AcharyaChanakya/simple-wikipedia huggingface dataset:
The climate of the islands is temperate and oceanic, with a mean air temperature at sea level at Tristan of 15 °C (59 °F), with relatively small daily and seasonal variation. On Gough it is a few degrees colder. Rainfall is high: 1700 mm annually at the Tristan Settlement, and 3300 mm at Gough. Strong winds are common. Mean wind speed is about 40 km/h. Wind speed increases strongly with altitude, while temperature decreases. Thus, while the lowlands experience quite pleasant weather, the uplands may be covered in snow or battered by very strong winds.
The Köppen climate classification subtype for the climate in Edinburgh of the Seven Seas is Cfb (Marine West Coast Climate).
The average temperature for the year in Edinburgh of the Seven Seas, with an elevation of 23 m, is 13.9 °C (57.0 °F). The warmest month, on average, is February with an average temperature of 17.8 °C (64.0 °F). The coolest month on average is August, with an average temperature of 10.6 °C (51.0 °F).
The average amount of precipitation for the year in Edinburgh of the Seven Seas is 1612.9 mm. The month with the most precipitation on average is August with 160 mm of precipitation. The month with the least precipitation on average is February with an average of 91.4 mm.
The islands have a population of about 275. The only settlement is Edinburgh of the Seven Seas (known locally as "The Settlement of Edinburgh" or, more common, just "The Settlement"). The only religion is Christianity, with denominations of Anglican and Roman Catholic. The current population is thought to have descended from 15 ancestors, eight males and seven females, who arrived on the island at various times between 1816 and 1908. The male founders originated from Scotland, England, The Netherlands, the United States and Italy and share just eight surnames: Glass (Scottish), Green (Dutch), Hagan (Irish), Lavarello (Italian, a typical Ligurian surname), Patterson (Scottish), Repetto (Italian, another typical Ligurian surname), Rogers (English) and Swain (English).
Frozen dinner
A frozen dinner is a kind of ready-to-prepare meal, or convenience food. Frozen dinners are prepared in bulk, cooked until ready to serve, divided into single servings for freezing, to be reheated later. An entrée of meat or other protein is included, along with vegetables, a carbohydrate food (such as potatoes or rice), and a sweet dessert.
Frozen dinners are helpful for people who do not have time to cook, or who lack meal-planning or cooking skills. They are also known as "TV dinners", because they were long advertised as suitable to warm up and eat while watching television. Both inventions became popular at around the same time (during the 1950s), and each one sold more of the other.
For many years, frozen dinners came packaged with a shaped aluminium foil cooking tray. This made them easy to reheat in a normal gas or electric stove's oven. The trays were sometimes reused or recycled by users. When microwave ovens became common, frozen dinners could not be cooked in them because the metal tray would damage the oven. Early packaged foods for the microwave often could not be cooked in a regular oven, because the heat would make the package catch fire or fall apart. New packaging had to be developed, so the same frozen dinner could be heated in both kinds of ovens. This succeeded during the 1980s. Some new trays can be reused, while others are made of paper and meant to be thrown away.
The quality of food in frozen dinners has also improved steadily through the years. Early potato dishes would sometimes have a chalk-like quality to them, and vegetables poor texture. Newer dinners taste much more like they are freshly cooked. Vegetarian meals have also been introduced. Linda McCartney started a popular line of frozen vegetarian dishes during the 1990s.
Věž
Věž is a village near Humpolec in the Havlíčkův Brod District, Vysočina Region of the Czech Republic. 796 people live in Věž. It covers 14.43 km².
Southern Lapwing
Reinforced concrete is concrete with long bars inside to make it stronger. The reinforcing material has greater tensile strength than concrete has. Usually the bars are steel. Galvanizing saves the steel from rusting and corrosion. In rich countries, almost all concrete in buildings and roads is reinforced. Reinforced concrete is stronger, and can be even stronger if the steel is stretched to make prestressed concrete.
A courthouse is a building that holds a court. Some courthouses also have offices for the prosecutor and prosecutor's assistants. In small cities, some courthouses have other offices for local government officials.
State (disambiguation)
A prosecutor is a lawyer who argues in a court that the defendant should be found guilty of a crime. The prosecutor represents a client, which is sometimes the state (government). It is the prosecutor's job to do what he can to have criminals punished for their crimes.
Ibiza (in Catalan Eivissa) is an island which is part of the Balearic Islands in the Mediterranean Sea which all belong to Spain. It is famed for its nightclubs and nightlife.
Octave Mirbeau (1848–1917) was a French writer. His most famous novels are "Le Jardin des supplices" (in English: "The Torture Garden") (1899) and "Le Journal d'une femme de chambre" (in English: "Diary of a Chambermaid") (1900). His best known comedy is "Les affaires sont les affaires" (in English: "Business is business") (1903).
Christmas Island (disambiguation)
Christmas Island could mean:
Tumulus
A Tumulus (one tumulus, several "Tumuli") is a certain type of grave. The word comes from Latin. This way of burying people was common in the Stone age, Bronze Age, and Iron Age. There are different layouts. Sometimes sarcophaguses were used, at other times, urns were placed in the grave. There are layouts with one or with multiple chambers. Sometimes the location is privileged, and stone circles can be found nearby.
Zapotec
Zapotec could mean:
Zapotec civilisation
The Zapotec civilization was an indigenous pre-Columbian civilization. It was mainly in the Valley of Oaxaca of southern Mesoamerica. Archaeologists think their culture goes back at least 2500 years. The Zapotec left traces at the ancient city of Monte Albán. There are buildings, ball courts, magnificent tombs and grave goods. In the graves, finely worked gold jewellery was found. Monte Albán was the first major city in the western hemisphere. It was the center of a Zapotec state that dominated much of what is now the state of Oaxaca.
The name "Zapotec" comes from Nahuatl "tzapotēcah" (singular "tzapotēcatl"). This word means "inhabitants of the place of sapote". The Zapotec referred to themselves as "Be'ena'a", which means "The People."
The Zapotec developed a calendar and a special system of writing. This system has a separate glyph for each of the syllables of the language. It is one of several candidates thought to have been the first writings system of Mesoamerica. It is the predecessor of the writing systems developed by the Maya, Mixtec, and Aztec civilizations. Currently there is some debate if Olmec symbols, dated to 650 BC, are actually a form of writing which is older than the earliest Zapotec writing dated to about 500 BC.
In the Aztec capital of Tenochtitlan, there were Zapotec and Mixtec artisans who made jewellery for the Aztec rulers ("tlatoanis"), including Moctezuma II. Relations with central Mexico go back much further. This can be proven by archaeological remains of a Zapotec neighborhood within Teotihuacan and a Teotihuacan style "guest house" in Monte Albán. Other important pre-Columbian Zapotec sites include Lambityeco, Dainzu, Mitla, Yagul, San José Mogote, El Palmillo and Zaachila.
The Zapotec were a sedentary culture. They were a well-advanced in civilization, living in large villages and towns, in houses constructed with stone and mortar. They recorded the principal events in their history by means of hieroglyphics, and in warfare they made use of a cotton armour. The well-known ruins of Mitla have been attributed to them and were claimed to be the tombs of their ancestors.
Like most Mesoamerican religious systems, the Zapotec religion was polytheistic. Two principal deities include Cocijo, the rain god (similar to the Aztec god Tlaloc), and Coquihani, the god of light. It is believed that the Zapotec sometimes used human sacrifice in their rituals.
The Zapotecs tell that their ancestors emerged from the earth, from caves, or that they turned from trees or jaguars into people, while the elite that governed them believed that they descended from supernatural beings that lived among the clouds, and that upon death they would return to such status. In fact, the name by which Zapotecs are known today resulted from this belief. In Central Valley Zapotec "The Cloud People' is "Be'ena' Za'a."
The last battle between the Aztecs and the Zapotecs occurred between 1497 and 1502, under the Aztec ruler Ahuizotl. At the time of Spanish conquest of Mexico, when news arrived that the Aztecs were defeated by the Spaniards, King Cosijoeza ordered his people not to confront the Spaniards so they would avoid the same fate. They were defeated by the Spaniards only after several campaigns between 1522 and 1527. However, uprisings against colonial authorities occurred in 1550, 1560, and 1715.
In 1850 there was another rebellion against the local government of Oaxaca, followed in 1866 by one against the Royal French Army, during the French invasion of Mexico. In recent times, there was an uprising against the local governor Manuel Zárate Aquino in the late 1970s.
Olmec
The Olmec were a people who lived about 3000 years ago in what is today south-central Mexico. The Olmec were the first civilization in the ancient area known as Mesoamerica. Because they were the first civilization, many later Mesoamerican civilizations used and repeated Olmec features and characteristics.
The Olmec people discovered and made use of many natural resources in the area, including rubber and corn. Dozens of mysterious stone heads were discovered in the Olmec territory as well; archaeologists are still not sure what their purposes were.
The Olmecs lived from 1200 BC to about 400 BC. They had two important cities, first San Lorenzo Tenochtitlan and then La Venta. The Olmecs were able to thrive due to the fertile land around the Coatzacoalcos river basin. The reason for the fall of the Olmec empire is unknown. They developed many different cultures.
The Olmecs created a range of artwork such as altars, jade masks and stone carvings.
The Olmec colossal heads are the most recognized symbol of the Olmec civilization. The height and weights of the heads vary, but the largest head is about twice the height of an average human male. They include seventeen heads found in the southern Mexican cities of La Venta, San Lorenzo Tenochtitlan, Tres Zapotes, and Rancho la Cobata. Each head shows a unique facial expression and wears a helmet bearing distinctive decorations. No two are alike. The origins and meaning of the heads are mysterious, and they are the subject of much speculation among scholars and archaeologists.
Scholars have tried to explain how the Olmecs might have made and moved such big objects. The heads were sculpted out of a hard, dense rock called basalt. Archaeologists think the Olmecs found most of the basalt in the Tuxtlas Mountain range. According to this theory, the basalt heads were sculpted roughly in the mountains and then either floated or dragged by thousands of people from the construction site to the Olmec cities.
Perhaps the most notable features of the sculptures – and a clue as to their meaning – are the helmets worn by all the Olmec heads. These helmets, and the rubber balls found near the sculptures, may be evidence that the Mesoamerican ball game originated with the Olmec civilization. The Mesoamerican ball game was a team sport with profound religious and cultural significance for the indigenous people of Mexico and Central America. The Olmec heads were once thought to have represented Mesoamerican ball players who were sacrificed after losing a match. The current theory, however, is that the heads honor Olmec rulers.
Mixe-Zoque languages
Step pyramid
Chichen Itza was a large Mayan city by the Maya civilization. It is on the Yucatán Peninsula, about 120 km to the east of Mérida.
Some of the most famous parts of Chichen Itza include:
the temple of Kukultán, the Plumed Serpent (pictured). This is called El Castillo: in Spanish. It has four sides, and each side has 91 steps.It is one of the seven wonders of the world.
There are many temples and pyramids in Chichen Itza. Tourists, or visitors, were once able to climb some of the pyramids, but it was quite challenging because the steps are very steep and small. Climbing is no longer permitted.
"Temple of the Warriors" is a big temple with hundreds of columns. The columns used to hold up the roof of the temple. These columns are carved on all four sides with figures of warriors wearing feathers.
"The Great Ballcourt" is the largest known ancient sports field in Central America. It is 545 feet in length and 225 feet in width. Each end has a raised temple area. The sounds in the ballcourt are remarkable: a whisper from one end can be clearly heard at the other.
"Sacred Cenote" (pronounced sen-O-tay): a cenote is an underground lake or river. This cenote is where royalty gave gifts to the gods.
Common sense means what people would agree about. It is a personal judgement based on the facts of a situation. Common sense is usually the simplest and most direct account of a situation. It is the knowledge and experience which most people have, or should have. The Cambridge Dictionary defines it as, "the basic level of practical knowledge and judgment that we all need to help us live in a reasonable and safe way".
"Common sense" has at least two philosophical meanings. One is a capability of the mind to perceive things like movement and size. The second is our natural sense for other humans and the community. Both of these refer to a type of basic awareness and ability to judge. Most people are expected to share these things naturally, even if they can not explain why.
It is quite possible for common sense to be wrong, and science often explains things in quite a different way from common sense. People lack any common-sense intuition of the universe at subatomic distances, or of speeds approaching that of light. Today it is well known that the Earth travels around the Sun but before the scientific revolution people thought that the Sun going around the Earth was common sense.
According to the Simple English Wiktionary “Common sense is something that everybody knows and understands.”
Magic User's Club
Magic User’s Club is an anime created by Junichi Sato. There were two manga released for it. One is for girls and the other is for boys.
A huge spaceship called "the Bell" comes to Earth. People try to stop the Bell, but they are not able to. A group of high school students called the "Magic User’s Club" fight the Bell using magic.
Deryck Whibley
Glam rock
Glam rock is a genre of rock music that was popular in the early 1970s. It was made famous by acts such as David Bowie, Elton John, T. Rex, Alice Cooper, Slade, Gary Glitter, Queen and Sweet. Glam fans (usually referred to as the "glitter people") and performers distinguished themselves from the denim-clad hippie-hordes with sci-fi/mythological/Hollywood glamour/ambisexual-inspired costumes, which were perceived as glamorous by the press. They symbolized that they were decadent by wearing platform shoes. The music was characterised by languid, narcotic ballads and raunchy, high-energy Rolling Stones–influenced rock n‘ roll stylings.
Polish Aviation Museum
The Polish Aviation Museum () is a big museum of old airplanes and airplane engines. It is in Kraków, Poland. It is in place of the no-longer used Kraków-Rakowice-Czyżyny Airport.
Museum shows to people over 200 planes, and plane engines. Some of them one can see only there.
Eddy Merckx
Baron Edouard Louis Joseph Merckx () (born June 17 1945, Meensel-Kiezegem, Vlaams Brabant, Belgium) is a former Belgian professional road racing cyclist. Merckx, regarded as the greatest and most successful cyclist of all time, established several world cycling records, some of which remain unbroken to this day.
Merckx started competing in 1961. Three years later he became Amateur World Champion. He turned professional in 1965. In 1966 he won the first of seven editions of Milan-Sanremo. He started his first grand tour at the 1967 "Giro d'Italia". He won his first stage here and finished seventh overall. Later that year he outsprinted Jan Janssen to become Professional World Champion at Heerlen, The Netherlands. He was world champion twice more.
In 1968 Merckx moved to the Italian "Faema" team. As world champion he wore the rainbow jersey and won the Paris-Roubaix race for the first time. He also won the "Giro d'Italia" . He won the "Giro" three more times.
Starting the 1969 season, he won Paris-Nice stage race. In the time trial, he overtook the five-time Tour de France winner Jacques Anquetil. Anquetil was so good at time trailing many people thought he was unbeatable. Merckx went on to win Milan-Sanremo and Ronde van Vlaanderen several weeks later.
In his "Tour de France" debut (first entry) in 1969, Merckx immediately won the yellow jersey (overall leader), the green jersey (best sprinter) and the red polka-dotted jersey ("King of the Mountains" - best climber in the mountain stages). No other cyclist has won the three jerseys in one "Tour de France", and only Tony Romingerin 1993 and Laurent Jalabert in 1995 have been able to match this feat in any Grand Tour (cycling). Both were in the Tour of Spain. Merckx was only 24, so would have won the white jersey (for best rider under 25 years of age) but the Tour de France did not give a white jersey until the 1970s.
Eddy Merkx was the first Belgian to win the Tour de France since Sylvère Maes in 1939. Merckx became a national hero. He won the Tour four more times: in 1970, 1971, 1972 and 1974, equalling Jacques Anquetil. Over the next 25 years, only Bernard Hinault and Miguel Indurain were able to equal the five victories. Merckx still holds the records for stage wins (34) and number of days in the Yellow Jersey (96).
The greatest challenge to Merckx was in the 1971 Tour de France. Luis Ocana attacked and won the maillot jaune by several minutes. Ocana held his lead until he crashed and had to abandon (leave) the tour. Many people hoped they would race against each other again.of a rematch between the two.
Before that could happen, Merckx raced in the 1972 edition of the Giro d'Italia and beat the mountain racing expert Jose Manuel Fuente in the mountain stages. In that year's Tour de France Ocana was sick and withdrew.
In 1973 Merckx rode in the Vuelta a España where he beat Luis Ocana and Bernard Thévenet and then went on to win the Giro d'Italia. Merckx's final victory in the Giro d'Italia in the 1974 edition was a tight battle between Merckx and two Italians. In the end, Merckx won by the very narrow margin of twelve seconds over Gianbattista Baronchelli and 33 seconds over Felice Gimondi.
In addition to Grand Tour successes, Merckx has a long list of victories in one-day races. Among the highlights are
That is a total of 19 victories in the Classics. He also won the "World Road Racing Championship" a record three times in 1967, 1971 and 1974, and every Classic except Paris-Tours. Finally, he won 17 "six-day" track races, often with Patrick Sercu.
Merckx retired from racing in 1978, at the age of 33.
The blackest day in Merckx's career was in 1969, when he crashed in a derny race towards the end of the season. A pacer and a cyclist fell in front of Merckx's pacer, Fernand Wambst. Wambst and Merckx crashed. Wambst was killed instantly, and Merckx suffered concussion and fell unconscious. This accident cracked a vertebra and twisted his pelvis. Afterwards he said his riding was never the same, because he always be in pain, especially while climbing.
That same year, during the "Giro d'Italia", was found to have used drugs and disqualified. He cried in front of reporters and still protests his innocence. He argued that there were no counter-experts nor counter-analysis and that foreign supporters hated him. Further, he stated that the stage during which he was allegedly using drugs was an easy one, so there was no need to use drugs. The Belgian prince sent a plane to bring him to Belgium. This incident was one of the reasons why Merckx thought his first "Tour de France" victory, later that year, his best ever win
The end of his Tour-career came in 1975 (although he did compete in 1977 he finished 6th that year). That year, he attempted to win his sixth but became a victim of violence. Many Frenchmen were upset that a Belgian might beat the record five wins set by Jacques Anquetil. Merckx held the yellow jersey for eight days, which raised his record to 96 days, but during stage 14 a French spectator punched him in the liver. A later collision with the Danish rider Ole Ritter broke his jaw. Although he could not eat solid food and was barely able to talk, Merckx did not retire. During the last stage, he attacked leader Bernard Thevenet (but was caught by the peloton).
Merckx set these records during his career.
Merckx set the hour record in 25 October 1972. He covered 49.431 km at high altitude in Mexico City. The record was unbeaten until 1984, when Francesco Moser broke it using a specially designed bicycle. During the next 15 years, various racers improved the record to more than 56 km. However, because of the more and more strange designs of the bikes and position of the rider, in 2000 the UCI said a "traditional" bike must be used. When Chris Boardman had another go at Merckx's reinstated record in 2000, he beat it by slightly more than 10 metres at sea level. But, Merckx had raced a full road season winning the Tour, Giro and four Classics, while Boardman was a time trial specialist who had retired from road racing and had prepared specially for the 2000 Hour Record.
Having retired, Merckx has a bicycle factory and is a race commentator. He was coach of the Belgian national cycling team during the mid-90s, and part of the Belgian Olympic Committee. Merckx is still asked to comment as an authority on cycling. As such, he has also figured as special advisor for the recent UCI addition "Tour of Qatar" since 2002.
In May 2004, he underwent an oesophagus operation to cure the constant stomach ache which he suffered since he was a young man. He lost almost 30 kg in the process, and started cycling again, but only for leisure.
In 1967 Merckx married Claudine Acou. Merckx's mother asked the priest to celebrate the ceremony in French, a choice that ended up being a contentious issue in Belgium. They had two children: a daughter (Sabrina), and a son (Axel) who was a professional cyclist for Team T-Mobile.
Despite this early incident, Merckx is a perfect ambassador to Belgium (because he does not support Flanders more than Wallonia, but supports the unity of the country). Because of this, he came 4th in the Walloon version of the "Greatest Belgian" contest in 2005, and third in the Flemish (3rd) version..
In 1996 the Belgian king gave him the title of baron. In 2000 he was chosen Belgian "Sports Figure of the Century".
Merckx is known as a quiet and modest person. Many of his former helpers have worked in his bicycle factory and join him during recreational bike tours.
Merckx has condemned doping (he tested positive twice in his career). At the same time he has been quick to point out that cycling is unfairly treated when compared to other sports. In the 1990s, he became a friend of Lance Armstrong and supported him when he was accused of drug use, stating he "believed what Lance told him than what appeared in newspapers". After Armstrong won his third Tour de France, Merckx predicted he would go on to win as many as seven.
Merckx twice tested positive for doping in his career. Because he has admitted doing this publicly the city of Stuttgart, Germany did not want to invite him to the world cycling championships being held in the city in 2007
Monstera
Monstera is a genus of flowering plants. There are about 60 species in the genus. The genus belongs to the family Araceae. Originally, the plants occur in the tropical regions of Central and South America.
The plants are herbs or evergreen vines. They climb other trees. They can grow to a height of about 20m. The plants also have aerial roots. These can act as hooks on branches of the tree that the plant is climbing. They grow down into the ground to support the plant. The leaves are leather, dark green, and often have holes in them. The flowers grow on a special inflorescence called a spadix. Some species have edible fruit.
Many people grow some of these species (esp. "Monstera deliciosa") indoors as a houseplant. "Monstera deliciosa" is sometimes also grown for its fruit, which tastes somewhere between a banana and a pineapple.
In some parts of the world (other than Tropical America), some plants started to grow in the wild. This is the case for example in Portugal, on Madeira, Morocco, some parts of India and Malaysia as well as in Florida.
A vine is a climbing plant which use stems or runners. These runners trail on the ground, and will climb up when it is possible. It is a growth habit or life habit which makes use of trees to reach light in natural habitats.
In the United Kingdom, the term "vine" applies almost exclusively to the grapevine, whereas the term "climber" is used for all climbing plants. The grapevine, genus Vitis, carries berries which can be made into wine. In the United States, all climbing plants are called vines or ivies or sometimes creepers (like the Virigina Creeper).
Most vines are flowering plants. These may be divided into woody vines or lianas, such as wisteria, kiwifruit, and common ivy, and herbaceous (nonwoody) vines, such as morning glory.
Aerial root
Tropical wave
Tropical waves, or easterly waves, also known as African easterly waves in the Atlantic Ocean, are a type of atmospheric trough, an extended area of moderately low air pressure, leaning north to south, which move from east to west across the tropics creating areas of cloudiness and thunderstorms. West-moving waves can also form from the tail end of frontal zones in the subtropics and tropics and may be called to as easterly waves, but these waves are not properly called tropical waves; they are a form of inverted trough sharing many characteristics with fully tropical waves. All tropical waves form in the easterly flow along the southern side of the subtropical ridge or belt of high pressure which is north and south of the Intertropical Convergence Zone (ITCZ). Tropical waves are normally carried westward by the prevailing easterly winds along the tropics and subtropics near the equator. They can lead to the formation of tropical cyclones in the north Atlantic and northeast Pacific Oceans. They can also lead to tropical storms which can also lead to hurricanes.
A tropical wave is usually preceded by an area of sinking, intensely dry air, sloping as a northeast wind. With the passage of the trough line, the wind turns to the southeast, the humidity suddenly rises, and the atmosphere destabilizes, producing widespread showers and thunderstorms, sometimes severe. As the wave moves off westward, the showers slowly stop.
A notable exception to the general characteristic of widespread precipitation behind a tropical wave occurs in the Atlantic. Periodically, a surge of intensely dry air known as the Saharan Air Layer (SAL) is entrained behind a tropical wave, resulting in cloudless or nearly cloudless skies as convection is limited by the dry layer inversion. Also, any dust which may be present within the SAL reflects solar radiation, slightly cooling the atmosphere below it.
Tropical waves in the Atlantic Ocean form from disturbances which drift off the continent of Africa onto the Atlantic Ocean. These are generated or enhanced by the African Easterly Jet. The clockwise circulation of the large transoceanic high-pressure cell or anticyclone centered near the Azores islands impels easterly waves away from the coastal areas of Africa to North America. About 60% of Atlantic tropical cyclones originally form from tropical waves, while about 85% of intense Atlantic hurricanes (Category 3 and greater) form from tropical waves.
Tropical cyclones can sometimes degenerate back into a tropical wave. This normally happens if upper-level wind shear is too strong. The storm can redevelop if the upper level shear decreases or stops. If a tropical wave is moving quickly, it can have strong winds of over tropical storm force, but is not considered a tropical storm unless it has a closed circulation.
It has been suggested that eastern Pacific Ocean tropical cyclones are formed out of tropical waves that come from North Africa as well. During the summer months, tropical waves can go northward as far as the desert southwest of the United States, producing spells of intensified shower activity surrounded within the current monsoon area.
Brownsville, Texas
Brownsville is a city in the southern tip of Texas. As of 2005, 167,493 people lived there.
Agar is a substance jelly-like jelly made from from red algae. It consists of agarose and a mixture of molecules known as agaropectin.
You can grow bacteria on agar plates: that is how bacteria are laid out for testing in hospital pathology departments. It is used as a place to grow bacteria in an microbiology laboratory.
Domestically, it is used to make desserts, as a laxative, and in the process of brewing.
The word "agar" comes from the Malay word agar-agar, a word which is used for "red algae", where the jelly comes from.
Australian Air Force Cadets
A communication cable is made of many wires or optical fibers twisted together to make a larger wire. Each of these wires may be covered. Some cables contain both electrical wires and optical fibers. There are many kinds of cables, including coaxial cables which block out radio or magnetic interference from other wires or cables, by having one wire inside an insulated tube surrounded by a second wire, acting as a metal tube along the same axis.
Electrical cables are usually made of copper, because electricity moves well through copper, but it is not as expensive as silver or other better conductors. Cables are sometimes made of aluminium because it is cheaper than copper.
The word "cable" is also used as ellipsis, or a short form, for "cable TV".
Wire ropes are a common type of cable. A cable car is a trolley pulled by a cable.
Yellow jersey
The Yellow jersey (French: Maillot jaune [majo ʒoːn]) is the jersey worn by the leader of many multi-day (or "stage") bicycle races, originally and most notably the Tour de France. It allows the rider who was in the overall lead at the end of the previous day to be easily identified.
Because the Tour de France was the first to use a coloured jersey to identify the leader many newer races have chosen the same colour, for example the Tour of Germany. Other tours and races use other colours, sometimes because of the .
The Giro d'Italia, Tour of Italy, have a pink jersey (maglia rosa). The race's original sponsor was the sports newspaper (La Gazzetta dello Sport) which printed on pink paper, like many European sports newspapers.
The leader in the Vuelta a España (Tour of Spain) wears a red jersey (called "La Roja"). From 1998 to 2010 the Vuelta leader's jersey was gold in color.
Sometimes a rider will get three yellow jerseys.
They will sometimes also autograph many copies of the jersey that are given out to VIPs with the race and their team.Green jersey
In road bicycle racing, and especially the three Grand Tour stage races Tour de France, Giro d'Italia and Vuelta a Espana, the Green jersey is the name given to a cycling jersey worn by the leader in a subsidiary competition.
For example, while the overall race leader in the Tour de France will wear the yellow jersey, or "maillot jaune", the green jersey ("maillot vert") will be worn by the leader in the points competition for sprinters.
In the Vuelta a Espana, the green jersey is worn by the "King of the Mountains", the leader in the competition for the best climber. The Giro d'Italia also used a green jersey for its "King of the Mountains" from 1974 to 2011, but that jersey was changed to a blue jersey, starting in 2012.
The following events use the "green jersey" to signify the current leader and/or final winner of the overall classification by time
The following events use the "green jersey" to signify the current leader and/or final winner of the overall classification by points (often known as the sprinters competition):
The following events use the "green jersey" to signify the current leader and/or final winner of the overall classification of the best climber :
Rainbow jersey
The Rainbow jersey is a special jersey worn by world champion cyclists during races.
It is mainly white with five horizontal bands in the UCI colours around the chest. From the bottom up the colours are: green, yellow, black, red and blue, the same colours that appear in the rings on the olympic flag. There are different jerseys for each discipline (road racing, track racing, cyclo-cross, BMX, and the types of mountain biking).
A cyclist must wear the jersey when competing in the same discipline, category and speciality that he is world champion for. For example, the world road race champion would wear the jersey while competing in stage races and one-day races, but would not during time trials. Similarly, on the track, the world individual pursuit champion would only wear the jersey when competing in other individual pursuit events.
A champion who does not wear the rainbow jersey can be fined 2500 to 5000 Swiss francs.
The team's sponsor pays a lot of money to have their name on each rider's jersey. They can still put their names on the world champion's jersey, but probably smaller because there is less space. Sponsors do not mind because the world champion gets a lot more publicity than ordinary riders.
A world champion who is leading a stage race wears the race-leader's jersey, not the world champion's, but only while he is the leader.
Derny race
A derny race is a race in which the cyclists are paced by someone riding a derny.
A Derny is a motorised bicycle designed and built for motor-paced cycling events (e.g.: motor-paced races in six-day and Keirin racing) or motor-paced road races.
The first Dernys were built by "Roger Derny et Fils" of Paris, France in 1938. That firm is no longer in business and any motorised bicycle for pacing is called a "Derny".
The rider of the derny usually sits upright, this makes it easier for the cyclist by reducing wind resistance.
The photographers' motorbikes used to help riders in ordinary races. That is why they were banned from riding in front of the cyclists.
Escopetarra
An escopetarra is a guitar made from a rifle; it is used as a symbol of peace. The name is a combination of the Spanish words "escopeta" (meaning shotgun/rifle) and "guitarra" (meaning guitar).
"Escopetarras" were invented in 2003 by a Colombian peace activist named César López. At a gathering after the El Nogal Club bombing in Bogotá, he noticed a soldier holding a gun like a guitar and got the idea for it. The first "escopetarra" in 2003 was made from a Winchester rifle and a Stratocaster electric guitar.
López made five "escopetarras", four of which were given to Colombian musician Juanes, Argentine musician Fito Páez, the United Nations Development Program, and the city government of Bogotá, while one was kept for himself. Juanes later sold his "escopetarra" for US$17,000 at a Beverly Hills fundraiser held to help victims of anti-personnel mines, while the "escopetarra" given to the UN was exhibited at the June 2006 of the UN Conference on Disarmament.
In 2006, López got 12 more decommissioned AK-47s from Colombia's peace commissioner's office. After they are turned into guitars, he plans to give them to popular musicians such as Shakira, Carlos Santana, and Paul McCartney, as well as political figures such as the Dalai Lama. However, a member of the Dalai Lama's staff rejected López' offer, saying it is not appropriate to give a weapon as a gift; López has said he will try to explain his purpose more clearly.
Sylvère Maes
Maurice Garin
Maurice Garin (March 3 1871 - February 19 1957) was a road bicycle racer. He is best known for winning the 1903 Tour de France - the very first running of the race.
Garin was born in Arvier in the Aosta Valley in north-west Italy. He became a naturalized French citizen only in December 1901, when he was already a champion cyclist, winner of the second Paris-Roubaix.
He was declared the winner of the 1904 Tour de France, but was later disqualified. The Tour de France organisation and the French cycling authorities have not said why. They were said to have taken a train through part of the route. In the early days stages were much longer than today, sometimes starting in the dark.
When he retired from professional cycling he ran a small garage in Lens until his death.
He is buried in the Cimetière Est in the neighbouring suburb of Sallaumines.
Spiracle
Insects have small holes in their bodies that allow them to breathe. These holes are called spiracles. Air comes in the spiracles and goes to invertebrate trachea, or tubes.
These tubes take the oxygen to other parts of the insect body. Because insects have no lungs, air comes in and goes out of the spiracles passively (by itself). Some insects can open and close the spiracles to keep water out.
Some spiders also have spiracles.
Sharks and rays have a spiracle behind each eye. When the shark is not moving, the spiracle helps the shark to breathe.
Henri Cornet
Henri Cornet (born Henri Jardry 4 August 1884 - 18 March 1941) was a French cyclist who won the second Tour de France in 1904.
Born in Desvres, Pas-de-Calais, France, he was 18 years old when he raced in the Tour de France. The race was spoiled by many problems including irate spectators throwing nails on the road in the final stage that forced Henri Cornet to ride the last 40 kilometres with two flat tyres. There were a lot of complaints about cheating, the top four finishers were disqualified by a special committee of the French cycling union. Although his overall time was three hours behind the first place rider, race officials declared Henri Cornet the winner in November 1903, when he was 19 years and 3 months old. He is the youngest ever winner.
Such was the commotion over the 1904 race that Tour founder Henri Desgrange said it was probably the last time the race would ever be run. The race winner Maurice Garin was suspended from competition for two years (he retired), and the second place finisher was banned for life. In all
nine cyclists were excluded because of illegal use of cars or trains and all of the stage winners were disqualified because of illegal agreements about allowing people to win.
After 1904 Cornet never again had any great success in any race. He abandoned the 1905 Tour de France in the 4th stage. He won the 1906 Paris-Roubaix race, but could not start the 1906 Tour de France, and had to abandon it again in 1907, but did manage 8th place finish in 1908. Extremely fast in what today are called time trials, he won the final leg of the 1908 race. A special timed lap run at a velodrome racetrack in Paris, the event was not counted as an official stage or towards the overall classification. Cornet competed in his last Tour de France in 1912, finishing 28th.
He died in 1941 at the age of 56 in Prunay-le-Gillon, Eure-et-Loir.
Paris-Roubaix
Paris-Roubaix is a famous single-day professional bicycle road race held in northern France starting in Compiègne and finishing in Roubaix, near the Belgian frontier. It was one of the ten UCI Road World Cup races and became part of the UCI ProTour. It is one of the 'Classic cycle races' has the nickname "The Hell of the North" .
Paris-Roubaix is one of the oldest professional bicycle races. Théo Vienne and Maurice Perez got the idea to run the race and in 1896, the sports newspaper Le Vélo worked out original route between Paris and Roubaix. The race has been contested every year since 1896, stopped only by the two World wars.
The first edition of the race was held at Easter, April 19 1896, so it got the nickname of "La Pascale"(English: "The Easter").
188 competitors left the Bois de Boulogne park in Paris and raced almost 300 kilometres to Roubaix. Josef Fischer, the winner of this first edition, received 1000 francs.
The race is now organised by the media group Amaury Sport Organisation (ASO) who also run the Tour de France.
Riders are often covered from head to toe in mud and grit, and race over the cobblestoned roads and hard rutted tracks of northern France. However, the race got the nickname "l'enfer du Nord", or the "Hell of the North" from journalists who watched the race after world war I, and saw it pass through many of the ruins, craters, and destruction along the way.
Originally, the race was from Paris to Roubaix, but in 1966 the starting location was moved to Chantilly, 50 kilometres to the north of Paris, to be moved in 1977 to Compiègne, approximately 80 kilometres to the north of Paris. Famous for rough terrain, the route of Paris-Roubaix is adjusted slightly from year to year as the older roads are resurfaced and the race organisers seek to replace them with other challenging cobbles, to maintain the character of the race - in 2005, for example, the race included 54.7 kilometres of cobbled sections. The race finishes with 750 meters on the smooth concrete expanses of the large outdoor velodrome in Roubaix.
Due to its challenging course, and poor weather conditions, Paris-Roubaix presents a challenge to riders, team support personnel, and equipment alike. Special frames and wheels are often used specifically for Paris-Roubaix, in various configurations depending on the weather conditions.
Asexuality
Asexuality is a sexual orientation. Asexual people usually do not have sexual attraction towards anyone, no matter what gender they are. Asexuality has nothing to do with a person's romantic/aesthetic/sensual attraction. The opposite of an asexual is an "allosexual". Allosexuality means that you feel sexual desires.
Asexuality is described as a spectrum. Demisexual people are on the asexual spectrum. They feel sexual attraction, but only to people who they feel a connection to. About 1% of people identify as asexual. Alfred Kinsey used the label "X" to describe asexual people. Grey-asexual people are people who feel like they are not asexual, but they're not sexual either. For example, a grey-asexual person doesn't feel sexual attraction often. Some asexuals also identify with a romantic identity as well, meaning they may feel the need to form relationships, while others may not. Some asexual people identify as queer. However, some people think that 'queer' is not an appropriate word for asexual people. Not having sex (celibacy), is not always asexuality. Some homosexuals, for example, don't want to have sex because they feel guilty about their sexual attraction.
In 2001, David Jay started the Asexual Visibility and Education Network. A 2012 study found that asexual people are just as discriminated against as gay men, lesbians, or bisexuals people. Asexuality has only recently been studied. One writer, S.E. Smith speculates that it has not increased, its just people have only just started noticing it. Acceptance of asexuality as a subject of scientific has only begun recently.
Libido, or sex drive, is the sexual arousal that humans feel. Some asexual people have a libido, this does not mean they are allosexual. They feel it as the body just doing it's thing, and often masturbate to relieve it.
Some asexual people are aromantic. This means that they do not feel romantic attraction such as getting a crush on someone. Others can be homoromantic, heteroromantic, biromantic, etc.
A mongoose (plural mongooses, alternatively mongeese) is a member of the family Herpestidae, a family of small cat-like carnivores. Mongooses are widely distributed in Asia, Africa the Caribbean, and southern Europe.
A well-known mongoose written in fiction is Rikki-Tikki-Tavi, who has a short story of the same title in "The Jungle Book" (1894) by Rudyard Kipling. In this story set in India, the young mongoose saves his family from a krait and from two cobras, named Nag and Nagaina. This story was later made into several movies, and also a song by Donovan.
There is a Mongoose fictional character in Bram Stoker's novel, "The Lair of the White Worm." The main character, Adam Salton, buys one to hunt snakes.
Game Freak's Pokémon media franchise has a Pokémon named Zangoose, named after the mongoose.
Macedonian (македонски јазик, "makedonski jazik") is a Slavic Indo-European language spoken mainly in North Macedonia. Macedonian is a part of the Balkan linguistic union, which also includes Greek, Bulgarian, Romanian, Albanian and Torlakian dialect of the Serbian language. Macedonian is very similar to Bulgarian and some linguists say it is a dialect of Bulgarian.
The Macedonian language uses a Cyrillic alphabet. The following table provides the upper and lower case forms of the Macedonian alphabet, along with the IPA value for each letter:
A patina is a coating of various chemical compounds such as oxides or carbonates formed on the surface of metal or other material. Often this is due to exposure to weather. The word "patina" comes from the Latin word meaning "shallow dish". For many works of art the patina adds to its value. In many cases, the artist wanted the work to acquire a patina over time.
A patina layer takes many years to develop under natural weathering. Buildings in damp climates will develop patina layers faster than ones in dry areas. The facades of many buildings are made of copper, brass or bronze, for example. These will produce different colors after natural weathering.
Copper takes on a natural green or blue-green patina. Bronze takes on a brown color. Early civilizations used bronze extensively. The Bronze Age is named for it. In the United States, bronze was rarely used in buildings before the American Civil War. Marble, especially white marble, was used in classical Greek and Roman statues. It takes on a light golden patina over time.
Often, antique and well-used firearms will develop a patina on the steel after the bluing, parkerizing, or other finish has worn off. Firearms in this condition are generally considered more valuable than ones that have been re-blued or parkerized. The patina protects the firearm from the more damaging rust that would occur if the patina were polished off. Rust is sometimes valued as a patina. Examples are rat rods, custom cars and meant to look like early 1940s hot rods. They glorify rusted hot rods that have an almost cartoonish appearance. Some are actually rusted metal while others have a faux (false) finish intended to look like rust.
Copper items, lamps, fixtures and outdoor projects can be made to look weathered by use of paints or chemicals. For example, a 50/50 mix of ammonia and white vinegar will give copper an aged patina. Architects and craftspeople use copper sulfate on copper items to make them look old. Patina Green is another product used to give copper an instant aged look. Woodworkers and wood finishers mix their own wood stains. This is to match finishes on wood furniture to the same color, tone and patina of the original finish.
Crux (IPA: /ˈkrʊks/, Latin: cross), commonly known as the Southern Cross (in contrast to the Northern Cross), is one of the modern constellations. It points to the directions of north, south, east and west. It is the smallest modern constellation. It was first described by the Italian navigator Andrea Corsali in 1515.
In the past, sailors used to use Crux as a means of navigation.
The Southern Cross was used on the flag flown by miners in Ballarat, Victoria, during the rebellion known as the Eureka Stockade. The Southern Cross flag has been used as a symbol of protest in Australia since 1854.
Richmond, Victoria
Richmond is a suburb in Melbourne, Victoria, Australia. It is only 3 km (2 miles) south-east of Melbourne's business district. Richmond's population was 26,121 in the 2011 census.