman and movie producer. During his life, he was one of the richest people in the world. He was born in Humble, Texas to a rich family. He went to Hollywood and became a movie producer and aviator. Hughes broke several world records for flying aeroplanes. He created his own air company, which was later bought by TWA.
Many people now think Hughes may have had OCD or obsessive compulsive disorder. This is because later in life, he kept himself away from the outside world. He lived in a hotel suite at The Desert Inn in Las Vegas as a recluse. He never left his room. He also did not cut his hair or fingernails. He had a group of doctors and other people to help take care of him.
In 1972, a man named Clifford Irving claimed to have co-written the autobiography of Hughes. It was later shown to not be real. Hughes died in Houston while being moved to a hospital in Mexico. After he died, there was an argument over his will.
The death zone is the name used by mountain climbers for high altitude where there is not enough available oxygen for humans to breathe. This is usually above 8,000 metres (26,247 feet). Most of the 200+ climbers who have died on Mount Everest have died in the death zone. Due to the inverse relationship of atmospheric pressure to altitude, at the top of Mount Everest the average person takes in about 30% of the oxygen in the air that they would take in at sea level; a normal human person used to breathing air at sea level could only be there for a few minutes before they became unconscious. Most climbers have to carry oxygen bottles to be able to reach the top. Visitors become weak and have inability to think clearly and make decisions, especially under stress. Since helicopters also perform poorly in thin air, many bodies of dead visitors are left on the mountain.
Climber Lincoln Hall, who was left for dead on Everest on May 25, 2006, managed to survive. Lack of oxygen in his blood made it easier for him to get frostbite. He also had headaches, nausea, vomiting and hallucinations. He said later this was caused by cerebral edema – or swelling of the brain. This is caused at high altitude when blood leaks into the brain itself and that can kill a person if the brain becomes too compressed. Hall was left for dead when his breathing and heartbeat stopped. He was found the next morning by a team of four led by U.S. climber Daniel Mazur. Hall was sitting cross-legged near a ten-thousand foot cliff's edge, without his gloves, hat, or oxygen, with his climbing suit unzipped. Mazur later reported that Hall seemed lucid, and his first words were, "I imagine you're surprised to see me here." A massive rescue operation was assembled, and Hall was rescued. He survived for an additional seven years, speaking and writing books about his experiences on Everest, before his death in 2012 from mesothelioma.
George F. Smoot
George Fitzgerald Smoot III (born February 20, 1945) is an American professor of astrophysics and cosmology. In 2006 he won a Nobel Prize in Physics for his work on COBE with John C. Mather. That work made it possible to measure black holes and cosmic radiation much more exactly than was possible before.
This work gave new evidence for the big-bang idea that the universe was once a big explosion. This work was completed using the Cosmic Background Explorer Satellite (COBE). The Nobel Prize committee said: "the COBE-project can also be regarded as the starting point for cosmology as a precision science."
Professor Smoot works for the University of California, Berkeley Department of Physics. In 2003 he was awarded the Einstein Medal.
Professor Smoot was born in Yukon, Florida. He went to Upper Arlington High School in Upper Arlington, Ohio until 1962. He studied mathematics for some time before going to the Massachusetts Institute of Technology where he was awarded two bachelor's degrees for mathematics and physics in 1966, and a Ph.D. in particle physics in 1970.
Smoots cousin, Oliver R. Smoot, also studied at MIT (Massachusetts Institute of Technology), and was made famous for the Smoot measurement of the Harvard Bridge between Cambridge and Boston. The "Smoot" length was marked in paint over 360 times on the bridge and is repainted there every year. Oliver later worked as the Chairman of the American National Standards Institute.
Professor Smoot began to study cosmology, and went to Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory where he worked with Luis Walter Alvarez on the experiment HAPPE, a high up weather balloon for detecting antimatter in the upper atmosphere.
He then took up an interest in the microwaves in cosmic radiation which had been discovered by Arno Allan Penzias and Robert Woodrow Wilson in 1964. This work gave new evidence of what the universe is made of. Some researchers thought that the universe was rotating, which would mean that temperature of microwaves would seem different when measured from different angles. With the help of Alvarez and Richard A. Muller, Professor Smoot developed a radiometer to measure the difference in temperature from two angles 60 degrees apart. The radiometer was put on top of a Lockheed U-2 plane, but the measurements seemed to show that the universe was not rotating. It did, however, detect another difference in the microwave temperature on one side of the sky. They called this a dipole pattern and a Doppler effect of the Earth's motion. A doppler effect happens because the Sun, and the Milky Way are moving at nearly 600 km/s. They think this is caused by gravity from the Great Attractor.
The measurements from the radiometer showed that one side of the sky was different to the other but this was surprising because it was expected that many differences would be found all over the sky. Smoot was working on finding these smaller differences in the late 1970s when he gave NASA an idea to make a satellite with a detector that was similar to the one mounted on the Lockheed aeroplane. This detector would be much more powerful and it would not be affected by the atmosphere. NASA spent US$160  million on the satellite and named it the COBE. The COBE satellite was delayed after the Space Shuttle Challenger was destroyed, but was launched successfully on November 18, 1989. After more than two years, on 21 April 1992, the COBE research team claimed that the satellite had detected the small differences they were looking for. This was very important in the study of the early universe. The study was "evidence for the birth of the universe". Professor Smoot said: "If you're religious, it's like looking at God."
More than 1,000 researchers, engineers and other workers helped to make the COBE. John Mather was in control of the whole project and the experiments that made the COBE possible. George Smoot was in control of measuring the small differences in the temperature of the radiation.
Smoot worked with the "San Francisco Chronicle"s journalist, Keay Davidson, to write a book called "Wrinkles in Time", all about the team's work. In the book "The Very First Light", John Mather and John Boslough write more of the COBE story. Mathers book says that Professor Smoot was giving news of COBE to the press before NASA did. This made problems between Smoot and Mather in the past.
After COBE, Smoot helped with another experiment with a stratospheric balloon called the MAXIMA experiment. This ballon took some better measurements than the COBE. Smoot has continued studying cosmic radiatin and now works on the third generation COBE satellite Planck. He is also working on the design of a Supernova/Acceleration Probe (SNAP), a satellite which is to measure dark energy. He has also assisted in analyzing data from the Spitzer Space Telescope in connection with measuring far infrared background radiation.
Soundgarden was an American rock band. They began in Seattle, Washington, in 1984.
Soundgarden helped create the sound of grunge music. This is a genre of alternative rock that first became popular in Seattle. They were first signed to a local record label Sub Pop. Later, they were the first grunge band to sign to a major label, A&M Records, in 1988.
Soundgarden became well-known with the 1994 album "Superunknown". It debuted at number one on the "Billboard" charts. Two singles won Grammy Awards; "Black Hole Sun" and "Spoonman". VH1 has ranked Soundgarden at number 14 in their special "100 Greatest Artists of Hard Rock".
In 1997, the band broke up because they could no longer agree on the sound of their musical future. The members worked on other projects for more than ten years. Soundgarden got back together in 2010. Two years later, they released their sixth studio album, "King Animal".
On May 17, 2017, frontman Chris Cornell was found dead in his Detroit hotel room, the night after a concert at the city's Fox Theatre. Police are treating it as suspected suicide. Soundgarden will almost certainly not continue.
Soundgarden began in 1984. They first had three members: singer and drummer Chris Cornell, lead guitarist Kim Thayil, and bassist Hiro Yamamoto. The band named themselves after a wind-channeling pipe sculpture, "A Sound Garden". The art work is in Magnuson Park, in Seattle.
At first, Cornell played drums while singing, but in 1985 the band hired Scott Sundquist so that Cornell could just sing. The band's first recordings were three songs on a compilation album for C/Z Records named "Deep Six". Also appearing on the album were early grunge artists Green River, Skin Yard, Malfunkshun, The U-Men and the Melvins. In 1986, Sundquist left the band. He was replaced by Matt Cameron, who had been the drummer for Skin Yard.
A Seattle radio staion DJ, Jonathan Poneman, liked Soundgarden after seeing them perform. He later said, "I saw this band that was everything rock music should be". Poneman offered to pay for a record to be made by the band. Teaming up with Bruce Pavitt, Poneman also contributed $20,000 to the financially struggling Sub Pop. This helped turn Sup Pop into a popular, successful record label that attracted more success with grunge bands. Sub Pop then released Soundgarden's "Screaming Life" EP in 1987, and the "Fopp" EP in 1988. A combination of the two was issued as "Screaming Life/Fopp" in 1990.
Though major labels were asking Soundgarden to sign with them, in 1988 the band chose a small independent label, SST Records. SST released their debut album, "Ultramega OK". The album was nominated for a Grammy for Best Metal Performance in 1990.
The band's first music video, "Flower", became popular; airing regularly on MTV's "120 Minutes". In 1989, Soundgarden promoted "Ultramega OK" with a tour of the United States and then went to Europe. This was their first overseas tour.
In 1989, Soundgarden released their first album for a major label, A&M Records. "Louder Than Love" became the band's first to chart on the "Billboard" 200. It reached number 108 on the chart in 1990. The band supported the album with tours of North America and Europe.
A month before touring for "Louder Than Love" began, bassist Hiro Yamamoto left to go back to college. Yamamoto was unhappy because he felt he was not important enough to the band. Former Nirvana bassist Jason Everman took his place for the tour. Everman was fired immediately after Soundgarden got back from Europe in mid-1990. An EP "Loudest Love" and the video compilation "Louder Than Live", were both released in 1990. The video shows five live tracks made during the "Louder Than Love" tour.
Bassist Ben Shepherd joined Soundgarden in 1990. Their next album, "Badmotorfinger" was released in 1991. It had some success, reaching number 39 on the album charts. But it got less attention because of the surprise success of Nirvana's "Nevermind", released the same month as Badmotorfinger. Two singles got popular airplay on alternative radio stations and MTV.
The first single from "Badmotorfinger", "Jesus Christ Pose", got negative attention when MTV banned its music video in 1991. Many listeners were outraged by the song and its video, calling it anti-Christian. The band received death threats while on tour in the United Kingdom in support of the album. "Badmotorfinger" was nominated for a Grammy Award for Best Metal Performance in 1992.
After a tour of North America in 1991, the band opened for Guns N' Roses in North America on the band's "Use Your Illusion Tour". After several tours to promote the album, they rejoined Guns N' Roses in the summer of 1992 in Europe as part of the Use Your Illusion Tour with another opening act, Faith No More. The band took part in the 1992 Lollapalooza tour with the Red Hot Chili Peppers, Pearl Jam, and Ministry.
The band later released a video compilation "Motorvision". It was made in 1992 at the Paramount Theatre. Also that year, they appeared in the movie "Singles". They were show performing "Birth Ritual". The song appeared on the soundtrack, as did a Chris Cornell solo song, "Seasons".
Soundgarden released "Superunknown" in 1994. It became the band's best-selling album, partly because of the popular singles "Black Hole Sun", "Spoonman", "My Wave", and "Fell on Black Days". Upon its release in March 1994, "Superunknown" debuted at number one on the "Billboard" 200 album chart.
The lyrics of the songs were dark and sad; much of them seem to be talking about substance abuse, suicide, and depression. Reviewer J.D. Considine of "Rolling Stone" said "Superunknown" "demonstrates far greater range than many bands manage in an entire career." He also stated, "At its best, "Superunknown" offers a more harrowing depiction of alienation and despair than anything on "In Utero"."
The music video for "Black Hole Sun" received the MTV Video Music Award for "Best Rock Video|Best Metal/Hard Rock Video" award in 1994. Soundgarden won two Grammy Awards in 1995; "Black Hole Sun" received the award for Best Hard Rock Performance and "Spoonman" received the award for Best Metal Performance.
After a worldwide tour to promote "Superunknown", the band members began working on what would become their last studio album for more than 15 years. It was released in 1996. Four singles were released from the album: "Pretty Noose", "Blow Up the Outside World", "Burden in My Hand", and "Ty Cobb".
The music was less heavy metal and grunge sounding than the group's previous albums. The band members said that they wanted to experiment with other sounds. In a review, David Browne of "Entertainment Weekly" said, "Few bands since Led Zeppelin have so crisply mixed instruments both acoustic and electric." However, the writing and recording of the album was stressful for the group. Thayil and Cornell seemed to not agree on a change from the heavy guitar riffs that had become the band's trademark. The album got favorable reviews, but did not sell as well as "Superunknown".
The band played on the 1996 Lollapalooza tour with Metallica, who had asked for them to appear. After Lollapalooza, the band left for a world tour. Tensions continued to increase during the tour. When asked if the band hated touring, Cornell said, "We really enjoy it to a point and then it gets tedious, because it becomes repetitious. You feel like fans have paid their money and they expect you to come out and play them your songs like the first time you ever played them. That's the point where we hate touring." At the tour's final stop in Honolulu, Hawaii on February 9, 1997, Shepherd threw his bass guitar into the air in frustration after his equipment failed. He then stormed off the stage. The band then also left the stage, but Cornell returned to play a solo as an encore.
On April 9, 1997, the band announced they were breaking up. Thayil said, "It was pretty obvious from everybody's general attitude over the course of the previous half year that there was some dissatisfaction." A best-of album named "A-Sides", was released in November 1997 through A&M Records.
After almost 13 years, on January 1, 2010, Chris Cornell wrote on his Twitter, "The 12-year break is over and school is back in session. Sign up now. Knights of the Soundtable ride again!" The message linked to a website for fans to enter their e-mail addresses to get updates on the reunion.
Book of Judges
The Book of Judges is the seventh book in both the Christian Bible (Old Testament), and the Hebrew Tanakh. It was originally written in Hebrew, to the people in Israel. The Hebrew word for the book is "Shaptiym", which means, 'people of judgment.'
The book contains the stories of many "judges" who were leaders who typically led the people in battle and then served as a civil leader. While not kings, these men were respected and they sometimes decided cases. That is why they were called Judges. One of the Judges was Samson who was a very strong man. He fought against the Philistines. After his girl friend, Delilah, tricked him by cutting his hair, he was made a slave. At his death, he destroyed many enemies by pulling down a building on them. Gideon was another famous judge. He defeated an army of Midianites with only 300 men. Another famous judge was Deborah, possible the most powerful woman in the Bible. She was a military, civil and religious leader.
In the book, there is a pattern which repeats. The people turn from God, and he allows their enemies to harm them. Then they pray to God. He sends them a new judge. This judge helps the people and defeats their enemies. The people are happy for a time, but soon they again turn from God. The cycle repeats itself.
Black people is a term that is used for a racial group of people with a dark skin color. The meaning of the word is mainly used for people of Sub-Saharan African descent, but also includes certain groups in Oceania and Southeast Asia.
Black people in the United States are called "African Americans". Before 1860, many Africans were brought to the United States in the European slave trade by white people. Later, other Africans came out of their free will. Discrimination against African Americans is a big problem. Black Lives Matter is a movement fighting against racism.
In 2010, the cities with the largest numbers of African Americans were Detroit (670,000 black inhabitants) and Memphis (607,000 black inhabitants).
In 2008, Barack Obama became the first African American president of the United States. In 2021, Kamala Harris became the first African American to be the Vice President of the United States.
Some blacks in the United States are Hispanic, Caribbean or African because of immigration. Most recent African immigrants are refugees from East Africa such as Eritrea, Ethiopia, Somalia etc. or high-skilled immigrants from Nigeria, Kenya, Ghana, and South Africa.
Most non-Hispanic blacks in the United States live in the South. States with a large black population are Texas, Georgia, Florida, New York, North Carolina, California, Maryland, Illinois, Virginia and Louisiana.
White men who were Spanish colonizers shipped African slaves to Latin American countries such as Colombia, Brazil, Mexico, Honduras, El Salvador, Venezuela, Cuba, Guatemala, Panama, Costa Rica, Puerto Rico and the Dominican Republic because of the decline of Native Americans from smallpox and disease. Native Americans were initially slaves but white Europeans turned to Africans because of the mass decline of the Native American population. Many Mestizos and Hispanics have African DNA from the slave trade because of the race mixing with white people, African slaves and Native Americans. Many African ex-slaves in Latin America are mixed race and have Native American and Spanish ancestry. Racial whitening was a policy in Brazil to turn African slaves white in the future and to improve the uncivilized, undesirable African race. "Mestizaje" in Latin America by the Spanish was similar to the racial whitening that happened in Brazil.
Black slaves were shipped to various Caribbean countries such as Jamaica, Haiti, The Bahamas, Barbados and Trinidad and Tobago. Europeans, mostly the British, the Dutch and the French brought Africans to the Caribbean to work on crops like coffee, sugar, cocoa, cotton and indigo.
There were 1.2 million black people living in Canada in 2016.
There were about 1 million black people living in Germany in 2020. Black people were discriminated by Nazis in Nazi Germany along with Romani people and Jews.
In India and Pakistan there are Siddi people. Their ancestors came from East Africa.
During apartheid people in South Africa were classified into four main races: Black, White, Asian (mostly Indian) and Coloured. Under apartheid black people were treated the most badly. Coloured people were treated slightly less badly. In South Africa, Chinese people who lived there during apartheid are classed as black. About 80% of people in South Africa are Black African. The income of the average white South African household is six times as much as that of the average Black South African household.
Black people in the United Kingdom are defined by terms used by the Office for National Statistics. They make up 3.3% of the people in the UK. Of course, these terms may or may not be used in everyday life.
The Book of "Ruth" (meaning "pity or compassion") is the eighth book of the Old Testament (Christian), and the Tanakh (Jewish). It is one of the shortest books in both the Jewish and Christian holy books, consisting of only four chapters. It is unknown who wrote the book. Some think that it was written by Samuel, but there is no evidence for that.
According to many scholars, this book was originally part of the Book of Judges, and was later taken from that book and made independent. It was probably written around 900 BC.
The book tells the story of the family of Elimelech, his wife Naomi, and their sons Mahlon and Chilion. Because of a famine, they were forced to leave Bethlehem and go to the land of Moab. Once there, Elimelech died, and his sons married two Moabite women. Mahlon married Ruth, and Chilion married Orpah. After some time there, Mahlon and Chilion both died.
Naomi was forced to return home because her husband and sons were dead. She then told Ruth and Orpah to return home to their families and find new husbands. Orpah returned home but Ruth promised she would follow Naomi wherever she went. Ruth's pledge to Naomi is found in chapter 1 verses 16 and 17. " But Ruth said, "Do not press me to leave you or to turn back from following you! Where you go, I will go; where you lodge, I will lodge; your people shall be my people, and your God my God. Where you die, I will die— there will I be buried. May the Lord do thus and so to me, and more as well, if even death parts me from you!"" Although originally made by a daughter-in-law to her mother-in-law, a form of this pledge is sometimes included in wedding services.
They returned to their home and Ruth decided she would go into the fields to pick up grain the wealthy people would drop on the ground (a common practice in that time). A kind man named Boaz, who was the owner of the field, noticed her and her beauty. He also learned that she had chosen to follow the God of Israel and that she was caring for her widowed mother-in-law. He told his workers to drop extra grain for her. When she went home to tell her mother-in-law how much she received, they found out that Boaz was a close relative of theirs. Under Jewish law, this gave Ruth the right to marry Boaz, if Boaz bought the land formerly owned by Ruth's husband.
After an even closer relative said he would not buy the land and marry her, Boaz and Ruth were happily married. She would bear him a son named Obed, who was the father of Jesse, who was the father of David, who was, according to the New Testament, the ancestor of Jesus.
Mesolithic
The Mesolithic was a period in the development of human technology between the Paleolithic and Neolithic periods of the Stone Age.
In the Palaeolithic, people were pure hunter-gatherers. In the Neolithic they were farmers in settlements with domesticated animals and wheat, with over 100 kinds of tools and with pottery. The Mesolithic was a transitional period between the two. It happened at different times in different places. Mesolithic tools are small tools produced by chipping, and are hunter-gatherer tools, often arrowheads and points. Neolithic tools are often polished and far more varied. They are tools of more settled societies with some agriculture.
The term 'Mesolithic' was introduced by Hodder Westrop in 1877, though the idea had been used earlier. It was not much used until V. Gordon Childe popularized it in his book "The dawn of Europe" (1947). There is another term, 'Epipalaeolithic', which is sometimes used instead.
The type of tool is the diagnostic factor. The Mesolithic featured devices made with small chipped stone tools. The Neolithic mainly abandoned this mode in favor of polished, not chipped, stone tools.
The Mesolithic culture can be set apart from that of the Palaeolithic in these ways:
The Fertile Crescent was the first part of the world to move out of the Palaeolithic.
In some areas, such as the Near East, agriculture was already underway by the end of the Pleistocene, and there the Mesolithic is short. In areas with limited influence of ice age, the term "Epipaleolithic" is sometimes preferred.
Regions that experienced greater environmental effects as the last ice age ended have a much more evident Mesolithic era. This lasted millennia. In Northern Europe, societies were able to live well on rich food supplies from the marshlands. Such conditions produced distinctive human behaviours which are preserved in characteristic finds. These conditions also delayed the coming of the Neolithic until as late as 4000 BC (6,000 before present) in northern Europe.
Genetic research has been done on the skeleton of a 7,000-year-old man from north-west Spain. It shows he had blue eyes and a dark skin. The analysis showed that he had ancestral alleles in several skin pigmentation genes. This means he had dark hair and brown skin.
Researchers were surprised because they thought that European populations evolved light skin quite quickly. In lower latitudes dark skin protects from UV rays in sunlight. In northern latitudes this is not such a problem, but the supply of vitamin D is a problem. Vitamin D is synthesised by the action of sunlight on skin. Therefore, it is an advantage in much of Europe to have a light skin.
Earlier research was done on data using 2,196 samples from 185 diverse populations. It showed that at least three ancestral groups contributed to present-day Europeans.
Epipalaeolithic
The Epipaleolithic or "peripheral old stone age" is a term used for the hunter-gatherer cultures that existed after the end of the last ice age, before the Neolithic.
The term is sometimes confused with Mesolithic, and the two are sometimes used as synonyms. Yet, when a distinction is made, Epipaleolithic is used for those cultures that were not much affected by the ending of the Ice Age and the term Mesolithic is reserved for Western Europe where the extinction of the Megafauna had a great influence on the paleolithic populations at the end of the Ice Age.
Thinker
Thinker could mean:
Agricultural revolution could mean:
There are also several more local events related to agriculture and called revolutions:
Neolithic revolution
The Neolithic revolution was the first agricultural revolution. It was a gradual change from nomadic hunting and gathering communities to agriculture and settlement. It changed the way of life of the communities which made the change. It occurred in different prehistoric human societies at different times. Many societies changed 9–7 thousand years ago
The term refers to the general time period over which these developments took place. It also applies to the changes which took place: the adoption of early agriculture techniques, crop cultivation, and the domestication of animals.
The Neolithic revolution is important for developments in social organization and technology.
The Neolithic revolution led to living in permanent or semi-permanent settlements. Because of this fewer people led a nomadic lifestyle. To be able to know who the crops grown belonged to, the concept of land ownership was developed. The natural environment was changed, population densities grew, and people ate more vegetable and cereal foods in their diet. Hierarchies developed in society. Grain was stored, and could be traded. Surplus production from good crop yields helped societies survive bad years.
With domesticated animals such as dogs, goats, sheep, and cattle, and crops, human society changed. Now, having crops and livestock, they no longer needed to move around. They could build better settlements. Their diet also changed. It included more oats and vegetables. People also started to keep and manage food: it was not advisable to eat all grain seeds, because then there would be no seeds left to plant the next year. Also, there were surplus in some years and that could be traded for other goods with other peoples.
These changes happened independently in several parts of the world. They did not happen in the same order. The earliest farming societies in the Near East did not use pottery. It is still unclear to what extent plants were domesticated in Britain, or if permanently settled communities existed at all. Early Japanese societies used pottery "before" developing agriculture.
In the Paleolithic there were more than one human species, but only the modern human reached the Mesolithic and Neolithic.
There are different theories why this transition could have happened:
According to Harland, there are three main reasons why the Neolithic revolution happened:
British Army
The British Army is the army of the British Armed Forces, the military of the United Kingdom. The British Army came into being with unification of the kingdoms of England and Scotland into the United Kingdom of Great Britain in 1707. The new British Army included Regiments that had already existed in England and Scotland. It was administered by the War Office from London. Since 1963 it has been managed by the Ministry of Defence.
Under Oliver Cromwell, the English Army was active in the conquest and settlement of Ireland since the 1650s. The Cromwellian campaign was characterised by its uncompromising treatment of Irish towns that had supported the Royalists during the English Civil War.
From roughly 1763 and the Seven Years' War the United Kingdom has been one of the leading military and economic powers of the world. The British Empire expanded in this time to include colonies, protectorates, and Dominions throughout the Americas, Africa, Asia and Australasia. Although the Royal Navy is widely regarded as having been vital for the rise of Empire, and British dominance of the world, the British Army played important roles in colonisation.
The British army was heavily involved in the Napoleonic Wars in which the army served in Spain, across Europe, and in North Africa. The war between the British and French Empires stretched around the world. The British Army finally came to defeat Napoleon at one of Britain's greatest military victories at the battle of Waterloo.
Mario Kart
Mario Kart (stylized as MARIOKART) is a series of racing video games and media franchise, made by Nintendo. It began with "Super Mario Kart" for the Super Nintendo Entertainment System in 1992. To date, there are four "Mario Kart" games on home consoles, three portable games, and three Namco co-developed arcade games, making a total of twelve. The latest game for the series is "Mario Kart 8".
In the "Mario Kart" series, players compete in go-kart races, controlling one of a selection of characters from the "Mario" franchise. Up to eight participants can compete in each race, with the exception of "Mario Kart Wii", which holds twelve. One of the features of the series is the use of various power-up items obtained by driving into item boxes laid out on the course. These power-ups include mushrooms to give players a speed boost, Koopa Shells to be thrown at opponents, and banana peels that can be laid on the track as hazards. The type of weapon received from an item box is random and often influenced by the player's position in the race. For example, players lagging far behind may receive more powerful items while the leader will only receive small defensive items. This gameplay mechanic–called "rubber banding"– allows other players or computers a realistic chance to catch up to the leading player no matter how far ahead they are. As the series has progresses, each new title has introduced new elements in order to keep the gameplay fresh. Changes typically include new items, new stages, and new methods of obtaining speed boosts, but most games have also featured a new play mechanic as well. Changes new titles have brought to the series include: "Mario Kart 64" introducing 4-player racing and bringing the series into the third dimension, "'s" introducing a partner system and the Double Dash!!, "Mario Kart Wii's" use of motorbikes and twelve participants per race, and the newest entry into the franchise, "Mario Kart 7", featuring hang gliders, submarines and a new first-person perspective as well as customizing karts.
Many course themes are repeated throughout the series. For example, most games have featured a circuit course, a desert course, a city or highway course with traffic, some form of a beach course, a stadium course, a jungle course, an ice or snow course, Bowser's Castle and Rainbow Road. Each game in the series includes 16 original courses, with the exception of "Super Mario Kart" and "Super Circuit", which holds 20. Most races have three laps, while some games have more or less. There are also three to six original battle arenas in each game, designed exclusively for Battle mode. So far, there are 120 original courses and 30 original arenas spread throughout these seven games. Additionally, there are 48 Retro courses and 10 Retro arenas. These consist of older material recreated for newer games.
Each "Mario Kart" game features a variety of different modes. The following modes recur most often in the series:
Several "Mario Kart"-related items appear in the "Super Smash Bros." series, with "Super Smash Bros. Brawl" in particular featuring a stage based on one of "Mario Kart DS"<nowiki>'s</nowiki> courses. Certain courses from the series have also appeared in "F-Zero X", "Itadaki Street DS", "Mario & Sonic at the Olympic Winter Games", "Fortune Street" and "Mario & Sonic at the London 2012 Olympic Games". Various items from the series can also be seen in games such as "Nintendogs" and "Animal Crossing".
"Mario Kart" has had a range of merchandise released. This includes a Scalextric style "Mario Kart DS" Figure-8-Circuit. It comes with Mario and Donkey Kong figures, while a Wario and a Luigi are available separately. It also includes CD soundtracks. A line of remote-controlled karts are available in stores. Each kart has a Game Boy Advance-shaped controller. It features forward driving and rotates when put in reverse, instead of steering. The current line-up of karts is Mario, Donkey Kong and Yoshi. There are three large karts that depict the same trio. These karts are controlled by a GameCube controller shape. Japanese figurines of Mario, Luigi, Peach, Toad, Yoshi, Wario, Donkey Kong, and Bowser are also available for purchase as well as for "Mario Kart 64", figures of Mario, Luigi, Wario, Bowser, Donkey Kong, and Yoshi were made by Toybiz. There is also a land-line telephone featuring Mario holding a lightning bolt while seated in his Kart, as seen here.
K'Nex has released "Mario Kart Wii" sets, with Mario, Luigi, Yoshi, and Bowser in karts and bikes. Club Nintendo also released merchandise with a platinum soundtrack from "Mario Kart Wii" and three gold trophies from "Mario Kart 7".
"Nintendo Power" listed the "Mario Kart" series as being one of the greatest multi-player experiences, citing the diversity in game modes as well as the entertainment value found.
Guinness World Records awarded the "Mario Kart" series with five world records in the "Guinness World Records: Gamer's Edition 2008", including "First Console Kart Racing Game" and "Best Selling Handheld Racing Game." Guinness World Records ranked the original "Super Mario Kart" number 1 on the list of top 50 console games of all time based on initial impact and lasting legacy.
City Loop, Melbourne
Percy Bysshe Shelley
Percy Bysshe Shelley (4 August 1792 – 8 July 1822) was an English poet of the early nineteenth century. He is widely thought of as one of most important poets of the Romantic movement in English literature. Some of his poems, like "Ozymandias" and "Ode to the West Wind", are among the most famous in English.
Shelley was born in Horsham, Sussex. He was the son of a member of Parliament. He attended the University of Oxford, for only one year; he was expelled for being an atheist. In his own time Shelley was very unpopular for his political and religious views and for his personal conduct. He married young, but left his wife to run away with Mary Godwin. After Shelley's first wife committed suicide, Shelley married Mary Godwin; she later became famous as Mary Shelley, the author of the novel "Frankenstein".
Shelley left England and spent much of his life travelling in Europe, especially in Italy. He became a close friend of poet Lord Byron, who also left England and travelled in Europe because of sexual controversy at home. Shelley continued to write poetry throughout this time; he wrote several major works, like the verse drama "The Cenci" and long poems like "Alastor" and "Adonais", as well as many shorter poems.
About a month before his 30th birthday, Shelley drowned in a boating accident off the coast of Italy. He was one of three important English Romantic poets of the same generation who died young; the other two were Lord Byron and John Keats.
Romani language
Romani or Romany (native name: "") is the language of the Roma. The Indo-Aryan Romani language should not be confused with either Romanian (spoken by Romanians), or Romansh (spoken in parts of southeastern Switzerland), both of which are Romance languages.
The language developed outside from India, in Roman province Egypt, by Indian traders from different areas of India, who settled at the red sea coast in Egypt. It is based by Sanskrit and Prakrit, but strongly influenced by Ancient Greek, and Persian language, Old Church Slavonic, some words from the Coptic language, like rōmi "man".Loanwords from other languages in Romani make it possible to trace the pattern of their migration westwards.
The following table shows the distribution of Romani speakers in Europe according to Bakker et al. (2000) . The last column shows the percentage of Romani speakers in the Roma population in each country.
Fudge is a kind of candy which is made by mixing sugar, butter, and milk. It is heated up to 240 degrees Fahrenheit (116 degrees Celsius) and beaten until it becomes smooth.
Many things can be added to fudge, like fruits, nuts, chocolate, and caramel.
It can be bought in many gift shops in places where there are a lot of tourists.
Sinti
Sinti or Sinta (Singular masc.=Sinto; sing. fem.=Sintisa) is the name of some communities of the nomadic people usually called "Gypsies" in English. This includes communities known in German and Dutch as "Zigeuner" and in Italian as "Zingari". They are closely related to, and are usually considered to be a subgroup of, the Roma people.
While the Sinti were, until quite recently, chiefly nomadic, today only a small percentage of the group remains unsettled. In earlier times, they frequently lived on the outskirts of communities.
The Sinti arrived in Germany and Austria in the Middle Ages, eventually splitting into two groups: "Eftavagarja" ("the Seven Caravans") and "Estraxarja" ("from Austria"). These two groups then expanded, the Eftavagarja into France, where they assimilated into the local Romani groups (Manouches), and the Estraxarja into Italy and Eastern Europe, mainly what are now Croatia, Hungary, Transylvania, the Czech Republic and Slovakia, eventually taking various regional names.
Strapping Young Lad
Strapping Young Lad was a metal band from Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada. They played extreme metal. These people played in the band: Devin Townsend (guitar, vocals), Jed Simon (guitar, vocals), Byron Stoud (bass, vocals), Gene Hoglan (drums). The band went on an extended hiatus and would eventually disband in 2007.
Rock climbing is a sport where someone uses their hands and feet to climb up a rock or an artificial climbing wall. Rock climbing is a very difficult sport because you need to have a lot of strength. Rock climbers must know how to use ropes, carabiners and harnesses for their own safety.
Because of many different kinds of rocks around the world, many different kinds of climbing started.
Doug Henning
Douglas James Henning (May 3, 1947 – February 7, 2000) was a Canadian magician, illusionist and escape artist. He was born in Winnipeg. He helped to re-{popularize magic shows, during his heyday (most popular and successful period) in the 1970s.
Henning's approach to magic and performing was different from earlier magicians. While magicians usually performed in black formal wear, Henning wore colorful clothes. He also studied psychology in college, to know how the human mind works.
Henning is credited by many for the resurgence of the public's interest in magic, thanks to his breakthroug Broadway show, "The Magic Show," which opened in 1974 and ran for almost five years. This was followed by eight television specials on NBC (the first of which remains the most watched magic television special in history, with over fifty million viewers). In 1982, he appeared in another Broadway show, "Merlin", which ran for seven months. Though the magic in Merlin was met with accolades, critics trounced the show's book and music.
Henning was a spokesperson for Polaroid, TWA, Minolta and Chrysler.
He was a student of the Maharishi Mahesh Yogi, and used transcendental meditation to help him focus and to relax. He tried to help the Maharishi open a theme park, called Vedaland. Henning also ran for public office in Canada, but lost the election.
Henning died in 2000 of liver cancer in Los Angeles. Instead of normal medical treatments, he tried to cure himself through natural remedies and diet, but this did not work. After his death, Henning's widow kept the Vedaland campaign going.
The first and only written biography of Doug Henning, "Spellbound: The Wonder-filled Life of Doug Henning" was published in 2009 (John Harrison, BoxOffice Books, New York.)
Rancid (band)
Rancid are an influential ska-punk band formed in 1991 in Albany, California by Tim Armstrong and Matt Freeman.